Re: at risk class

["Deborah A. Odell" <dodell@brain.uccs.edu>]

Our Writing Center at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, has
offered a 1-hour credit course since we started the Center in 1982.  This
course is generally seen as an adjunct to one of our two freshman
composition courses (135 corresponds with English 131 and 145 corresponds
with Eng 141).  This is considered general university credit and a student
can accumulate two credit hours total to be counted towards graduation.

the system has worked well for us, and as initiated gave us added
credibility with administration for generating fte.  We usually have a
total of 100 - 150 students registered every semester.  These students
come into the Center at the beginning of the semester and arrange for a
2hour a week schedule that accomodates them.  THey are interviewed,
diagnosed, tested, etc. and an individual study program is written for
them to follow over the semester.  The Writing Center can help students at
almost any level of rhetorical concern -- from machanics and usage to
audience awareness, thesis and paragraph development.  One of the jobs of
our peer tutors is to assist these students with questions and provide
feedback to them on the exercises that they do.

This credit-hour program was the "core" of our Writing Center when it
started.  We now also have "drop-in" tutoring available for all students
in the University for assistance with any paper for any discipline, as
well as resume writing and grad school applications, etc.  The two
approaches seem to complement each other.

Hope this information helps -- let me know if you have any questions about
it that I could answer.

Debby Odell

University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
email: dodell@mail.uccs,edu

On Thu, 26 Sep 1996, Mrs Susan C Oldrieve wrote:

> Does anybody have experience with a 1 semester credit hour lab
> course for students at risk in freshman composition?  We are considering
> adding such a course in our department and would like to know if other
> schools have found them to be helpful or not.
> Thanks
> Dr. Susan Oldrieve
> Director, Writing Lab
> Baldwin-Wallace College
> Berea, Ohio  44017
> soldriev@baldwinw.edu
> 
>