Re: how do you compensate your peer tutors?

[Marcy <trianosky@MINNIE.HOLLINS.EDU>]

Here at Hollins College we have implemented a system where tutors are
paid different rates depending on what year they are:

First-year students:  $4.25/hour
Sophomores:  $4.50/hr.
Juniors: $4.75/hour
Seniors: $5.00/hour
Graduate students:  $5/hr.

This is not my preference, but rather was mandated by the Financial Aid
Office.  Although not all of our tutors are recipients of work-study
funds, they are all paid out of that "pot" of money.  In other words,
a great majority of our students do not use up their allotment of work
study funds during a given year (typically $1,700 for a year).  The
unused money is used, in part, to pay those student workers who are
not work-study recipients but who work on campus.  I think, in fact,
that my group of tutors is the only group of workstudy students that
includes non-workstudy workers.  I have a total of thirteen tutors,
about four of whom are NOT technically work-study.  However, all of
them have to abide by the above pay scale.

I would prefer to be able to pay my tutors based on their years of
experience at the Writing Center, but I do not have this option.
Currently, I have only two graduate students (out of our one-year
MA program in Creative Writing) and the rest are all undergraduates.
Some are juniors in their second year as tutors, and yet they receive
the same pay rate as juniors who are in their first year as tutors.
This does not seem fair to me, but again, I have no control over it.

Hope this helps.  I feel as though this sounds a little garbled, so
please e-mail me back if you need clarification.

Marcy Trianosky
holli
Hollins College
Roanoke, VA