In the 1990s at Appalachian State University, as at many other colleges and universities, the balance shifted in the writing program. Before then, English composition courses had been taught by tenure-track faculty members, but now most composition courses are taught by non-tenure-track faculty members. In this article, the authors describe how Georgia Rhodes, the university's composition program director, improved the working conditions of the teaching staff, including getting them benefits and yearlong contracts, faculty development funding, and other opportunities to grow professionally. Appalachian has moved from from a culture that considered it bad form to make more demands on non-tenure-track faculty members (through, for example, committee work and staff meetings) because they were paid them so little, to a culture that values their contributions and is attempting to recompense them. There is also evidence that nontenure-track faculty members take pride in the work they do in this program and want to belong to a strong community whose members are encouraged to grow professionally. Many English departments devalue the teaching of writing, but Appalachian hopes that the changes recently made--investments in the teaching of writing--will be refined and extended.