Another reason for needing accreditation

[Paula.Gillespie@marquette.edu]

I want to applaud all those who have worked and are working on 
accreditiation of writing centers.  I think the sooner we get it in place 
(and do it well, of course) the better.

Last week we had outside reviewers visit Marquette and assess our English
Department, which includes the writing center.  The first thing they said
to me when they walked in the door is "We have grave concerns about using
undergraduate students to tutor others."  Wow.  I haven't had to answer
that argument in so long, I'd forgotten that there are folks who feel this
way. 

I was lucky.  I was able to show them a syllabus and course description 
for our four-credit course that trains tutors.  They looked at it 
carefully, looked at the required texts, and later spoke with some of the 
tutors, graduate and undergraduate.  There are times when I think we 
overprepare our tutors, but I didn't feel that way when these two 
reviewers were here.  

If I hadn't offered a course, it would have been great to be able to show 
them an accreditation document of some kind.  

They left as converts.  I haven't seen the report yet, but I heard they
said very good things to various individuals about our center, and one of
them said that they should incorporate some of our approaches at his
school (they probably do and he just doesn't know it).  But this is an
example of a time when accreditation would help, especially if tutors are
trained less formally than they are here. 

Paula Gillespie