RE: "Productivity Models" and Writing Center work

["Hatton-Montoya, Sharon" <hatton@uscolo.edu>]

I know that I am not actually answering your question, but hopefully my   
response will help.  We also have a math center at the University of   
Southern CO, but we have never been compared to them.  I talk to the math   
lab coordinator at least a couple of times a month and we often compare   
"notes."  They, too, have a much higher number of student contacts, but   
that is due to the differences in the structure of the student contacts.   
 They primarily use study groups and if they do one to one tutoring   
students are asked to work on a single problem on their own and then a   
tutor will take no more than 15 minutes going over that problem with   
them.  Many times the session takes five minutes or less.  However, in   
the writing room, our sessions run at least half an hour and sometimes 60   
minutes (especially international student sessions).  I start to get   
concerned if I see several 15 minute sessions because I am not sure how   
much teaching can go on in 15 minutes.  So far our administrators have   
been very supportive of what we do and feel that we are doing a good job.   
 I don't really think you can compare writing center tutoring with any   
other kind of tutoring. Sharon Hatton-Montoya

 -----Original Message-----
From: owner-wcenter [SMTP:owner-wcenter@ttacs6.ttu.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, September 08, 1998 8:11 AM
To: wcenter
Subject: "Productivity Models" and Writing Center work

Hi all,

Recently I've been facing some tough issues in the budgeting of the
WC I coordinate...the gist of which is that we had a 30% cutback
in our tutoring fund.  I won't go into the reasons behind the cutback
since that isn't the issue I ultimately want to get to...suffice it to
say that the cut was completely unexpected and unfortunate, but I
understand why it happened.  I might also note that the budget
cuts effected all tutoring...math, science, writing etc since our
tutoring budget comes from a "common pool."  The commonality of
our budget brings me to the crux of the problem.

For various reasons (including a small staff of tutors) our writing
tutoring is handled on an appointment basis.  Generally this works
rather well for us, and we do indeed have "drop in" students during
times of the term when we are not exceedingly busy.   Generally
our appointments are 20-30 minutes in length, and our average
appointment time is, in fact 26 minutes.  Other tutors around
campus (mainly math and science) are drop in appointments only,
and from all I can gather, their contact time with students is much
less.  (I base this not from data which noone will let me see, but
from observation of folks who have done both math and writing
tutoring...we are in different locales, by the way).  Generally the
typical math contact has been described as averaging about 1 to 5
minutes...with many contacts.  As I said, writing tutors have 26
minutes appointments with generally only 1 contact.  Now here
comes the problem.  I am being pressured from higher up that our
writing tutors are not being "productive" enough because they lack
as many contacts, etc. etc..  All tutors, by the way, fill out a sheet
on which they indicate the students they met with in any 15 period.
 Now here is the scenario that I find confounding:  if a math tutor
spends 1 minute with a student they get the full 15 minutes
counted as productivity time...while if we spend a full 15 minutes
with a student (which is an accurate representation) well only get
the same amount of "productivity time."  It is rather easy to see the
holes in this system... and I have heard first hand from several
math tutors that they "doctor" their time sheets to make it look like
they are productive all the time they are tutoring so as not to have
any "holes" in their sheet.

Suffice it to say, our writing tutoring budget is under further
"scrutiny" because of our "lack of productivity," despite our 3 fold
increase of tutoring over the last 2 years--and I think the attack is a
crock of hooey.  While I have attempted to keep the issue quiet for
the tutors, many of them suspect a problem, and morale is
dropping because some feel they are 1) not being appreciated, and
2) being seen as "lazy"--again a crock of hooey.  I am trying to
bring morale back up, but don't know how effective I am being.

I have patiently tried to explain the problems with the sheet to the
people who developed, as well as the difference in the models of
tutoring we have...to no end.  The people who designed it are in
charge of Math tutoring, and like how it works for them ( since it
makes them look really busy, I think).

What I am writing to ask, is what kind of "productivity" model
should a writing center be accountable to....or, for that matter, how
do we measure "productivity" in our centers? and what the heck
can I do to bring up tutor morale in the face of this menacing issue?

 --clint
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Clinton Gardner (cgardner@englab.slcc.edu)
Writing Center Instructional Support Coordinator
Salt Lake Community College
Have you visited the SLCC Online Writing Center today?
http://www.slcc.edu/wc/
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