Empty Writing Center

Last night I went to the Writing Center to shadow my consultant. Unfortunately, he did not have any appointments during that time, and so I was not able to sit in on a tutoring session. I am always surprised and a little disappointed when the Writing Center is so empty, and this sensation struck me even more strongly yesterday. This is the time of year when essays are piling up, when students are stressing in the library until 2 am trying to write that final essay that will pull up their grade or in some cases just allow them to scrape by. In short, this is the time when the Writing Center should be filled to the brim with students, when there shouldn't be any open appointments left. But it was empty. Why is this?

Though I cannot fully answer this question, I have some ideas as to the causes. For one thing, we are a university of procrastinators. Even the best students will sometimes wait until the night before to write the paper, and I'm sure if one conducted a survey the results would show that at least 50% of students procrastinate on their papers. This unfortunately stands in the way of them using the Writing Center, as you obviously cannot take a draft to the Center at 3 am the morning of the due date. I honestly don't know how the Writing Center can do anything to change this. Perhaps if a student goes to the Center once then they will develop better writing processes and learn the importance of recursive writing and various drafts, therefore creating a consistent client for the Center. Yet for this to happen the student has to get into the Writing Center in the first place. And the majority of people I know have never stepped foot into the 3rd floor of Weinstein.

Another reason could be bad publicity. Many of my friends don't even know where the Writing Center is, let alone what they do and how to make appointments. I know that once we were joking in class about the Writing Center offering to edit love letters for Valentines day, and as goofy as that idea is I think that fun things like that could really get the name out there. Rather than see the Center as an intimidating place where teachers send you if you're a bad writer, students need to see the Center as a common resource and a collaborative environment that everyone should feel comfortable using, even a fun place. Why not use hoky advertising or tabling things like the love letter idea to get the name out there, to change the Center's reputation?