The tutee's privacy

["Cozzens, Christine" <ccozzens@agnesscott.edu>]

Sharon has raised several interesting points.  When you don't report to
instructors, you lose valuable opportunities to show them the good work
going on at the center.  Since we have a confidentiality policy, I wrestle
with this one and try to find other means of showing faculty the depth and
value of the conferences.  This year, at the suggestion of the tutors, we
are getting together a packet of writing conference reports that demonstrate
the many different things tutor and tutee might be working on.  We'll get
students' permission to us these, but we will also take their names off.
I'll use the packets when I talk to the faculty about the center.  We are
always looking for other ways of getting the message out about exactly what
we do.

However, when you do report to faculty, there are always those situations
when expectations are not met, when faculty set higher standards for
students who've come in for help, when different approaches to teaching or
talking about writing seem to clash, even though both may be seeking the
same goals.  I don't like to spend my faculty development time
investigating, rationalizing, or defending individual
conferences--conferences that I only hear about via reports.  I'd rather
work with faculty in other ways: we invite faculty individually or by
department to meet with the tutors and discuss writing in their areas, for
example, as many centers do.  There are many other ways to reach faculty.
And I think I get a more candid discussion of what went on in the
tutorial--and of what the tutor may be thinking about her own tutoring
strategies--because the reports are not destined for a faculty audience.  I
would not want to have to edit them for sending on to the instructors, as
some directors say they do.

On the other hand, I don't want anyone to think our center has anything to
hide!  It is a dilemma, and many other aspects of writing center work hang
on this decision.  

Christine Cozzens
Center for Writing and Speaking
Agnes Scott College