Purpose:
The goal of this research was to gage the attitudes different consultants in the writing center have towards our beloved place of work. Many returning consultants have expressed their feelings of, “things not being the same” in the writing center since the onset of COVID, and I wanted to see if there would be a way to quantify or identify what has changed. Once we have identified what has changed, we can begin to analyze whether or not the change is good, and what we want to do moving forward.
Methods:
I sent a poll to my fellow writing consultants with questions regarding the quality of their time at the writing center, how often they come in, how well they know their fellow consultants, and how often they come into the library. Since I was interested in differentiating consultants who worked here before COVID and consultants who only have worked here in its current state, I first had the respondents identify what year they were. I also wanted to identify how often they come into the library to work.
From there, I had each respondent list four descriptors they thought best described the writing center. Words that were chosen all had positive connotations, regardless of what year the consultants responding were. The most-often used words were “community,” “friendly,” and “comfortable.” Other words used were:
Quirky
Fun
Funny
Supportive
Cozy
Quiet
Welcoming
Creative
Calm
Homey
Eccentric
Inclusive
I thought I would see some negative, or at least some neutral descriptors from the consultants who haven’t gotten to work in person, but that was not the case.
The main takeaways from this are that even when people are not able to come in and work, they are still getting positive feelings from the writing center. This is important as we work to strengthen the community feeling back to what it was pre-COVID.
Another question I posed was, “Roughly, what percentage of your fellow writing consultants are only a name and a face to you?” The responses were:
50%
60%(x2)
20%
40%(x3)
95%
25%
60%(x2)
These numbers are pretty high. Up until this year, I’d estimate my value being 5%. Clearly this year though, there are a lot of people who do not know each other that well, which damages the community feeling the writing center is famous for.
Finally, I asked respondents to reply with what their favorite and least favorite thing about working in the writing center is.
I like the space that we have in the library but don’t like how we can hardly use it at all because of COVID
favorite: get to help people, least favorite: taking topics
Favorite: being in person. Least favorite: being alone on my shift
I love the people, they make work fun and enjoyable. My least favorite thing is probably the people who come in and expect you to write their paper for them, but this hardly happens.
I love having random convos in the WC! However, I don't like how few consultants I actually get to know since often times I work with the same few people (in non-pandemic years when I would work in person)
I like the current flexibility of the scheduling. Being able to work online or outside of the writing center makes me more productive because I don’t feel like I’m being forced to spend time in there. My least favorite thing is how I don’t know other consultants.
Favorite: people are fun and weird Least favorite: meetings that could be emails
My favorite thing about working here is probably the chill, low-pressure atmosphere and the nice people. But I suppose with the chill atmosphere it can also get boring sometimes.
Favorite--I love the community, even though I haven't found the same home that a lot of other outgoing consultants have. I've found a lot of acceptance and grown a lot through the relational and social side as a part of my WC experience. Least favorite--I hate how much effort is put into certain activities, say at Staff Meetings or Tuesday Teas, that either isn't recognized or isn't well-attended. Likely a facet of the pandemic and general Coe tendencies toward low attendance at campus events.
Fav- giving good conferences Least- giving bad conferences
Favorite: meeting other students, Least favorite: filling out timesheets
It is pretty easy to see that a lot of peoples’ least favorite things stem from the changes we had to make due to COVID. Unfortunately, no one mentioned the Jolly Ranchers as their least favorite thing, though nobody listing it as their favorite is certainly a win in my book.
Conclusion:
Things have changed quite a bit due to COVID, and while people—regardless of what year they are at Coe—still view the writing center positively, it is clear COVID has affected the experiences that come with working with such a diverse and welcoming group of people. To get back to that, some changes are going to have to be made, and hopefully people will be willing to buy into them and learn to socialize again.
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