It’s safe to say that the implications of COVID-19 will reach far beyond public health and into most, if not all, facets of our daily lives. As a current junior at the University of Richmond, I began questioning the pandemic’s effect upon my school without even realizing it. I’ll admit, my initial curiosity was shaped by bitterness, feeling very left in the dark by UR. One of the first was, “Do they expect me to give back after graduation when I remember having to buy all new summer clothes because they wouldn’t let us return to campus?” After some of my friends’ belongings were packed up by moving crews, no options given, to optimistically make room for summer housing, I asked, “Does UR really want to feel the wrath of all of these students’ parents, people who can make or break their kids’ college attendance?”

These thoughts eventually evolved into the larger question that the school’s administration is undoubtedly dealing with as well: “How many students won’t come back next year because of all of this?” By “all of this,” I mean more than just what students and parents consider to be a poor response by UR to the situation. Rather, I’m now considering how COVID-19 can plague us into the Fall 2020 semester. When considering that fall could be remote as well, my query mushrooms. As Bryan Alexander points out, students aren’t getting what they sign up for with online learning (Alexander). This is true: I myself do not feel like what I have experienced since spring break is worth the price tag. For students (and students’ families) that feel more strongly than I do, there could be little difference between virtual Richmond and a cheaper educational option. Especially as a school that seems to flaunt its brick facades more than its quality of teaching, what can UR offer students during remote instruction that will make up for this widened gap between admissions brochures and reality?

In this paper, I will look at ways that the University of Richmond’s Writing Center can continue to offer its services to students around the globe. A big part of the student experience right now is feeling left behind. I have seen this stretch into academics. For example, one of my close friends (who is genuinely one of the most intelligent people that I know) expressed concern that she wouldn’t be able to pass a class without being able to work problems out in person with her professor. Though my other friends brought up email or Zoom correspondence as a substitute, she asserted that she feels uncomfortable with virtual conversation and believes it will get in the way of her understanding of the material. Whether because of technological issues or students’ diverse learning styles, remote learning can leave many students feeling lost like my friend is. Aside from merely learning the class’s content, I can attest to the distractions that I have met at home that I usually do not at school. While it’s historically been easy for me to hunker down with a few friends in the library to crank a paper out, things like family meal schedules, spotty wifi, and pet care have gotten in my way while completing assignments and attending meetings at home. I’m in a position of privilege to only list these, as a number of students have to care for family members, work outside of the house, and deal with worse technological problems. We also have to keep in mind that many students are likely struggling mentally and will not feel the drive to keep up with classes (Alexander).

This range of concerns shows the importance of UR's Writing Center at this time: Students are jumping over so many different hurdles to get to their deadlines and need the same help with their papers that was once available to them when they were on campus. Accessibility is key, as schedules and time zones have changed between all of us. To continue providing the same services, The Writing Center needs to acknowledge this diversity. I propose that we set up virtual Center hours, encourage Consultants to be open to irregular hours, and take advantage of the text chat feature in Google Docs to exhibit flexibility for students at this time. By proving to students that it is taking extra steps to help them, The Writing Center can fight back against the disillusionment that many are feeling in the wake of COVID-19.

To make up for being unable to continue walk-in consultation remotely, we should not make all virtual consultations by appointment. Though I understand that decision was made this spring to quickly reintroduce The Writing Center to our new reality, the fall schedule requires a solution with the long-term in mind. Students may only realize that they have an issue halfway through a paper that’s due the next day. Not only is it easier to procrastinate at home, but students with family or work responsibilities may be unable to get to an assignment as soon as others. Like a number of my professors have successfully done, The Writing Center should have Consultant office hours for when students need a quick read-over. Because so much of a writing center experience is based upon student collaboration (Cooper et al. 129), it’s important to continue pushing video conferences as our main service. In “Protocols and Process in Online Tutoring,” George Cooper, Kara Bui, and Linda Riker lay out a number of difficulties that Consultants can have with merely written help such as being unable to ask guiding questions while reading (132) and struggling with an instructive yet friendly written voice (134). Video conferences can continue to characterize The Writing Center as cooperative by encouraging conversation between Consultant and writer.

Consultants can also encourage writers to read their work in front of them, which, according to David Bartholomae, is especially helpful to understanding a writer’s thought process or pointing out awkward sentences (266). As Cooper et al. point out in “Protocols and Process,” a writer can take or leave written commentary (136), and it would be easy for a student to skip over reading their paper aloud in favor of quicker fixes because written commentary has “an absence of social pressure” (137). While I think offering written commentary can be helpful despite its pitfalls, there should be increased access to video conferences due to their advantages. I have noticed my professors only allowing one or two students in at a time during office hours, and believe that something similar can be done to create a ‘waiting room’ for the virtual Writing Center. The Writing Consultant can switch between writers after giving commentary to one, and writers can re-enter the waiting room with further questions. In this way, allowing students into the Center won’t be all too different from how it is in the library. By offering these office hours alongside the scheduled appointments we are already doing, it can continue to encourage cooperative learning while showing a desire to meet students where they are.

Because students are in a variety of settings at this time, The Writing Center must take the times at which Consultants are available into consideration. Especially considering that students in other time zones may be unable to attend virtual classes, these students may want more help when writing a paper. The Writing Center should reach out to any international writing Consultants to encourage them to hold office hours or be available for appointments on their specific schedule, if at all possible. Assuming there aren’t enough Consultants around the globe, those of us in the US should be cognizant of students who may need to schedule an appointment at a time that would be later in the Consultant’s own region. While students in other time zones may live in other parts of the US, some will be international students, who I can only imagine feel especially isolated at this time. A number of these international students will also be ELL (English language learner) students, so the cooperative learning aspect we see in video conferences will be all the more important. As addressed by Mosher, Granroth, and Hicks in the article “Creating a Common Ground with ESL Writers,” a key piece to collaborative learning with an ELL writer is conversation. Asking questions and engaging in small talk can clear up confusion and allow the Consultant to learn more about the writer’s unique cultural expectations when writing (6). It is also important for an ELL writer to hear the way that the writing Consultant uses language. Muriel Harris and Tony Silva point out in “Tutoring ESL Students: Issues and Options” that Consultants can provide a vocabulary to ELL writers that they did not already use in their writing (533). For all of these reasons, a video call is even more ideal when conferencing with an ELL student, and The Writing Center should make these conferences easier for them to attend. Because international students are at a greater risk of feeling left behind by their university at this time, it is all the more important to me that they encounter a friendly face at The Writing Center when they need it.

Though video conferencing is ideal, the text chat capability in Google Docs can be used to give in-time commentary to students unable to call or Zoom in for a meeting. Students may have access to computers without video settings or have difficulty finding a quiet place to talk from, so The Writing Center should provide this form of live paper assistance as well to be as flexible as possible. This option may also be more attractive to students that want to avoid the “social pressure,” as Cooper et al. put it, of a spoken conversation (137). As I mentioned earlier, there are many benefits to writing consultation being a conversation rather than a list of edits to make. Though this is usually accomplished verbally, the text chat in Google Docs (a free application) can stand in its place to allow the writer and Consultant to ask each other questions. These consultations could be done as a ‘walk-in,’ during which the Consultant uses the comment feature to make notes and the chat feature to communicate with the writer, or as a scheduled appointment, at which the Consultant can present a paper on which they have already commented and chat with the writer about their concerns. Though written commentary is not foreign to UR writing Consultants, Cooper et al. are correct in that extra attention should be paid to the way that Consultants communicate with writers through text (134). Ways that a Consultant may try to get emphasis across, such as using all-caps, will come off as aggressive to a writer (134). Expressing intentions is much easier through conversation, as we have facial expressions and body language to back them up. It is important to keep the ‘smile’ of The Writing Center through text while still typing in a manner that is professional and respectable. The concerns of this form of communication are far outweighed, however, by the benefit of being able to ask questions about how a piece is written. Having a text consultation option will provide another way for the Center to reach its collaborative goals while meeting the needs of students.

While this paper is predominantly concerned with the ability to continue tutoring students through difficult times, my heart lies with how I can be here for students who are so much more alienated right now than I am. There are a great number of reasons for a student who was already feeling alone at this university to leave for a cheaper one, such as a state school. It’s not like the pandemic is the only thing that has made students question their enrollment at the University of Richmond. After the string of racist incidents at UR this January, I listened to a number of students of color and international students discuss how they felt left behind by the school. These students have very valid reasons to go elsewhere, such as our campus’s unwelcoming, Greek-focused social culture or hesitance to productively approach issues of race. While international students may choose to go to school back home, students from the US could decide that a state school offers a similar education without the price and racial ignorance of the University of Richmond. If I’m feeling frustrated today because I can’t go get my sandals from my dorm room, I remind myself of my peers that don’t know when they can go back home, or who travel back knowing that an eventual return to campus will only mean the same old discrimination. I came into this assignment thinking, “If one of those students is having trouble with a paper, how can I show them that they’re a valued member of this community no matter where they are right now?” I understand that our Writing Center’s primary goal is to provide writing assistance, though I also see a unique opportunity for it to give students friendly faces and clear answers at a time where they may not see much of a difference between UR and VCU. At the risk of sounding cliche, collaboration can help us through this. The first step is showing students that The Writing Center is here if they need it.

Works cited:

Alexander, B. “COVID-19 versus higher ed: the downhill slide becomes an avalanche.” Bryan Alexander, 31 Mar. 2020, bryanalexander.org/future-of-education/covid-versus-higher-ed-the-downhill-slide-becomes-an-avalanche/

Bartholomae, D. "The Study of Error." College Composition and Communication 31.3 (Oct. 1980): 253-269.

Cooper, G., Bui, K., Riker, L. “Protocols and Process in Online Learning.” A Tutor’s Guide to Helping Writers One to One, ed. Rafoth, B. Portsmouth, NH: Boyton-Cook, 2005. pp. 129-139.

Harris, M, & Silva, T. "Tutoring ESL students: Issues and Options." College Composition and Communication 44.4 (Dec. 1993): 525-537.

Mosher, D., Granroth, D., Hicks, T. "Creating a Common Ground with ESL Writers." Writing Lab Newsletter 24.7 (March 2000): 1-7.