the tutee's privacy

[Kevin Davis <kdavis@mailclerk.ecok.edu>]

Noreen,
    At the heart of your questions is another one: for 
whom do you work?  Some WCs clearly work for the 
professor, using referral forms to bring people to the 
WC, mandatory report forms to keep the prof posted.  
I believe this model clearly implies that the professor
is at the center of the learning process and, therefore,
at the center of what the WC does.

    However,  I decided many years ago that our WC 
would work for students.  As a result, we don't have 
referral forms for profs to use, and all of our business 
is walk-in, students who have brought themselves to 
the WC.  I believe that this model clearly implies that the
student is at the center of the learning process.

     That said, here's my answer to your question.  Since 
some profs give extra credit to coerce students to use 
the WC and since some students otherwise want their 
profs to know they've been to the WC, we have a 
student-initiated reporting system.  At the end of a 
session, we give the student a summary form, saying
"If you want your prof to know you've been here, 
fill this out and leave it with me, and we'll send it to your
professor."  This approach makes the choice entirely
the student's, and it makes reporting what went on the
student's task (we feel less like tattle-tales this way).
Interestingly, about 90% of our FYC students fill out 
the form, but less than 5% of our other business.

I believe my position is in the minority on this list.  And 
many of the people who disagree with me can offer 
very good reasons for using other systems.  I urge you
to look over those other positions, too.

But the bottom line, to me, is this.  A WC has to have an
underlying operational philosophy.  The director has to
be able to comfortably live within that philosophy.  And 
the ultimate decision on reporting and a lot of other things
comes from that operational philosophy.  So don't just
consider WHAT we do, but consider WHY we do what
we do, and decide what kind of WC you want to build.

kevin