Re: Peer Consultants/Adjunct Consultants

[bobbie silk <bsilk@keller.clarke.edu>]

Joel--

My sense of democracy tells me to suggest that you make no distinction
between peer tutors and faculty.  I'm also inclined to think that "luck of
the draw" helps demonstrate to clients that both trained peers and faculty
can handle appointments with expertise.  Our own experience at Clarke
emphasizes this point.

Although our staff consists entirely of peer tutors, Katie and I (as
co-directors) also take appointments.  Last spring the two of us were
innundated by a flood of appointments, mainly with seniors from two
particular disciplines.  This caused us great difficulty since Katie and I
no longer had time for other obligations--such as working with faculty,
doing outreach, and taking care of administrative duties.  Part of this
flood was caused by a staff member who was advising clients (and making
appointments for them) to see Katie or me with any paper over 10 pages
long. (Because this staff member--who both tutored and took care of
clerical duties--didn't want to read long papers herself, she circulated
the idea among tutors that only Katie and I should handle long papers as
unofficial policy.) 

However, the flood was also--and more importantly--the result of
particular faculty members telling certain clients they "had to" see one
of the directors.  This isn't a large school, so before long none of the
seniors in these classes were willing to entrust their papers to anyone
other than a professional. This not only overwhelmed us as directors, it
also erroded client confidence in the peer tutors and the tutors'
confidence in themselves. Some clients actually told our peer staff that
they couldn't work with someone who didn't "know what they're doing."

We took care of the errant tutor and re-educated the faculty members.  But
re-building our staff's self-confidence was tough.

  --Bobbie

On Mon, 10 Nov 1997, JOEL NYDAHL wrote:

> Next semester I'll teach a credit-bearing course in which I'll train
> undergraduates to work in the Writing Center.  NOt a new idea (I've done it
> before), but I have a question that I didn't have to ask before.  Do those
> of you who have both students and faculty working in a writing center make
> sure that their hours are kept separate on the schedule?  Some people have
> raised the concern that if students and faculty are scheduled at the same time
> that students will almost always insist on seeing a faculty member.  I know
> for a fact that sometimes students prefer seeing a peer tutor--but is the
> concern justified?  Should I make an effort to keep the peer and faculty
> schedules separate--or can I meld them?  Any experience out there that
> can speak to this issue?
> 
> Joel Nydahl
> Writing Coordinator
> Norwalk Community-Technical College
> Norwalk, CT 06854
>