Schedule.
You will work out a schedule before the beginning of each semester to determine when you are required to work at the Writing Center.  Each tutor is responsible for 20 hours per week in 5-hour shifts. The following is a general guide to a typical 5-hour shift at the Writing Center.

Personal Days. 
Each tutor is allowed one personal/sick day per semester.  When a tutor is planning to take a personal day, it is his/her responsibility to swap hours with another tutor and to let the Assistant Director know.  If you decide not to use your personal day, it rolls over to the next semester.  Keep in mind, you shouldn’t schedule your personal days during a busy time at the Writing Center (generally toward the end of the semester).

If you arrange more than your allotted personal day off, you must get permission from the Assistant Director, find coverage for your shift, and make the time up.  Days may be made up, with the permission of the Assistant Director, during busy times and with Sunday tutoring.

Blog discussions. 
All tutors will be responsible for participating in a bi-weekly blog discussion in their first semester about tutoring and teaching.

The scratch hour
Four out of the five hours you are in the Writing Center will be spent tutoring, while one hour will be designated a “scratch hour."  The scratch hour is ideally set, depending on the schedule, so that you will not be tutoring four clients in a row.  Tutoring can be tiring and in order for tutors to be effective, they need time some time away from tutoring.  Though this hour is a break from tutoring, it is not personal time off.  You should review your client histories for that day during your scratch hour and also be available to answer phones, cover the front desk, or assist in any other Writing Center tasks or projects set by the Director or Assistant Director.  You may also choose to use this time to contribute to the bi-weekly blog discussion.

Tutor Lounge 
The lounge is a designated area for tutors to use during their time at the Writing Center.  This area may be used to store tutor belongings, to eat between sessions or during a scratch hour, or to sit and read.  If, on a particularly slow day at the Writing Center, a group of tutors are in the lounge together, it is important to remember to keep noise down.  The walls at the Writing Center are open at the top and sound carries very well.

Eating/Visiting 
The Writing Center is a professional workspace and should be treated as such.  All eating and visiting should happen in the lounge.  Be aware, however, that you may be called to come up front and assist if things get busy.

Road Shows  
You may be asked, particularly at the beginning of the semester, to do what is called a “Road Show” during your scratch hour.  During the first few weeks of each semester, tutors from the Writing Center visit selected classes to give the students a short (5-15 minute) introduction to who we are, what we do here, and why they should make an appointment to come and see us.

No shows
If a client does not show up for an appointment, be sure to mark “no show” in his/her online record and add the person to the daily no show list at the front desk.  After two no-shows in one semester, the client cannot make another appointment without talking to the Director or Assistant Director.  Be sure to let the person at the front desk, the Director and Assistant Director know that you are available for an hour.