A combination of budget cuts and students studying abroad this semester has left the Writing Fellows Program understaffed and struggling to cover all participating courses. The budget cuts have also resulted in the elimination of the Rhetoric Fellows program.
"We want to reach everyone we can," said Rhoda Flaxman, director of College Writing Programs. "I am doing my darnedest not to drop any courses at this point."
But, Flaxman added, "I also don't want to kill my fellows" with the strain of covering so much ground with few resources.
There are currently 65 active writing fellows assigned to 26 courses and one program at the Swearer Center for Public Service, Flaxman said. They are tentatively distributed according to preregistration numbers for each course, and will serve a total of 972 students this semester, according to the early registration numbers. Flaxman said she was "praying" to see that number drop after shopping period ended Tuesday.
Seven fellows have been assigned to split their efforts between two classes, but "they have not really complained" about the situation and will read roughly the same number of pages overall this semester as the others, Flaxman said.
Five writing fellow positions were eliminated this year by budget cuts ordered by the Office of the Dean of the College, which transferred the funds to support the Writing Center, Flaxman said. Another 10 fellows are studying abroad or have taken leaves of absence this semester.
The budget cuts also mean an end to training new Rhetoric Fellows, specialized writing fellows with advanced training in oral presentation. This leaves only the current five trained fellows to act as rhetoric fellows this semester. Flaxman attributed this in part to the relatively small number of professors who took advantage of the program.
The strain on the writing fellows program is unwelcome news both for the professors who take advantage of the program to improve their students' writing skills and the undergraduates who work as writing fellows.
In courses that employ writing fellows, all students must submit a first draft of each paper to a writing fellow two weeks before the due date. The writing fellow then provides feedback though written comments and a one-on-one meeting, leaving the student another week to revise the paper.
Flaxman said it may become necessary to make the individual student conferences optional for fellows serving more than 20 students if the preregistration numbers prove accurate.
"I would be really bummed if I didn't have writing fellows," said Rachel Morello-Frosch, assistant professor of environmental science, who has three writing fellows for ES172: "Environmental Justice."
"Students come into class with varying writing skills," she said, and the writing fellows help students with stylistic issues to a degree that she "can grade more on the actual content and mastery of the material."
Morello-Frosch also credited the program with improving her class plan, noting that having writing fellows "encourages you to think early about the structure of your course and the timing of your assignments, to the benefit of students."
Tara Nummedal, assistant professor of history, plans to use writing fellows in her first-year seminar, HI97, Sec. 6: "Magic, Science and Religion in Europe." She has been tentatively assigned two fellows for her class of 20 students.
"Particularly for first-year students, I think it's absolutely essential" to develop strong writing skills, Nummedal said. She added, "I think of the first-year seminar as a place to really focus on writing."
That's why she uses the writing fellows, Nummedal said, describing them as "fantastic" in helping students develop writing skills. She believes all first-year seminars should use writing fellows to that end.
Both professors said they believe, in the end, students appreciate the writing fellows and value the improvement in their writing skills, though they may resent the extra work at the time.
Kevin Wilson '07, currently in his first year as a writing fellow, agreed, saying he believes the writing fellows are "generally much appreciated" by students. He said he was excited for the coming semester and working in CG42: "Human Cognition."
Samuel James '07, also a first-year writing fellow, has been assigned to work in two courses this semester: HI97, Sec. 6 and SO2: "Perspectives on Social Interaction: An Introduction to Social Psychology."
"I'd prefer to have one class just because I can devote more time to the papers in that class," James said, but he said having two classes would be "not that big an issue," and he was still looking forward to working as a writing fellow this semester despite being stretched thin.
But, James added, "The underfunding (of the program) doesn't really help things at all."
