Blog Post #1 (Darius Stewart)

Question #1: When a tutor is acting as "the counselor" for students, I understand that we may need to refer them to resources that are better equipped and more appropriate to help them, but how do we handle a student problem that might require us to report to our supervisor? Is there a protocol in place that suggests how we should, for, example, explain to a student that what they are saying might require me to report to a supervisor?

Question #2: Some instructors in the GEL program allow students to revise papers for a better grade, but only if they receive help from a tutor in the Writing Center. Is this 1). considered a violation of the Extra Credit Policy and 2.) if so, should we treat any assignment that mandates a visit to the Writing Center as a violation of this policy?

Comments

  1. Carol SeverinoJanuary 23, 2019 at 6:06 AM

    I'll look this up, but there's no protocol that I know of for telling the student that you'll have to report what they are telling you about to a supervisor. In fact, I could see that explanation could have a chilling affect on the student and make them stop talking to you, or if they are finished talking, make them afraid of administrative intervention. I think it's better to just listen, recommend University Counseling (there's even an office in the Old Capitol Mall and nowadays it's much easier to get an appointment; they even have walk-in hours), and then after your session tell Deirdre or me, especially if the matter has to do with physical harm vs. self or others.

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  2. Carol SeverinoJanuary 23, 2019 at 10:12 AM

    We've never had a rush of GEL students coming to the Writing Center to work on revisions, so it hasn't been a problem for us yet, unless students ask for verification of writing center attendance from us, which we don't give. I guess I would prefer if GEL teachers said to students, "I'll read your revised paper if you conference with me or the writing center about it." They should also say that there's no guarantee that a revised paper will get a better grade; sometimes revising some parts of the paper but not others makes the paper less coherent; other times, all students do is clean up the grammar.

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