Re: WC as student advocate?

[Chauna Craig <Craig@uamont.edu>]

Hi Mary.

    Having dealt with professor/student problems in the Writing Center and sexual
harassment issues at a large university, I can attest to the fact that your
situation has the potential to be a big mess.  However, it sounds to me like you're
doing everything you can without overstepping bounds.  If the Writing Center has the
necessary "paper trail," the student can use that if she ever wishes to pursue
charges.  And the tutor's offer to help her write a letter about the notebook, if
necessary, seems well within the scope of what a writing center does.
    As for your sense of obligation to report this harassment to administration, you
can report this to the school's sexual harassment officer and make clear that the
student doesn't wish to press charges.  That way, the school has documentation of
the incident if the student changes her mind or if others make similar charges
against that professor.
    I think that's about all you can do.  I do think we're ethically obligated to
help students find resources to deal with non-writing issues when they bring the
problems to our attention.  At the same time, we can't do the work for them in that
any more than we can in their writing.

Chauna Craig
Assistant Professor of English
University of Arkansas-Monticello


Mary Wislocki wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> I'd like your collective brain power to help me think about a really messy,
> confusing and toxic situation -- in other words, academia at its worst. I'm
> beginning to realize (starting my 2nd year as director) that the WC  may be
> "about" working with writing and writers, but the larger truth is that
> because we provide students with a space to be taken seriously, the WC is
> also about witnessing a whole host of human struggles.  Sometimes these
> struggles spill off the page and end up in our laps. I'm wondering about my
> responsibilities -- what I can or should do.
>
> This is the situation:  One of my best consultants has been working with an
> ESL graduate student who is writing her dissertation.  When the grad.
> student came to her appointment this week, she said she was very upset about
> what was happening to her in her dept., and so they talked.  She said that
> she is one of the few female grad students in her dept and that she has been
> supported by a particular scholarship for the past 4 years. She was denied
> the scholarship this year, despite the Dean's recommendation, because the
> prof. who administers the scholarship is very powerful and against her.  She
> said he has a history of harassing women students -- in fact, he was charged
> with sexual harassment a few years ago by several female grad students, but
> his powerful connections kept him from being dismissed.  Evidence of his
> harassment was in a notice about her that he had written and publically
> posted.(I don't know what it said.) To complicate matters, she had given an
> important notebook  to one of her grad advisors.  Both had been working on
> the same problem -- he had not been able to solve it, but she had. He still
> has the notebook and she doesn't know how to retrieve it.  And there's more
> -- she doesn't have a green card.  Without a green card, her options for
> earning money are slim.
>
> This is the short and fairly clear version of the story. I believe that the
> student is extremely bright -- and that she is telling us what she believes
> to be the truth. But her problems with communicating in English make me
> doubly cautious in trying to assess her situation.  Her stated wish is not
> to bring charges against the prof who denied her the scholarship -- she has
> too much at stake and she thinks she would lose anyway.  She wants help
> getting the notebook back.
>
> The consultant was wonderful.  She said that they would make a paper trail
> and document everything, beginning that session. She started a loose file in
> the grad. student's WC folder -- but she asked the student to do the same
> for herself, in another place.  The consultant suggested going to see the
> advisor who has the notebook and asking for it back. If that doesn't work,
> she will help her write a letter during a WC session.
>
> This is a huge school and I don't know a soul in this particular graduate
> department. However, I do know someone at the university who knows the ropes
> and women's rights. I was notified officially at the beginning of the year
> that when administrators are told about instances of sexual harassment, we
> must report them up the chain. I want to go really slow here. Once I get
> sucked into the administrative machinery, we'll all lose any control.
>
> So, thank you for bearing with me in this long tale.  I'm grateful for any
> suggestions or cautions!
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mary Wislocki
>
>
>
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> From: Mary  Wislocki <mapedaan@worldnet.att.net>
> Subject: WC as student advocate?
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> Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1999 15:31:20 +0000
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