Turf...

[ALG625@aol.com]

Our tutors send "Tutoring Reports" to instructors.  They tell what the
student worked on in the session, and ask if the instructor has any
suggestions.  This procedure was in place when I took over as Director, and
was a selling point to instuctors to get them to refer students.  I'm still
not sure how I feel about it...I do know that my ideas about what the WC
should be are changing...I believe the reports -- when they are returned with
comments, are helpful for both tutor and teacher -- most of the time.

I hadn't really thought about turf problems until one day last semester when
I was having a tutor meeting.  One of our tutors, who is also a part time
instructor in the English Dept., said she was upset because one of her
students was being tutored (by another tutor) and they were not working on
the assignments for her class, and that the student was late in turning in
papers and wasn't the tutor supposed to see to that the assignments were done
and turned in?   I didn't even have to think about it.  That was when my
policy was born.  Without even thinking it over I said that the tutoring
sessions were not extensions of the composition classes or any other classes,
and that the student could choose whatever they wanted to work on, as long as
they were working toward becoming better writers.  Well.  I thanked her for
bringing it up, and then immediately got to work revising the mission
statement.  

In talking to tutors about this, they all seemed greatly relieved that the
sessions were separate entities and that they were not beholden to do what
the instructors wanted them to do.  I'm much more careful about what I say in
presentations to instructors.  It's a delicate balance.  I want them to know
that we'll work with them, but not for them.

The problem came up one other time, when a tutor graded a student down
because the student wasn't bringing in work from his class -- I had to
explain to her that she was not a 'homework monitor' and should grade the
student based only on what he accomplished in the sessions.

So far I haven't run up against anyother problems with this philosophy,
except being amazed that the other idea existed at all.  

Arlene Greene
Columbia College Chicago