Re: Appointments

[Karl Fornes <karlf@usca.usca.sc.edu>]

>The questions:
>1)Do your centers insist upon appointments?  Why or why not?
>
We encourage half-hour appointments, especially beginning about the third
week of the semester. Anyone can drop-in, but appointments must take
priority. As a result, it isn't unusual for a consultant to work with a
drop-in student and leave that student when an appointment arrives.
Usually, the consultant gives the drop-in students a specific task. The
drop-in can use the computers or the tables to draft, plan, revise, etc.
while the consultant works with other students. At any given time, a
consultant could be working with several students.

>2)Do you mostly have drop ins, or do you balance the two?

By far, most of our consultations are drop-ins.

>
>3)And do you hire someone simply to "person" the desk and control the ebb
>and flow of humanity?

No. Because we're in one room, consultants can usually handle it.

>
>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.

Because we're primarily a drop-in center, we do much the same. The students
who are required by their instructors to come by and wait until the last
minute are a bit of a pain. We try to gently explain to them that there is
very little we can do. Then we call them "numbskulls" and flog them
severely. Most of the time, though, we stop after the explanation.

>
>5)Will people eventually accept this change?  Is this just a growing pain
>or a mounting problem?

I'm sure people will adjust. This seems to me to be one of those decisions
that reflect your vision of the writing center in general. I try to make
the Writing Room as informal as possible and I try to communicate that
vision to prospective consultants. As a result, we do our best to deal with
the headaches and frustrations associated with remaining primarily a
drop-in center. I assume we could require appointments and a lot of the
problems students and consultants encounter now might disappear.

>
>6)And if we do change to appoinment only, how can we spread the word most
>effectively?

I suppose advertise as much as possible. In addition to the venues
mentioned earlier, I asked that the Writing Room be part of the campus
tours during first-year orientation.

>
>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


Karl Fornes, Director
USC Aiken Writing Room
University of South Carolina Aiken
171 University Parkway
Aiken, SC 29801
karlf@aiken.sc.edu

Office: (803) 648-6851 ext 3706
Writing Room: (803) 648-6851 ext 3262

Check out the On-line Writing Room at:
http://www.usca.sc.edu/uscaonlinewr/olwr.html