Writing Center expands

On June 14, the Writing Center said farewell to its five-year home in A-255 and welcomed the much-anticipated move to a relatively bigger A-309.

Janice Lefler, the writing center director, was excited about the move. The new center is 20 x 16 ft., whereas the old one was a mere 10 x 20 ft., she said. “We’ve always recognized that it’s [A-255] too small for our purpose.”

The old center had numerous problems. The room was cramped, which hosted close to 2,000 tutoring sessions per semester, according to Lefler. At any one time, the center had five or six students along with three tutors. This led to crowdedness and an increased level of carbon dioxide.

The carbon-dioxide issue became known when Lefler called Facilities to investigate the musty smell at the center.

Facilities personnel took several air measurements which included cubic feet per minute of air changes, both in the room and in heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, said John Watson, the director of Facilities.

In addition, the Facilities staff measured the relative humidity, carbon-dioxide levels and temperature readings at various points, said Watson. The staff concluded that there were too many people in the room.

“Managing the problem became one of managing the activity in the room,” Watson said.

Consequently, Lefler took several steps. She always kept the door of the Writing Center open and the thermostat very low. In addition, she placed tables and chairs in the vicinity of the Writing Center to reduce congestion. Whenever possible, the tutors took students to an available classroom.

The smallness of the room contributed to other problems like noise and the increased risk of contagious diseases, said Lefler. “The noise is really stressful,” she said. “When you read the same sentence three times and you’re still not sure what the student wrote, it’s a problem. It gets frustrating.”

For Lefler, whose office was also in the old Writing Center, the noise made it difficult to focus on the statistical and administrative tasks of her job. The new Writing Center addresses these problems. The new location in A-309 is 60 percent larger than the previous one and has good air exchange. Lefler now has her own office. And she can have three to four simultaneous tutoring sessions without concerns of undue noise.

“We certainly want to have more space between our tutoring sessions,” Lefler said.

Talks about the relocation of the Writing Center happened in spring 2003 during the meetings of the Reorganization Task Force, said Linda Glasscock, NLC president. “My vision of an expanded, full service writing center is based on models that I have seen at other colleges where I have worked.”

The new location will encourage more students to visit the Writing Center, said Lefler. When students visited the old center, they thought it was their reception area, she said. “Then we’d tell them, ‘No this is it.’” However, one aspect of the new location that concerns Lefler is its poor visibility. “It’s kind of a remote location,” she said. But Lefler is undaunted. She has put plenty of signs up and plans to get an overhead sign to reach the students, she said.

Nevertheless, the move is an interim solution for the center, said Lefler. Glasscock agrees.

“I do know that we need to identify additional space and resources so that the writing center can grow with our student population,” said Glasscock. “We have had a very hardworking and dedicated staff who have used the resources available to them to serve as many students as possible.

“My job, and that of our Vice President of Instruction, is to find ways to reallocate resources in order to allow for the growth and expansion of the Writing Center,” Glasscock said.