thank goodness for tutors

[cleveren@english.fsu.edu (Carrie Leverenz)]

I am usually a big-time lurker (or busy administrator, however you want to
look at it) but feel the need to share a story that I hope to remember for a
long time.  This is the first week of the semester at Florida State, a week
that we in the Reading/Writing Center normally spend scheduling the 100-200
students who enroll in our Center for credit.  It means a lot of long hours
standing behind the desk, saying the same things over and over again,
peering endlessly at a big schedule filled with really tiny handwriting.
Anyway, it was near closing time two days ago and a graduate student who has
enrolled for one credit (and thus entitled to one appointment a week) came
in to complain that we weren't tutoring the first week of classes.  She also
complained that we are closed on MLK Day.  Seems she's got a grant proposal
due and needs to see someone immediately.  She also has limited times she
can come in, wants an hour appointment even though we only do half-hour ones
(we see students every week for a whole semester), insists on being assigned
to whoever I think is my "best" tutor, etc.  Then she complained about being
assigned to the same tutor for the whole semester, in case she didn't like
him or her.  Not too far into this very belabored conversation, I realized
that she is a student who came in on a walk-in basis the previous semester
and made similar demands, drove everyone nuts.  I was feeling tired and beat
up but told her that if she came in the next day I would have tutors around
who were supposed to be scheduling students just like her but might be able
to help her.
        Let me say that I obsessed all night about this student.  What was I
going to do when the tutor assigned to her started to complain and the
student complained, and so on?  I even thought about writing to wcenter
about her, but, of course, didn't have the time.
        To make a too-long story short(er), when I came in to the Center the
next afternoon, I found this student engrossed in a tutorial with a tutor
who spent something like an hour and a half with her.  After she left, I
apologized to the tutor who, to my astonishment, said he enjoyed the
tutorial, that he learned something from her, that he is very interested in
the art history research this student is trying to get funding for.  Boy,
did I have egg (or more likely--3-day-old coffee) on my face!  All I can say
is thank goodness for tutors who love teaching and learning as much as this
tutor does.  I couldn't live without them--and I need to remember that every
day.  Carrie