The Graduate Student Professional Association donated $10,000 to help the WSU Graduate Writing Center secure more staffing and equipment to provide accessible hours for students.

Troy Rowden, Graduate Writing Center consultant and outreach coordinator, said the writing center moved at the beginning of the semester. The previous writing center was down the hall from the current center and the new space in the Samuel H. Smith Center for Undergraduate Education 402G used to act as a classroom.

“We’re not a classroom telling students to come to see us,” Rowden said. “When they need help, they can seek us out.”

Andrew Gillreath-Brown, GPSA communications chair, said the WSU Graduate School provided funding to hire a new graduate assistant to help with the center. She works 20 hours a week, he said.

Rowden said the center added three new staff members, including the graduate assistant. There were five staff members before.

He said the center employs writing consultants, which are people students can talk to about their writing, rather than someone who edits and proofreads their work.

Consultants can help graduate students write professional emails, discuss papers for class and so on, Rowden said.

The new center also provides more walk-in hours, Rowden said. Last semester the center offered 10 walk-in hours a week, now they offer 20.

“If you’re doing lab work and you have samples that are going to die if you’re not in the lab, then it’s hard to work around schedules,” Gillreath-Brown said.

Rowden said the new space can accommodate so there can be more consultations happening at the same time. He said in the previous space, there could only be two appointments going on, but now there can be six or seven.

He said in the last two years, students scheduled more than 900 appointments at the writing center, not including walk-in students. Since the opening of the new center at the start of the semester, students scheduled 50 appointments.

“We’re exceeding the mark,” Rowden said.

GPSA also helped fund four new computers for the writing center, he said.

Gillreath-Brown said when he was tabling for the Graduate Writing Center in the Compton Union Building there were students who were still not aware of the expansion.

Rowden said funding will also help pay for advertising and new signs.

“It’s kind of tricky advertising to graduate students because we come in, get our business done then leave,” he said.

Graduate students can schedule an appointment on the Graduate Writing Center website.