The popular Spanish writing center, which helps Spanish students with writing assignments, has closed its doors for the quarter and will reopen in spring, offering half as many hours to cut costs, said Jorge Coronado, the Spanish and Portuguese department chair.
The Weinberg administration and the Spanish and Portuguese department shuttered the center for the rest of the quarter over budget concerns, Coronado said. The center has been operating for 120 hours a quarter; this spring it will operate for 60 hours while the department works with Weinberg to determine a new structure for Fall Quarter.
“It’s expensive, so we’re trying to figure out a way to make it more cost-effective,” Coronado said of the center, which serves Spanish majors and minors in classes above the 210 level.
Coronado said next year the center will be completely redesigned and offer reduced hours with more faculty involved with the editing process. The center is currently staffed by a single professor, Elisa Baena, its director. Students schedule writing conference appointments with Baena on the Blackboard website.
“This year, the Spanish writing center has been designed so that one person has to deal with all that work,” Coronado said.
Medill sophomore and Spanish major Alexa Kamm is circulating a petition among Spanish students to fight the cuts. Kamm, who has used the center for all six papers she has been assigned in the Spanish major thus far, said she understands the lack of funding but believes the Weinberg administration and the department should have made the center a priority given its popularity.
“Already it can be hard finding an appointment that works for you,” Kamm said.
Last year, the department included 307 majors and minors. Coronado said he expects about 330 majors and minors this year. With so many students, he said the center needs more staff.
“The Spanish writing center has been in peak demand,” Coronado said. “What we’re trying to do is reconfigure the center so it copes better with that demand. One of the things we’re working on is figuring out how to spread the work out more evenly both amongst different people but also over the quarter.”
The funding cuts forced Baena to close the center early so as not to exceed the new limit of 60 hours per quarter.
But while Coronado said the reworking of the center would take some of the burden off Baena, she said she is disappointed.
“Personally I’m very sad because I involve a lot of time,” said Baena, who has been running the center since January 2008. “My hours are not fixed. I do the hours that are needed.”
Baena estimated about 265 students on the Blackboard site are “possible customers” of the center. She said it is difficult to measure how many students use the center in a given week because the timing is so varied.
“I think it’s more important that I read the papers when my students need for me to read the papers,” Baena said. “If I have to read a paper at five in the morning because it’s due that day and the student still hasn’t finished, I do that.”
Kamm said this type of dedication is an asset to students.
“Elisa Baena has done such a great job,” she said. “It’s been really helpful. It’s a shame Weinberg didn’t value it as much.”
Kamm said students are frustrated and angry about the center’s closure and have volunteered to throw fundraisers to support it. After visiting three Spanish classes, she has 52 signatures. Kamm said her goal is 200 signatures.
“They’re devastated because they feel their grades are going to be so bad from now on,” said Baena, who does not know whether she will be involved with the new center. She also said students assigned final papers this quarter will now be unable to use the center’s resources. “How can a student come and I say, ‘I can’t help you’? I don’t do things like that. I always say, ‘Yes, of course.'”
Kamm, a member of the Associated Student Government Academic Committee, also contacted ASG Academic Vice President and Weinberg junior Gabby Daniels, who said she will meet Wednesday with Mary Finn, the associate dean for undergraduate academic affairs in Weinberg. Daniels said she preferred not to comment on the issue until after her meeting next week.
Coronado said the department is still deciding the logistics of the new center, including whether students will make appointments via Blackboard. One option, he said, is to assign a certain number of students to each professor. Coronado also said faculty members are considering coordinating the center with the writing workshops for lower-level students.
Regardless, Coronado said he recognizes the value of the center in developing writing skills for students’ future career opportunities.
Kamm said the development of these skills is exactly why the center should remain unchanged.
“Spanish is a growing field that a lot of companies are moving toward,” Kamm said. “The number of people taking Spanish is exploding. The center is great motivation for people looking to take those upper-level classes.”
