Advice on Satellite Centers

[jcogie@siu.edu (Jane Cogie)]

I would like some advice about satellite writing center expansion. This
fall we will be opening a small scale satellite writing center (a 27 hours
schedule-- 4 afternoons and 5 evenings a week, with 2 to 3 tutors on duty
at any given time).  It will be housed in a computer lab on the east side
of campus near a cluster of dorms.

I have taken this step cautiously realizing that there may be problems I do
not foresee (such as isolating the tutors from the ongoing give-and-take
discussions that feed into the work of tutoring in the Center--where we
have from 3 to 6 tutors tutoring during any given hour and plenty of "crew
changes" to add to the mix; and then, of course, there are the bureaucratic
detail headaches!).  But it seemed time to institute evening hours (our
current center is open only mornings and afternoons), and the dorm location
is more suitable for that than our current location in an academic building
which is fairly deserted in the evenings.  Having publicized the satellite
center at the Dean's Council, I received a call from the Assoc. Dean of the
Law School saying the Law School wants to fund a satellite center on the
west side of campus, open to all students and to begin this fall.  I'll be
meeting on Aug. 1 to discuss this possibility with the various powers that
be.  I have already said that despite being interested in serving more
students, I'm not sure it is wise to start up a second satellite before
seeing how the first takes shape, yet we will meet on the 1st to discuss
what each side has in mind, and when or if it will transpire.

I would appreciate advice any of you might have on this issue--the
advantages and disadvantages of satellite centers and the dangers of
expanding too quickly (the latter are probably self-evident). I would, as
you can perhaps tell, prefer to go slow and have been told that I am "in
the driver's seat."  But the pressure of "an opportunity lost" to serve
more students will be great.  So the more I know about what I am getting
into the better.  (I plan to go to the library to look up past issues of
WLNL and WCJ since I seem to recall an article or two on satellite centers
that might be helpful.

Sorry to be long-winded.  And thanks for any advice you may have time to give.

Jane Cogie
e-mail: jcogie@siu.edu
(618) 5494673

Jane Cogie
Director of the Writing Center
Department of English
Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
Carbondale, Il 62901-4503
Work phone: (618) 453-6863
E-mail: jcogie@siu.edu