Re: Appointments

[Sylvia Whitman <SWhitman@Rollins.Edu>]

Hi Sonja--

	Your questions sound familiar.  Our writing center has long offered
appointments but accepted drop-ins at any time.  This year we're
emphasizing appointments as part of a campuswide move to nudge students
toward being more "intentional" about their educational choices.  We
offer designated drop-in hours from 7-10 p.m. Mon-Th, but at other times
clients must sign up at least one hour before they want a
consultation--a small change but a significant one. As an experiment, we
are allowing consultants to call one hour before their shift, and if
they have no clients, they can choose to go "off the clock" and not come
in (saving us money).

	We do have a (wonderful) person at the front desk by day and a cadre of
work-study student receptionists at night.  We depend on these people
because the writing center now belongs to part of a larger student
resource center, and the receptionists help steer clients either to peer
writing consultants or to peer content tutors.

	We're finding that freshmen (and new consultants) accept changes--the
new way is the only way they've ever known.  Eventually the older guys
are coming 'round, I think, especially as we explain why we're doing
things.  Good luck, Sylvia
-- 
Sylvia Whitman
Johnson Student Resource Center (TJ's)
Rollins College
407-646-1538

Sonja Bagby wrote:
> 
> Dear WCenter Friends:
> My center has grown so much that I have questions about a good thing--too
> many writers for the number of tutors.
> 
> In the past, we have allowed mostly drop-ins, but now we find the need to
> encourage appointments.   We have some unhappy procrastinators, but we
> manage better when we DO ask people to make appointments by phone or email
> or when we must turn them away.
> 
> The questions:
> 1)Do your centers insist upon appointments?  Why or why not?
> 
> 2)Do you mostly have drop ins, or do you balance the two?
> 
> 3)And do you hire someone simply to "person" the desk and control the ebb
> and flow of humanity?
> 
> 4) Hhow do you handle the panicked, the frantic, the upset, the angry, the
> hurried and the harried?
> We end up trying to fit people in because they "didn't know" they needed an
> appointment.
> 
> 5)Will people eventually accept this change?  Is this just a growing pain
> or a mounting problem?
> 
> 6)And if we do change to appoinment only, how can we spread the word most
> effectively?
> 
> I really need your input for this thorny challenge.
> Thanks in advance for your help.
> Sonja
> 
> Sonja S. Bagby
> Director, University Writing Center
> College of Arts and Sciences
> State University of West Georgia
> Carrollton, GA 30118
> sbagby@westga.edu
> 770-830-2258