All business conducted in the University Writing Center is conducted with the understanding that our goal is to provide free and unbiased writing assistance to all members of the GMU community.  As such, we believe it is very important to build a sense of trust between tutors and clients by respecting the confidentiality of sessions. We also believe that a collaborative relationship between instructors, tutors, and clients is the most conducive to writing improvement. Therefore we’ve developed the following guidelines:

• The content of each tutoring session is private. Tutors make brief notes on sessions but these notes are not shared with others outside of the center.
  
• Should a professor contact the center about a client’s session, check the session notes to determine if the client has given permission to discuss the session with others.
  
• If a client wishes for a professor to hear about his/her session, the client must tell the tutor to record in his/her session notes that permission is granted for the session to be discussed with the client’s teacher and/or others the client designates.
  
• If session reports do not say a client has given such permission, professors should be asked to contact the client directly.  In such a case, please explain our policy to instructors as politely and helpfully as possible.
  
• We do not comment to clients or instructors on the grade a paper has received, nor do we speculate on what grade a paper might/should receive.
  
• All tutoring is free and should be done at the Writing Center on either the Fairfax campus (Robinson A and Enterprise Hall), the Arlington campus or the Prince William campus under the express rubric of the Writing Center.  Tutors are not permitted to receive any money from Writing Center Clients.  If a tutor does free-lance editing or tutoring, he/she needs to make arrangements to meet those private clients at a location other than the Writing Center.
  
• Tutors who do private, free-lance tutoring should refrain from using the Writing Center’s office location, databases, files, or client information to solicit new business.  Any of these situations could seriously compromise the integrity of the Writing Center.