For those who might not know, the Writing Centre tutorial service is a free, peer-to-peer, one-on-one writing hub where any UBC student can come to discuss their questions, concerns and general what-have-yous about writing. As a tutor, I met some very cool friends, role models and mentors, and carved out a community that would support me through my entire undergrad and beyond. The service is closing.
Let's take a second to think about what we are losing here. Yes, there are many private tutors available in Vancouver, but they charge exorbitant rates. On top of the pressure to succeed despite gruelling academic standards, UBC is already so expensive. Given the upcoming international tuition increases, demands on international students may be particularly high, though domestic students like me certainly struggle too.
Think of recent high school graduates struggling to adjust to university-level assignments without access to first-year writing courses right away.
Think of the TAs and profs who are expected to cover exorbitant amounts of content in their lectures, who are burdened by other departmental demands, who are often underpaid and who are also expected to support student success in writing.
Think of the scores of international students who come to UBC speaking multiple languages, who have passed difficult language proficiency exams to earn their acceptance and who are expected to perform at a high level in their writing courses. Students in certain programs must pass further exams post-acceptance, exams for which they pay hundreds of dollars out of pocket and for which there is no free support aside from the Writing Centre's tutorial service.
I happily spent more than five of my eight years tutoring in a writing centre, first at John Abbott College in Montréal and then at UBC. John Abbott is a CEGEP, a publicly-funded pre-university and professional college. There are student fees, but no tuition, so it's pretty close to free. With only around 6,000 day-time students, its impact as an educational institution is pretty much impossible to compare to UBC’s global clout. Yet it houses a thriving writing centre which is integrated into an English class so tutor-training is ongoing and year-round. At UBC, we received a few hours of training at the beginning of the academic year.
A similar disparity exists in schools here in BC. Douglas College, Langara College and UBC-O all house perfectly healthy writing tutorial services despite being disproportionately smaller. At Douglas, tutors receive accreditation for their training. Why is a school that makes millions of dollars unable to match the services of smaller institutions?
Heck, there are writing centres everywhere from Azerbaijan to Vietnam! Seriously — there's an International Writing Centers Association. They have a global directory. If the decision to close the tutorial service passes, UBC will no longer be included.
Or will it? In his statement in The Ubyssey earlier this week, Peter Moroney said that “the Writing Centre itself will remain in operation as will its online portal”: a series of writing courses that cost hundreds of dollars to register for will stay, while free face-to-face tutoring is cut. I'm not here to debate semantics, but scrapping the free writing tutorial service and still calling oneself a “Writing Centre” really makes me cringe.
But there's no point in getting hung up on a name. We would call ourselves “Midpoint Location for Assistance with Printed Composition” if it meant we could continue offering our services.
Anyone who knows me well has endured at least one lecture on the merits of writing tutoring. It has been incredibly heartening for me to hear my own beliefs repeated and reinforced by students, faculty and writing centre professionals through our petition and social media. It is just so ironic that this conversation is happening under such circumstances.
I don't know why we’re closing, but I hope someone at the top realizes that there will be serious consequences for the future of student success and UBC's reputation as a world-class university if the writing tutorial service closes. In the meantime, we are working hard to make sure that we'll be back to serve you next September. Thank you so much for your continued support!
Allison O'Neil is a former tutor at the UBC Writing Centre.
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