{"id":13504,"date":"2022-06-07T07:56:44","date_gmt":"2022-06-07T12:56:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/?p=13504"},"modified":"2023-01-24T12:28:17","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T17:28:17","slug":"pandemic-transitions-becoming-a-new-writing-center-director-during-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/pandemic-transitions-becoming-a-new-writing-center-director-during-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Pandemic Transitions: Be(com)ing a New Writing Center Director During COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>By Amanda May, New Mexico Highlands University<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"font-size:24px\">Let me Tell You A Story<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Picture it: Tallahassee 2020. I was preparing to send my dissertation to the committee for my defense after a tumultuous final semester as assistant director. No part of writing center experience or scholarship prepared me to help transition from in-person services to fully online services in response to the pandemic, facing challenges similar to those described by Marilee Giles and colleagues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To make matters more difficult, I was also on the job market. With no offers in hand, I was mentally preparing myself for another year in Florida as a post-doctoral teaching fellow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Then, the offer came.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The next few months consisted of completing new hire paperwork, searching for a house to rent, booking movers, packing the past five years of my life into boxes, and tutoring for 20 hours a week at the writing center. I left Florida at the end of July and arrived in New Mexico several days later. After two weeks quarantining, unpacking and adjusting to a new climate, altitude, time zone, and town, I became New Mexico Highlands University\u2019s Writing Center Director in Fall 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"font-size:24px\">Back Where I Come From<\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/May-sign.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13511\" width=\"299\" height=\"438\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/May-sign.jpeg 398w, https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/May-sign-204x300.jpeg 204w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 299px) 100vw, 299px\" \/><figcaption><em>Amanda stands in front of the old Writing Center sign several days after arriving in New Mexico.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Highlands was my fifth writing center in a 12-year long career. I knew the theory from my dissertation and from several courses, one of which I TAed in as assistant director. I knew the practice from years of working in various tutoring capacities and providing both formal and informal mentorship. Yet in each position, I was almost always on site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Becoming a new writing center director during the pandemic meant that my sense of place was largely limited to the screen. I knew NMHU was a small, public comprehensive Hispanic-serving institution located in rural New Mexico (\u201cAbout\u201d), very unlike all of my previous institutions. And I knew that context plays a role in shaping writing center work (Caswell et al.). But in the absence of any physical sense of place beyond walking through campus, both virtually and physically now that I was there, I felt lost. My impressions of students, tutors, and faculty were mostly reduced to Zoom windows, so I walked away from most interactions knowing voices. If I passed any one of these people in the local grocery store (as often happens here), I would not recognize them. And that raised another issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"font-size:24px\">As they say in St. Olaf<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In my previous positions, I always had several workspaces, usually including the writing center, the library, and at least one coffee shop. I can\u2019t tell you how many times moving between these jumpstarted my productivity and helped me shift gears. The pandemic, however, limited my workspace to my rental house.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/May-cat-1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13515\" width=\"348\" height=\"464\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/May-cat-1.jpeg 403w, https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/May-cat-1-225x300.jpeg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 348px) 100vw, 348px\" \/><figcaption><em>Amanda (not pictured) sits on a gray sofa with a laptop while a gray and white cat sniffs her foot.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Space is a notion Alex Claman and colleagues explore as writing tutors. For them, COVID \u201ccollaps[ed]\u201d home space and writing center space and centralized digital spaces, causing them to intrude upon home spaces in ways that eroded their separation. The best I could do was move between the living room and office, but that seldom sufficed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Like Claire in Clamen et al.\u2019s piece, I also faced unique challenges as a new employee as the proverbial stranger in a strange land. Being in the rental house constantly without having anywhere else to go became tiring. My knowledge of this new place was limited to walking, grocery shopping, and occasionally getting carry-out. I was teaching largely to black boxes on Zoom, and because I knew many students were from low-income families in towns smaller than the one I lived in, I didn\u2019t feel comfortable forcing them to have their cameras on due to unstable connections. There was also an added frustration of knowing that a physical writing center existed but not being able to see it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"font-size:24px\">I Just Drink Whatever\u2019s in the Glass<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My past writing centers positions included plenty of administrative work: former titles include online co-coordinator, coordinator, and assistant director. But in all those positions, the physical space of the writing center meant that community, collaboration, and communication\u2014three cornerstones of writing center theory and practice\u2014naturally emerged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But with the pandemic, I really grappled to connect with my tutors, as well as connect them to each other, not only because we were all working online, but also because we were working across multiple countries and time zones. I tried successful approaches from my prior writing center experiences: biweekly meetings, emails, Group.Me. None of them seemed to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the institution, the issue became even more muddled, and yet, some good came out of it. The Legislative Fellows program coordinator called me thinking I ran an online asynchronous tutoring service instead of the writing center. As a result of that phone call, we set up a collaboration. The director of the program agreed that the writing center could do a workshop for applicants, which I co-presented with two tutors. We have continued that collaboration, and I hope it continues in AY 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"font-size:24px\">Suddenly . . . You Find yourself Swimming Upstream<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a long-time writing center employee, I was familiar with the labor issues that writing center directors face. My experience and scholarship made me well-informed of the abundance of tasks new writing center directors often found themselves juggling, from emotional labor to everyday administrative tasks to tutoring, teaching, and other service roles. The abundance of commitments often cause writing center directors\u2014both new ones (Caswell et al.) and those working in pandemic times (Young) to feel unheard and burnt out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nothing fully prepared me for the leadership roles I took on in my new position, partly because of the nature of the place: other members of the department, like me, are always busy. I volunteered to chair a job search in my first semester, and in my second, I volunteered to fill the role of graduate coordinator on what I thought was an interim basis. It wasn\u2019t. And just like that, I found myself teaching a three-course load while juggling not one but two administrative roles at the beginning of my second year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"font-size:24px\">But Honey, if you Don\u2019t take a Chance, Nothing Happens<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"381\" src=\"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/May-office-diptych-1024x381.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13522\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/May-office-diptych-1024x381.png 1024w, https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/May-office-diptych-300x112.png 300w, https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/May-office-diptych-768x286.png 768w, https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/May-office-diptych-806x300.png 806w, https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/May-office-diptych.png 1289w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption><em>Left: Photograph of the writing center\u2019s coffee pot. Right: photo of Amanda\u2019s office, taken in June 2021.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Picture it: New Mexico, 2021. It\u2019s the beginning of my second year as the writing center director. With my extensive email signature in hand, I finally, finally get to open the time capsule that is the writing center. Bits of the 2020 schedule, paper surveys, a thick layer of dust, the old schedule on the whiteboard. There are notes stuck up on the board by the front desk: a grocery list (Advil is on there, marked \u201cLOL JK\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of course, my joy is short-lived when we go back online for two weeks at the beginning of the fall semester, and I grow increasingly troubled as the COVID figures for campus keep ticking upward. Several entire sports teams contract it. We continue to require masks indoors until mid-spring 2022, at which point I of course contract COVID.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s true that the pandemic shift has increased accessibility (Westfall) and brought mental health issues to the forefront of writing centers (Giaimo). But this isn\u2019t the writing center I would have come to had the pandemic never happened. My tutors mask. We host an abundance of online sessions, which I have opened to everyone on campus and not just students working remotely. We try to social distance, but onsite work doesn\u2019t always allow for that kind of space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When we go back on site, we do double the sessions we did in Fall 2020 with slightly over half of the tutors. Personnel issues grow worse in the spring as graduate enrollment decreases: I start the spring semester with 2.5 GAs&nbsp; and wonder how the writing center is going to serve campus with such limited staffing. I also wonder how I\u2019m going to curb the pre-midterm and pre-finals week rushes and how I\u2019m going to protect my tutors from inevitable burnout. In the end, I try. I likely don\u2019t succeed. But as I\u2019m writing this, we are approaching the last week of class, and once again, we\u2019ve almost made it through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I acknowledge my story is not the story of others, but in sharing mine, I hope to help preserve this pivotal moment in writing history as we begin to think more about the state of writing centers as we transition once again to a late\u2014and hopefully post\u2014pandemic world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:25px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" style=\"font-size:24px\">Works Cited<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/online.nmhu.edu\/about\/\">\u201cAbout.\u201d<\/a> <em>New Mexico Highlands University<\/em>. Accessed 15 Apr. 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Brooks-Gilles, Marilee, Lisa Bell, J. M. Dembsey, and Duane Theobold. <a href=\"https:\/\/thepeerreview-iwca.org\/issues\/issue-5-1\/writing-center-administrator-guidance-in-response-to-the-covid-19-pandemic-the-progression-of-a-position-statement\/\">\u201cWriting Center Administrator Guidance in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Progression of a Position Statement.\u201d<\/a> <em>The Peer Review<\/em>, vol. 5, no. 1, 2021. Accessed 1 Sept. 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Caswell, Nikki, et al. <em>The Working Lives of New Writing Center Directors<\/em>. Utah State UP, 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Claman, Alex, et al. <a href=\"https:\/\/thepeerreview-iwca.org\/issues\/issue-5-2\/sheltering-in-place-working-in-space-reflections-on-an-online-writing-center-at-home\/\">\u201cSheltering in Place, Working in Space: Reflections on an Online Writing Center at Home.\u201d<\/a> <em>The Peer Review<\/em>, vol. 5, no. 2, 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Giaimo, Genie N. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.praxisuwc.com\/173-giaimo\">\u201cLaboring in a Time of Crisis: The Entanglement of Wellness and Work in Writing Centers.\u201d<\/a> <em>Praxis: A Writing Center Journal<\/em>, vol. 17, no. 3, 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Westfall, Kennedy. <a href=\"https:\/\/collected.jcu.edu\/cgi\/viewcontent.cgi?article=1141&amp;context=mastersessays\">\u201cTransitioning to an Online Writing Center: Encouraging Inclusivity and Accessibility through the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond.\u201d<\/a> 2021. Master\u2019s Essay. John Carrol University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Young, Maria Soriano. \u201cLabor of Love, or Love of Labor? What It Means to Be a Writing Center Director During the Pandemic.\u201d NEWCA Workshop Series on Labor Studies, 30 March 2022, Zoom. Workshop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:25px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-style-rounded\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"376\" height=\"503\" src=\"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/May-bio-photo.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13507\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/May-bio-photo.jpeg 376w, https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/May-bio-photo-224x300.jpeg 224w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 376px) 100vw, 376px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:60.7%\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Amanda M. May is an assistant professor of English and the writing center director at New Mexico Highlands University, where she teaches courses in first-year writing, advanced composition, and technical writing and coordinates the department\u2019s graduate program. Her first writing center job was in 2007 as an undergraduate tutor. Since then, she has held multiple tutoring and administrative positions in writing centers. She also spent two years teaching English in Japan. Her upcoming publications focus on aleatory play in video games and social media use and non-use in writing centers.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a id=\"_msocom_1\"><\/a><a id=\"_msocom_2\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Amanda May, New Mexico Highlands University\u2014Picture it: Tallahassee 2020. I was preparing to send my dissertation to the committee for my defense after a tumultuous final semester as assistant director. No part of writing center experience or scholarship prepared me to help transition from in-person services to fully online services in response to the pandemic, facing challenges similar to those described by Marilee Giles and colleagues. To make matters more difficult, I was also on the job market. [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":115,"featured_media":13517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[245,55,13],"tags":[288,289,247,290],"class_list":["post-13504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-covid","category-higher-education","category-writing-centers","tag-amanda-may","tag-new-mexico-highlands-university","tag-pandemic","tag-pandemic-shifts"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Pandemic Transitions: Be(com)ing a New Writing Center Director During COVID-19 - Another Word<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/blog\/pandemic-transitions-becoming-a-new-writing-center-director-during-covid-19\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pandemic Transitions: Be(com)ing a New Writing Center Director During COVID-19 - Another Word\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Amanda May, New Mexico Highlands University\u2014Picture it: Tallahassee 2020. I was preparing to send my dissertation to the committee for my defense after a tumultuous final semester as assistant director. No part of writing center experience or scholarship prepared me to help transition from in-person services to fully online services in response to the pandemic, facing challenges similar to those described by Marilee Giles and colleagues. To make matters more difficult, I was also on the job market. 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