This article addresses the issue of basic writing, demonstrating how one university's basic writing program acts as a steward of writing. The assumption that basic writers only consume resources rather than contribute to academic excellence is rejected. What links the author responses to this issue is a publication of student writing entitled "New Voices" which is used as a supplemental text in all of the basic reading and writing classes. "New Voices," aptly named for students who are "new" to the university and who are from families who are likely to be "new" to mainstream educational culture, is a collection of writing by students in the English Department's Developmental Writing Program at California State University, Northridge, a large urban university located in the San Fernando Valley in northwest Los Angeles. This basic writing program serves more than 1500 students each year and draws students from many different ethnic, economic, and religious backgrounds. Many of these students are the first in their families to attend a university or even to graduate from high school.