Hi Correy,
I'm going to respond to your question in two parts.
First, most of us in the field significantly reduce staffing during the summer unless it's an extremely small staff to begin. My department is highly utilized by our students, over 50% of them in each of the last two years with a population of about 6,400 undergraduate and graduate students. We staff 60-70 tutors and support staff during the academic year. In Summer Session I, we're currently employing 2 Writing Lab tutors (profs.); 1 prof. and 1 graduate student in the Math, Science, and Business Lab; 2 peer tutors who are also working in receptionist/Computer Lab roles; and one GA who's addressing statistical analyses. We later added another graduate peer tutor at the request of several students as there are a large number of MBA courses running this term. In Summer II, the staff will be smaller by two people because fewer classes run.
You want to do an analysis of how many courses are running now vs. during the academic year, and analyze your utilization levels by course, to determine the amount of staffing and for which courses. Additionally, keep in mind your student population for the summer. At most schools, the majority of students are working during the day and taking one or two evening courses. Plan your hours around the time they can visit before/after those courses are running. For example, we stay open until 10 PM during the term, but we close 7 PM, or thereabouts, during the summer because our attempts at later hours in past years have seen almost no utilization. For the same reason, we don't open Fridays and Sundays during the summer.
One other point: Giving your tutoring staff time off means they return refreshed and more enthusiastic about their jobs.
Second, here are some ideas you and your staff can pursue:
* Form a "Creative Team" to create and execute, as much as possible in advance, new marketing strategies.
* Analyze your data from prior terms to identify patterns and design strategies based upon them, e.g., explore high D-F-W courses and see how you can help improve those rates through specialized programming and faculty partnerships.
* Reach out to faculty to explore what they want and brainstorm on how you can give it to them.
* Create a Facebook page or other social media formats, and design posts you will use over the year.
* Create/Expand your website to make it more informative and user friendly, including possibly adding sections for families and/or faculty.
* Study certifications for the field, such as CRLA, NCLCA, etc. and work on creating applications if your school approves them.
* Redecorate the Center if you possess a designated space.
* Create handouts for the coming year.
* Ask the tutors to create sample problems and solutions to problems, and other similar handouts, and make photocopies as well as make them available online through Blackboard.
Feel free to check out other ideas I've presented at national conferences on our website: http://www.newhaven.edu/academics/CLR/876937/.
Finally, it's fantastic that you're gaining momentum. I hope it continues in this direction for you, but don't be concerned about your numbers dropping substantially over the summer. They will spike again about the time faculty return the first round of graded assignments in the fall.
Sincerely,
Debbie Malewicki, MA
Director, Center for Learning Resources
Winner of the 2016 ATP Program of Excellence Award
Safe Zone Ally
116 Marvin K. Peterson Library
University of New Haven -- "A Leader in Experiential Education"
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West Haven, CT 06516
Phone: (203) 932-7415
Fax: (203) 931-6013
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"Tutoring to Help You Blossom Into a Better Student"
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-----Original Message-----
From: Open Forum for Learning Assistance Professionals [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Hammond, Correll
Sent: Monday, June 13, 2016 1:03 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Suggestions For Idle Tutors
Good Day Everyone~
Curious to know what creative things you may have your tutors do when they aren't actively tutoring students that could be beneficial for your center, program, or office? In short, it's summer and our center is just beginning to get some momentum on campus. I don't want to release any tutors just yet as need may increase. Therefore, I'm looking for creative things they could be doing while not actively tutoring. Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions? I thank you in advance.
Correy
[cid:[log in to unmask]]
Correy Hammond M.S., College Student Personnel Director of Student Success Louisiana State University Shreveport
Office: (318) 795-2485 Fax: (318) 797-5064
[log in to unmask]<[log in to unmask]" target="_blank">https:[log in to unmask]> www.lsus.edu<http://www.lsus.edu/>
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