RE: Appointments

["Jane V. Nelson" <JNelson@UWYO.EDU>]

Some answers to your questions from the University of Wyoming Writing
Center"

> 1)Do your centers insist upon appointments?  Why or why not?
> 
We encourage appointments, and over the years we now are booked up with
appointments one or two days in advance.  We occasionally can help drop-ins
because of unbooked appointments.  In our advertising, especially when we
appear in front of classes to explain our services, we stress the need to
make an appointment.  


> 2)Do you mostly have drop ins, or do you balance the two?
> 
We have no balance.

> 3)And do you hire someone simply to "person" the desk and control the ebb
> and flow of humanity?
> 
We have no money to control the ebb.  Phone calls, in particular, are
problematic--lots of interruptions to conferencing.  As director, I try to
act take as many phone calls as I can.

> 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.
> 
As director, I sometimes take drop-ins to relieve the frantic and the upset.
But most people seem to understand the appointment system.  If we get booked
up more than two days in advance, I open up an afternoon or morning of
unannounced drop-in time, which seems to relieve the pressure.  We tell
people who call for appointments that they can drop by for the designated
hours.  But we don't like to make a practice of drop-in times because some
people who would make appointments would begin to "drop by," even when they
don't need to.

> 5)Will people eventually accept this change?  Is this just a growing pain
> or a mounting problem?
> 
They'll accept the change.

> 6)And if we do change to appoinment only, how can we spread the word most
> effectively?
> 
I'd recommend that you not establish an "appointment only" policy--but if
you encourage appointments, eventually, that's how most people will use the
Writing Center.  Word spreads.

	Jane Nelson
	jnelson@uwyo.edu