King &Neville |1

November 8th, 2016

Dr. Melanie Lee
Office Location: OC 3034
8600 University Boulevard
Evansville, IN 47712-3596
Subject: Improving the Current Writers Room System
Dear Dr. Lee:
We are researching the current state of the Writers Room System at the University of
Southern Indiana to implement a new system for the Writers Room. This updated system will
fix the scheduling and payment problems inherent to the student workers who teach students how
to write. In addition, we request a review to be made of the location of the Writers Room and the
IEP writing center. Finally, we request that the Writers Room gets the credit it is due, since the
Writers Room services all majors, but has no official operating budget.
We hope you find this report interesting and satisfactory.
Sincerely,

Cecil Neville III

4111 Frame Road
Newburgh, IN 47630
Cecil3.neville@live.com

Jessica King
1200 S. Lincoln Park Dr
Evansville, IN 47714
jgking@eagles.usi.edu

King &Neville |2

University of Southern Indiana

Improving the Current Writers Room System and IEP

December 13, 2016

Research Team
Cecil Neville III
Jessica King

Empirical Research Report

King &Neville |3

Executive Summary
Purpose of the Report
This report serves as a guide to help USI students and faculty understand the current system of
the Writers Room, how it can be improved, and how it could supplement the education USI
offers.

Research Methods Used

To gain information on our topic, we accessed the annual budget for the 2015-2016 fiscal year. In
addition, we interviewed faculty in both the Writers Room and the IEP Writing Center.

Understanding the USI Writers Room System

Students can only be paid minimum wage and work twenty hours per week, due to University
rules and IEP is only open four hours per day due to low enrollment. Location is a key failing of
the Writers Room, while the IEP Writing Center is in an ideal location to service its students.

Current State of Affairs of USI Writers Room System

The Writers Room is not in the official budget. Instead, it is bundled into Academic Skills. The
Writers Room faculty says this is beneficial, due to having a consistent and adequate budget,
especially since leftover funds from other parts of Academic Skills funnels into the Writers
Room.

Future of the Writers Room

By increasing the pay rate and number of hours tutors are allowed to work, in addition to
changing the location, the Writers Room will be able to better service its students, become more
independent, and eliminate the stress of finding tutors that many students face.

Unresolved Issues
We are not reaching all students. This occurs due to not being open on the weekends, being open
limited hours on Fridays, and lack of face to face communication in online submissions. In
addition, lack of open hours and tutors in the IEP Writing Center funnel into the workload of the
Writers Room. Therefore, when IEP has a problem, whether it is enforcing rules about tutoring
schedules or enforcing rules about academic dishonesty, the Writers Room has an analogous
problem.

Conclusions
The international students have a need for tutoring that extends beyond the open hours of the IEP
Writing Center. This overflow hampers the ability of the Writers Room to serve all students,
rather than only international students. Many students do not realize how sistered the Writers
Room and the IEP Writing Center are.

Suggestions
This report contains personal and professional advice from researchers about how to best
alleviate the problems of the Writers Room and move forward to better service students.

King &Neville |4

Table of Contents
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Introduction
Method
Understanding the USI Writers Room System
Current State of the Writers Room
Future of the Writers Room and IEP
a. Figure 1: Writers Room Schedule
b. Figure 2: IEP Tutoring Schedule
Unresolved Issues
a. Figure 3: Campus Map
Unresolved Issues Continued
Conclusions
Suggestions

5
6
7
9
10
10
12
13
13
14
15
16

King &Neville |5

Introduction
For the past several years, the Writers Room system has been flawed. We have been
researching new methods to ameliorate the system that is currently in place. Our interviews and
research into the Writers Room has discovered the reasoning behind the flawed system, as well
as ways to make the system better.
While we initially believed budget restrictions, location, scheduling, wages, reputation,
and independence were sources of the problems facing the Writers Room, we were later told
that budgeting and independence was a minor issue, while location, and reputation were the most
pressing issues. However, as our research progressed, we returned to our original assessment,
due to being given faulty information and later finding better research.
Our plan involves moving the Writers Room to the Library, giving tutors the option to
work more hours, expanding hours to include weekends, eliminating online tutoring, and
changing the mindset of the student body and faculty, so that the Writers Room operates more
effectively for the faculty and student body.

King &Neville |6

Method
Jessica King is an English 490 student and academic tutor. By the time this
assignment is complete, she will have a level 1 tutoring certification. Cecil Neville was a paid
tutor for about three years. He took the English 490 class, has level 3 tutoring certification, and
understands the inner workings of The Writers Room, the IEP Writing Center, and the
departments they are part of from the perspective of a longtime tutor. Together, we have a
combined experience which enables us to critique the effectiveness of the IEP and Writers
Room system, or more appropriately, the lack thereof.
We interviewed the heads of the Writers Room and the IEP Writing Center. Dr. Odney
and Dr. Emi, prospectively, were interviewed about the state of affairs of their organizations. As
part of our research and observation, we have found that IEP students need more open hours to
be able to receive tutoring. We also reviewed the USI annual budget for the 2015-2016 fiscal
year, in order to form a conclusion about why funding is lacking to the two organizations. For
instance, University guidelines have always prevented Cecil Neville from working more than
twenty hours per week, along with preventing him from receiving a pay raise to above minimum
wage, even after working for the Writers Room for multiple years.
Furthermore, we have received additional information regarding what the university rules
actually state, both from Dr. Lee and from students working in other parts of the university. By
gaining perspective on other academic departments and their budgets, we have ascertained how
that budget is interpreted, in order to gain a realistic understanding of student workers wages
and scheduling. The sum of this information has led to our resulting suggestions about the
Writers Room and IEP.

King &Neville |7

Understanding the Writers Room

The university professors only mention the Writers Room once a paper is deemed
irrecoverable, or if the teacher wants to give extra credit for a better paper. This relegation of the
Writers Room to remedial help, rather than as an overall student resource, allows the university
to think that writing well is not an important enough skill to train and hire workers for. This is
especially evident when tutors cannot be scheduled more than twenty hours a week and are paid
minimum wage, despite their experience and qualifications. Graduate tutors are not paid more
either, which is remarkable because writing tutors across the country make between $20 per hour
and $80 per hour.
Below is an email from Dr. Lee, who updated us on the faulty information we had been
given regarding Writers Room wages:
Hello Cecil and Jessica,
I am talking with a student in my ENG 201 class who is a student
worker in the liberal arts building in the campus SCTV and WSWI
radio station. They make $12.50 an hour! They also can work more
than 20 hrs per week. He tells me that they were making $7.25 an
hour until their supervisor, Nick Ricks, got them a raise two
months ago. So, my comment about $10.00 an hour being an
unrealistic wage for paid student tutors is WRONG. It is realistic
and possible IF you get the right people on it. For the Writers'
Room, I think that would be Dr. Odney and / or Brody Broshears, who
directs Academic Skills.
I just wanted to let you know that higher pay and increased hours
for writing center tutors IS possible: if students who work at the
campus TV/ radio station get this WHY DOESN'T THE WRITING CENTER?
Fondly,
Dr. Lee

King &Neville |8
This email exemplifies what is wrong with the current Writers Room System and the
people running it. On an official level, we have been told that all student workers are capped at
minimum wage and twenty hours per week. We have created a chart detailing a proposed
schedule and pay rate. We propose a starting wage of $9.00 per hour for the Writers Room
tutors, which will increase with good standing and experience over time to $11.00 per hour. Our
proposed schedule for the Writers Room accommodates a variety of schedules, while working
students in the twenty five hour per week range. For IEP tutoring, we propose an $11.50 per hour
starting wage for tutors because of the highly specialized knowledge required to tutor people
whose first language is not English. We also propose a raise to $13.00 per hour as the skill of IEP
tutors increases. The IEP schedule accommodates all tutor schedules, with tutors working twenty
hours per week as part of an entirely separate scheduling system. Additionally, both schedules
accommodate tutees needs
The bad location does nothing to help ameliorate the situation. The Writers Room is
tucked away in the back corner of the Education Center, which is part of the superstructure of the
Science Center and Health Professions. Not only is this location nowhere near where their clients
go to class, it gets practically zero passerby foot traffic. The signage of our buildings does not
even include the Writers Room, which leaves students unable to find the place. The Writers
Room should be in a location that gets foot traffic and is convenient to its students. The Rice
Library and the University Center are ideal, which is notable because they are both in the center
of campus, where everyone routinely visits. The Education Center, where the Writers Room is
currently housed, is a place most people cannot find, which is especially troublesome to
freshmen. Those students need the Writers Room and are directed there by their teachers more
often than anyone. They often need help finding the place after being recommended to it.

King &Neville |9

Current State of the Writers Room

While the problems with the Writing Center start with departmental struggles, the
ultimate origins of those struggles boil down to funding. Nursing and Health Professions,
together with its subsidiary departments have an operating budget of $6,195,917 for the 20152016 year. The college of Liberal Arts, which is a pool for Art, Music, Philosophy, Language,
History, Public Relations, Advertising, and English, only has an operating budget of $3,325,138
for the same year. While these department have smaller separate budgets, the English
department, which has a lot to do with trying to make a working Writing Center, only has a
separate budget of $2,274,598 for the 2015-2016 year. Academic Skills has a separate budget of
$1,063,875 and Intensive English Program (IEP) $634,374. These two budgets, along with that
of the English Department, are all of the funds that the Writers Room, in its multiple
incarnations, have ever seen. Nursing, which operates a massive portion of the overall budget,
contributes no such writing center, yet they utilize our service for free, while the Writers Room
has no official separate mention in the USI budget, existing only as an unknown fraction of
academic skills.

K i n g & N e v i l l e | 10

Future of the Writers Room and IEP

Figure 1: Writers Room Schedule (Hypothetical)
There are three tutors scheduled per hour, for a total of fourteen tutors. Jessica, Isaac,
Hannah, and Beth are English 490 tutors. Nine of the fourteen work twenty five hours per week.
Jessica, Isaac, Hannah, and Beth work 4 hours per week. Trevor works twenty two hours, rather
than twenty five hours per week.

9am

10am

11am

12pm

1pm

2pm

Monday
Jessica

Tuesday
Hannah

Wednesday
Crimzyn

Thursday
Crimzyn

Friday
Trevor

Saturday
Cady

Isaac

Jeanette

Isaac

Hannah

Crimzyn Jessica

Jessica

Trevor
Jessica

Trevor
Alex

Jessica
Crimzyn

Jeannete
Alex

Hannah
Trevor

Jeanette
Cady

Isaac

Hannah

Isaac

Hannah

Crimzyn Jessica

Jessica

Crimzyn
Jessica

Jeanette
Alex

Jessica
Crimzyn

Jeanette
Alex

Hannah
Trevor

Jeanette
Cady

Isaac

Hannah

Isaac

Hannah

Crimzyn Jessica

Jessica

Crimzyn
Jessica

Jeanette
Beth

Jessica
Crimzyn

Jeanette
Beth

Hannah
Trevor

Jeanette
Cady

Cecil

Hannah

Cecil

Hannah

Crimzyn Jessica

Jessica

Crimzyn
Jessica

Jeanett
Beth

Jessica
Trevor

Jeanette
Beth

Hannah
Trevor,

Jeanette
Crimzyn

Jeanette
Cady

Cecil

Jeanette

Cecil

Jeanette

Cecil,

Jessica

Jessica

Crimzyn
Cecil

Trevor
Beth

Jeanette
Trevor

Trevor
Beth

Hannah
Trevor

Jeanette
Cady

Jeanette
Cady

Cady

Crimzyn

Cecil

Katie

Cecil

Isaac

Isaac

Crimzyn

Jessica

Katie

Trevor

Hannah

Crimzyn

Jeanette

Jeanette
Cady

Jeanette
Cady

Jeanette
Cady

Sunday
Cady

K i n g & N e v i l l e | 11
3pm

4pm

5pm

6pm

7pm

8pm

9pm

Cady

Beth

Trevor

Katie

Cecil

Cady

Cady

Hannah,

Cecil

Cady

Cecil

Hannah

Isaac

Isaac

Crimzyn
Cady

Trevor
Crimzyn

Katie
Trevor

Trevor
Katie

Alex
Cecil

Alex
Cady

Trevor
Cady

Hannah

Beth

Cady

Cecil

Hannah

Isaac

Isaac

Crimzyn
Trevor

Cecil
Trevor

Katie
Cady

Hannah
Trevor

Cady
Cecil

Trevor
Trevor

Trevor
Cecil

Hannah

Beth

Jeanette

Jessica

Hannah

Cecil

Isaac

Jeanette
Trevor

Jessica
Trevor

Michael
Cady

Michael
Trevor

Michael
Trevor

Isaac
Trevor

Trevor
Cecil

Hannah

Beth

Jeanette

Jessica

Hannah

Cecil

Isaac

Jeanette
Trevor

Jessica
Trevor

Michael
Cady

Michael
Trevor

Michael
Trevor

Isaac
Trevor

Trevor
Cecil

Hannah

Ellen

Isaac

Ellen

Hannah

Cecil

Isaac

Michael
Trevor

Michael
Trevor

Michael
Cecil

Michael
Trevor

Michael
Trevor

Isaac
Trevor

Crimzyn
Cecil

Cady

Ellen

Isaac

Ellen

Hannah

Cecil

Isaac

Michael
Trevor

Michael
Trevor

Michael
Trevor

Michael
Trevor

Michael
Cady

Isaac
Trevor

Crimzyn
Cecil

Cady

Ellen

Isaac

Ellen

Hannah

Cecil

Isaac

Michael

Michael

Michael

Michael

Michael

Isaac

Crimzyn

Pay scale: $9.00-$11.00 per hour

Hours worked: Twenty five hours for paid tutors
Four hours for ENG 490 non-paid tutors
Open Hours: 9am-9pm Monday- Sunday

K i n g & N e v i l l e | 12
Location: Education center
Ideal Location: Library

Figure 2: IEP schedule (Hypothetical)

There are two tutors scheduled per hour, for a total of eight tutors. Ashley, Nick, and
Jamie are IEP 490 tutors. Five of the eight work twenty hours per week. Ashley, Nick, and Jamie
work 4 hours per week. John works twenty two hours per week, rather than the standard twenty.

2pm

Monday
John

Tuesday
Nick

Wednesday Thursday
John
Nick

Friday
Kim

Saturday
John

Sunday
Jan

3pm

Mark
John

Tom
Nick

Mark
John

John
Nick

Tom
Kim

Mark
John

Kim
Jan

4pm

Mark
John

Tom
Tom

Mark
John

John
Tom

Tom
Tom

Mark
John

Kim
Jan

5pm

Mark
Jan

Jamie
Jan

Mark
Tom

Jamie
Kim

Jamie
Kim

Mark
Tom

Kim
Mark

6pm

Kim
Ashley

Kim
Jan

John
John

Tom
Jan

Tom
Jan

John
Ashley

Jamie
John

7pm

Jan
Ashley

Kim
Jan

Mark
John

Kim
Jan

Kim
Jan

Tom
Ashley

Mark
John

8pm

Jan
Tom

Kim
Tom

Mark
John

Kim
Jan

Kim
Jan

Tom
Jan

Mark
John

K i n g & N e v i l l e | 13

9pm

Jan

Jan

Mark

Kim

Kim

Kim

Mark

Tom

Tom

Tom

Tom

Tom

Kim

Kim

Mark

Mark

Mark

Mark

John

John

John

Pay scale: $11.50/hour-$13.00/hour

Hours worked: Twenty hours for paid tutors
Four hours for IEP 490 non-paid tutors
Open Hours: 2pm-9pm Monday- Sunday
Location: Third floor of the Orr Center

K i n g & N e v i l l e | 14

Unresolved Issues
Figure 3: USI Campus Map
In our campus map, we have labeled the current Writers Room location in yellow. The current
IEP writing center is labeled in blue. We find IEP to be in an ideal location, thus proposing no
new location. Finally, our ideal Writers Room location in the Rice Library is labeled in Green.

K i n g & N e v i l l e | 15

Unresolved Issues Continued

The Writers Room gets a bad reputation because of the focus of tutor training and the
focus of perceived job descriptions for tutors. The focus of tutor training should be to help
students learn to navigate the writing process for themselves, or to provide extra instruction, in
lieu of the teachers having time to spend extra time with every student. Instead, our job
description is primarily focused on fixing existing papers grammatically and within a time limit.
Because of the lack of tutors and their limited hours, we have to work far too hard to prioritize
the fixing of the project in front of us, rather than the student we are supposed to be helping to
learn. Students also have varying schedules, which leads to the next problem, which is that the
Writers Room is not open on the weekends or Friday night. The online help for the Writers
Room is also troubled because we need 48 hours notice to finish grading a paper, but we are also
closed on the weekends.
The English 490 class, which consists of tutor training, is not well advertised because of
departmental struggles and past struggles among the English Department, Liberal Arts,
Academic Skills, and the rest of the University. The Writers Room relies on English students
from the 490 class to fill up its staff, with little to offer in return. For example, the English 490
class does not always train enough tutors to fill the Writers Room, which leaves Academic Skills
to fill the rest of the Writers Room positions however it sees fit. Also, the Writers Room tutors
are expected to fill the IEPs Writing Center, which they are often not qualified to do. IEP only
pitches in enough money to pay minimum wage also, regardless of the specialized skill
necessary to effectively teach foreign students. The IEP Writing Center is on the third floor of the
Orr Center, which is also a bad location. People ask directions regularly to find it and often walk
in thinking they are headed toward the teachers offices.

K i n g & N e v i l l e | 16

Conclusions
The foundational struggle between the English Department and Academic Skills over
how to tutor students happened in 2013, when the English Department run Writing Center was
denied funding and closed two weeks before the Fall Semester started. Since that debacle,
Academic Skills has once again been placed in charge of writing instruction, which has not
worked out for the better. This is because Academic Skills also tutors in Math, Science, and
Engineering in an adjoining space in the Education Center. While this space is great for Math,
Science, and Engineering, funding and effort is often denied to the Writers Room in favor of the
rest of Academic Skills.
The USI budget clearly reflects a bias in favor of subject based tutoring outside of writing
and the English Department. This budget affects and creates every problem we have suggested
fixing. In addition, USIs budget exemplifies bureaucratic struggle between Academic
departments. All of these problems point toward the same nexus, which is that the Academic
departments of USI are separate and do not work together.
Guidance was, and still is, what is needed to make the Writers Room succeed. Not only
does there need to be a breakdown of bureaucratic struggles, but a better location needs to be
found, funding restrictions need to be lifted, and a well-connected faculty member needs to
actually lead it. By expecting too much of tutors, especially in terms of expecting new tutors to
tutor in IEP, we can see a clear lack of responsibility on the part of the administration.

K i n g & N e v i l l e | 17

Suggestions
Based on our combined experience and research, we believe that the Writers Room and IEP
need an updated system of operation. To that effect, the Writers Room and IEP should change
the following steps to update their system:

1. Schedule students as needed, in order to fill a larger schedule. This will ameliorate
the current deficit in open hours which leaves students unable to be tutored when needed.
This will also incentivize tutors to perform their jobs well and continue to do so.
2. Raise both starting and skilled wages. This will match competitive wages outside of the
university, serving as an incentive to train and hold on to skilled tutors.
3. Move the Writers Room to the Library. This location will serve to increase the use of
the Writers Room, thus better serving the entire university.
4. Adjust the university budget to include the Writers Room as a separate entity.
Separating the Writers Room from Academic skills will allow for the better allocation of
resources from every department to create an equitable division of funding, as well as a
steady source of funding, for the Writers Room.