The Writing Center has been closed during the four-week intercession largely because of a lack in funding.

The center opens Monday at 10 a.m. and will be open every day except Friday until 5:30 p.m., and according to Director Daiva Markelis, by mid-summer there’s quite a few students using it. So why isn’t it opened now?

“It’s mainly a funding issue,” Markelis said. It’s easier to pay the GA’s (Graduate Assistants) on the regular semester schedule.”

Robin Murray, who is now in the English Dept. and was head of the Writing Center before Markelis, has said it’s been at least eight years since the center has been open.

“It’s better to have the four weeks off; never had anyone really complain about it, and again it goes back to the funding issue,” Markelis said.

Markelis believes it would be good to have the center open during the 4-week intercession if someone else could direct it during that time. Murray agreed on this, stating that if there were funds available during the four weeks it would be fine to have open.

English Department Chair Dana Ringuette has said that the financial matter is an “EIU funded entity” that comes out of the vice president’s office. However, Ringuette’s suggested person of contact, William V. Weber, vice president in Academic Affairs, was not available for comment.

“For the most part, the writing center works off a limited budget, especially in the summer, as there’s limited staffing,” Murray said.

For the six-week session, two tutors will be working the center, and although Markelis has said the first week or so is kind of slow, the numbers do pick up throughout the sixth week.

“I don’t ever recall it being open during intersession; it works better in the six-week session, that’s really our main session,” Ringuette said.

A grand reopening is in store for the fall as just recently the center underwent a huge physical change that has included the addition of new computers and a new printer. Once the fall starts, the center will resume its 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. hours.

For the fall, Markelis has said a pilot online tutoring program will be in the planning stage that will allow students to send their paper online anytime, instead of having to physically come in. However, Markelis is also worried that tutors might be more tempted to correct papers through this method as well.

The Booth Library also shaves its hours for the summer, as it’s not open on Sundays until the six-week classes start.

Shauna Searcy, a composition and rhetoric graduate student, works on a paper in the Writing Center in Coleman Hall Wednesday evening. The Writing Center offers tutors and other resources to help with paper writing problems.

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