CAROLYNN CLAREY
The new location of the Writing Center in the CUE, Room 402G. Along with more staff, this room allows for more appointments to happen at once.
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.