Re: Grad Students -- where do they come from?

[jcogie@siu.edu (Jane Cogie)]

I'd be interested, Cliff, in how you fund your GAs from other departments.
Is your center funded through the English Department?

I'd like to have graduate students from other departments tutoring in the
Center as well, but the fiefdom approach to funding seems to get in the
way.  The majority of our funding is from the College of Liberal Arts
through the English Department.  We do have "university funding" from the
Provost's office for student workers from a variety of departments, but not
for GAs.

We do, though, in addition to English GAs, also have had grad students in
Linguistics working in our writing center for the past three years or so.
In part that's due to the number of ESL students who use our center, but
the main reason is that enrollment in Linguistics ESL classes is way down
(due to a number of factors).  The Center benefits immensely from their
presence.  One benefit is that they have helped organize training workshops
for the Center's staff on ESL tutoring.

I'd be interested in the approaches to funding non-English GAs that any one
has used.  New funding specified for that purpose seems the most likely
approach, but not an easy one given the shortage of funding.

Jane Cogie
jcogie@siu.edu



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