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Dear LouAnn, et al., I don't have a center, as such: tutors meet with tutees wherever they can find good space--usually in one of two libraries. I also pay tutors 1/2 hour for a no-show. I've had limited success with "drop-in" services myself, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that there isn't a space that my program owns in which to house it. I've had some success housing drop-in services in classrooms, lounges, and seminar rooms within the academic departments, as long as the hours are well-advertised by professors and consistent. (These become, more often than not, group "study sessions.") By "success," I mean that people show up to be tutored. I've got no beef with a tutor doing his or her own work while I'm paying him or her, as long as they're willing to drop it the second someone arrives. The writing center has had some problems with tutors begrudging drop-ins because they're interrupting their own work. That, I should think, would be the only real problem with allowing tutors to do their work at off-peak times. But that's a management issue, and prohibiting classwork is one way of solving the problem (but only one way), and I think it's far from the best one. I'm not sure what tutors should do other than their own work at off-times (watch paint peel?), unless there is administrative work they could do for the tutoring center. That said, I haven't been throwing money at drop-in tutoring for similar reasons: very few students were dropping in. It wasn't that I minded paying tutors to do their own work, but that I was spending money in a way that didn't seem to answer a need or solve a problem for a significant population of students. It just seemed kind of unjustified to pay 5 or 6 tutors at a time (one each for the highest demand subjects, adding up to roughly $30/hour) when they were hardly doing any tutoring. Steve Runge St. Lawrence U. [log in to unmask] "Oppitz, LouAnn" wrote: > > *My question is what do other schools do when students don't show up for > their tutoring appointments. Are the tutors paid anyway? I would like some > input also in this matter. How are tutors paid who work at drop-in centers? > Are they paid for just sitting there or only for the time they spend helping > someone? > > Thank you, > > LouAnn Oppitz > Peer Tutor Coordinator > Inver Hills Community College > Inver Grove Heights MN