Re: WC as student advocate?

[Chauna Craig <Craig@uamont.edu>]

Jeanne,

    I think the criteria of "when university personnel are involved and may be
affected by . . .what is produced" is an interesting one when considering what we
can work on with a student in the center.  My immediate response is yes, that makes
sense.  Writing center personnel have no business getting involved in the type of
case Mary brought up.  A writing center director's role is to advocate for the
student's best interests *as a writer* according to the center's philosophy, etc.
This situation doesn't come anywhere near that.  But I wonder where the line is.
When I mentioned that I'd help this student write a letter, I wasn't thinking of a
sexual harassment complaint letter (far too hot to handle), but of the letter (acc.
to Mary's first post) in which the student wanted to ask for her research notebook
back (separate professor, separate issue from the harassment I believe.)  It makes
sense to me that a student, particularly an ESL student, would want to make such a
letter, sensitive in its own way, appropriate in tone and grammar.  I wouldn't turn
that student away even though the letter does involve university personnel.
    What if a student wants to write a letter to academic appeals about a grade
complaint or unfair treatment in the dorms, something less "dangerous" than
harassment complaints?  Those letters affect university personnel (though I'm not
comparing this to how a harassment complaint affects people).  Again, I'm just
wondering where the line is here, because although I would refer a complaint about
sexual harassment out of the writing center, I would feel obligated to help a
student write a letter advocating for him/herself in an out-of-classroom situation.
Of course, this all assumes I've got a tutor who adheres to confidentiality and
knows to keep focused on what the writer, and not the tutor, wants to say.  And I
hope I never have to deal with any of these situations, but it always helps to be
prepared, which is one way this list-serv is useful to me.

Chauna


Jeanne H. Simpson wrote:

> Chauna,
>
> Before determining the legal exposure of a tutor helping the student write a
> letter of complaint,  the matter of whether a letter of complaint is the
> appropriate action to take needs to be considered.  A letter of complaint
> has the advantage of providing hard evidence that the student did complain.
> And thereby requires the university to take action and to investigate.  On
> the other hand once a document exists it takes on a life of its own, and
> yes, the tutor would have some legal exposure, because he/she witnessed the
> document in production and would have first-hand information about the
> intent of the document.   Taking the student to the harassment officer (or
> perhaps university ombudsman?) meets the same interest of getting the
> complaint officially registered and does not create any legal exposure for
> the tutor or the writing center.
>
> If a student comes to a university writing center and wants help with a
> letter to apply for a job or to complain to the phone company, that seems
> very much within the purview of writing center services.  But when
> university personnel are involved and may be affected by whatever letter is
> produced, you're in a different realm.  I would recommend that when tutors
> become alert to such matters, the student should be referred to the
> director.  And the director should be knowledgeable about where to take
> matters.  They should NOT be handled in the writing center.
>
> Jeanne Simpson
> csjhs@eiu.edu
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From:   owner-wcenter@ttacs6.ttu.edu [mailto:owner-wcenter@ttacs6.ttu.edu] On
> Behalf Of Chauna Craig
> Sent:   Friday, October 01, 1999 2:20 PM
> To:     wcenter@ttacs6.ttu.edu
> Subject:        Re: WC as student advocate?
>
> Mary,
>
>     I agree with Jeanne that the tutor should *not* be keeping a file that
> isn't
> about writing center work, and my last message may have been sloppy or
> misleading
> about that point.
>     I do still think it's appropriate for a tutor to help a student write a
> letter
> of complaint if that's what the student wants to use her writing center
> appointment
> for.  (It's a self-imposed writing assignment where issues of audience,
> purpose,
> rhetoric, etc. are very important.)  However, I'm curious how others feel
> about
> that, especially given the potential legal messes, i.e. can the tutor be
> held partly
> responsible for things like wording or tone if the letter in question ever
> becomes a
> court document?   Has anyone on the list dealt with these types of issues?
> The
> writing centers I've worked with have all encouraged students to bring in
> any type
> of writing they want to work on for class or personal reasons.  Are/should
> there be
> limits to this?
>
> Chauna Craig
> Assistant Professor of English
> University of Arkansas-Monticello
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Return-Path: <owner-wcenter@ttacs6.ttu.edu>
> Received: from ttacs6.ttu.edu (129.118.1.6) by cotton.uamont.edu (MX V5.1-X
>           AnFb) with ESMTP for <Craig@uamont.edu>;
>           Fri, 1 Oct 1999 15:08:21 -0500
> Received: by ttacs6.ttu.edu id PAA0000023634;
>           Fri, 1 Oct 1999 15:03:43 -0500 (CDT)
> Received: by ttacs6.ttu.edu id PAA0000019924;
>           Fri, 1 Oct 1999 15:02:33 -0500 (CDT)
> Received: from Panther3746 ([139.67.30.91]) by ux1.cts.eiu.edu
>           (8.9.1b+Sun/8.8.7) with SMTP id PAA06956 for
>           <wcenter@ttacs6.ttu.edu>; Fri, 1 Oct 1999 15:05:51 -0500 (CDT)
> From: "Jeanne H. Simpson" <csjhs@ux1.cts.eiu.edu>
> Reply-To: wcenter@ttacs6.ttu.edu
> Sender: owner-wcenter@ttacs6.ttu.edu
> To: <wcenter@ttacs6.ttu.edu>
> Subject: RE: WC as student advocate?
> Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1999 15:00:22 -0500
> Message-ID: <43EF72FA90B0D211BFC2000629172F481A2365@moe.eiu.edu>
> In-Reply-To: <43EF72FA90B0D211BFC2000629172F482C4CC4@moe.eiu.edu>