Re: Political turf problems

[Sara Kimball <skimball@uts.cc.utexas.edu>]

Dave and Eric, we don't send notes unless students give their permission, 
and in the ideal situation, the consultant writes the description of the 
session that becomes the note in collaboration with the student or at 
least in the student's presence.  A lot of students seem to want to let 
their teachers know they've been to the center, and somewhere over 50% of 
vists end with a note being sent.  Some faculty, anyway, seem to 
appreciate the notes.  We survey faculty who have been sent notes, and 
about the only systematic complaint we get and that I find we have to 
keep addressing in in-service training is that notes are sometimes too 
terse.  I also have colleagues who tell me they keep the notes and take 
them into consideration in giving credit for effort.  This may be 
collusion with the grading system, and Eric, I share many of your 
reservations about grading and I have a few others of my own, but if it 
encourages faculty to think about process rather than just delivering 
summary judgment on a product, then it's a step in the right direction.
	The notes also let people know that we exist and give them some 
idea of what we do.  Many of my own pereceptions about what writing 
centers do were formed from correspondence with the writing center at 
Rutgers Camden where I had my first prof.-type job.  BTW, something that 
struck me about that when I was planning this writing center was that I 
never knew where the center at Rutgers was located.  They were just some 
smart, nice people located out in some indeterminate space who helped my 
student in ways I appreciated.  This is why I try to find ways of getting 
faculty to visit our center.
Sara 

On Wed, 31 Jan 1996, Eric Crump wrote:

> On Wed, 31 Jan 1996, Dave Healy wrote:
> > 
> > The simplest way to avoid having instructors misinterpret or overreact to 
> > written reports of writing center conferences is to avoid giving them to 
> > instructors in the first place.
> 
> You're right, David. Our policy in this regard is similar to yours. But 
> it strikes me as unfortunate that we feel compelled to construct these 
> barriers, to create a haven of sorts. In a better world (not perfect 
> even, just better), faculty, students, and writing center staff might all 
> be able to address evaluative concerns together, without fear and 
> trembling, without resistence and resentment. 
> 
> But nooooo, we'd rather use the graaaaading system. 
> 
> Doh!
> 
> 
> --Eric Crump
>