Tutoring Procedures
STUDENT APPOINTMENTS
Each academic year, students must
see me or one of my colleagues in Academic Planning & Support
once before being allowed to sign up for tutoring. This
initial appointment is basically an intake: it allows the
staff person to enter the student in the tutoring database,
to have the student fill out the required paperwork, to
find out if the student is eligible for free tutoring,
and to explain to the student how the Tutoring Lab works.
Once students have completed the intake, they are free
to sign up for tutoring in any course for the rest of the
academic year, including the summer sessions. To sign up
for tutoring, students use the online scheduler.
The contract that students sign stipulates that if students
don’t show
up for an appointment, they will be charged $8.50 for the appointment. It also
stipulates that we have the right to refuse services to students who miss more
than three appointments in a semester, who use our services unethically, or
who behave disrespectfully or are disruptive.
If you already have, or if you develop, a particularly
good working relationship with a student, you may schedule
appointments with that student outside of your regular
Tutoring Lab hours, to guarantee that the student will
continue to meet with you. This is completely at your
discretion; this option will not be advertised to students.
College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) students are
the only exception to the sign-up method described
above. Because CAMP students are required to receive
two hours of tutoring per week throughout their first
year, all of their tutoring appointments for the entire
semester are entered into the online scheduling application
at the beginning of the semester. If you have CAMP
students assigned to you, you will work with those
students for the entire semester; ideally, you will
meet with each student on the same day at the same
time each week. THE TUTORING SESSION
Appointments are scheduled for an
hour, but they really last only fifty minutes. The extra
ten minutes is to give tutors a chance to fill out any
necessary paperwork or take a break. It’s easy to
lose track of time when you’re tutoring, so try to
keep an eye on the clock. A
note regarding take-home exams: It is our
policy NOT to help students with take-home exams, even
if the professor allows students to get help from a
tutor on a take-home exam. If students show up with
take-home exams, please tell them that you cannot help
them and that they won’t
be charged for the tutoring session. (If you’d rather
have me handle this, send the student to me.)
What to do if students don’t
show up for an appointment: Wait at least
a half-hour for the student to show. If the student
does finally show up, go ahead and tutor her for whatever
time is remaining in the hour. (At your discretion,
you may tutor the student for a full hour if you don’t
have anything scheduled in your next slot.) If a student
doesn’t show up within the half-hour, she is a “no
show.” On the online scheduler, you will click “no” to
show that the student did not show up for the appointment.
When students do show up, you should click “yes.” If
you forget to make these notations, the scheduler will
not allow you to log in until you have gone back and entered
this information for your previous appointments.
What to do if CAMP students
don’t show: The procedure
is a little different for CAMP students. Wait ten minutes
for your CAMP students. If they haven’t shown up
after ten minutes, you must call them. CAMP students’ information
sheets are filed alphabetically in the cabinet. If the
cell phone number is long distance, call me and I’ll
place the call if I’m around. If they answer, tell
them to come to tutoring and wait for them to get there.
If they don’t answer, wait another twenty minutes
for them. If after thirty minutes they still haven’t
shown up, record them as a “no” on 02/11/2005udent misses two appointments in
a row, or misses several tutoring appointments, or consistently
comes to tutoring unprepared, please email me or write
me a note so that I can intervene immediately. CAMP students
do suffer some penalties if they miss too many tutoring
appointments, so it is important to keep track of their
absences.
Weekend tutoring: If you will be tutoring
on weekends, you will need to get a key from me.
Feedback Forms: Currently,
writing tutors are required to fill out feedback forms
for students who get writing tutoring. The forms are sent
to the students’ professors
so that the professor will know the student sought outside
help, and what the nature of that help was. (You will not
need to fill out a feedback form every time you meet with
a CAMP student.)
GETTING PAID
Tutors are paid twice a month.
Paychecks are issued approximately two weeks after
timesheets are submitted. Therefore, you won’t
receive your first paycheck until the end of September
(or mid-February, for the spring semester). After that,
paychecks will arrive every two weeks. You may elect
to have your paychecks direct-deposited. Otherwise,
SEU student tutors can pick up their paychecks in Student
Financial Services; paychecks for nonstudent tutors
are put in their boxes.
Timesheets SEU students use a gold timesheet; non-SEU
students use a blue timesheet. On the timesheet, fill
out the top part of the timesheet--name, pay period,
i.d. or social security number. Pay periods run from
the first of the month to the fifteenth, and from the
sixteenth to the last day of the month. Based on the
pay period, fill in the appropriate dates next to the
days of the week in the left column. Keep your timesheet
in your box and fill in the hours that you work each
day that you’re here. When timesheets are due,
sign yours at the bottom and leave it in my mailbox.
IF YOU DON’T TURN IN YOUR TIMESHEET ON TIME, YOU
WILL NOT BE PAID ON TIME! If
you work hours that don’t appear on the online
scheduler (if, say, you schedule an extra appointment with
a student, or spend time reviewing material outside your
regular hours), please fill out one of the purple “extra
hours” logs and attach it to your timesheet.
ABSENCES
If you know ahead of time that you
will be out, please fill out a leave request form and
give it to me. Try to give me as much notice as possible
so that I can take you off the schedule before anyone
signs up for you. If you’re going to miss appointments with CAMP students,
you’ll need to either find substitute appointments
for them or reschedule your appointments with them within
one week.
If you wake up sick one morning,
or have an emergency, and realize you won’t be able to tutor that day,
PLEASE CALL THE RECEPTIONIST IN ACADEMIC PLANNING AND SUPPORT
SERVICES AT 448-8660. This is extremely important! Ask
for me. If I’m around, I will try to get in touch
with all the students who have appointments with you to
let them know you won’t be there. If I’m not
available, tell the receptionist who you are and when you’ll
be absent. The receptionist will see to it that a note
regarding your absence is written on the white board in
the Tutoring Lab. Follow this same procedure if you’re
running late.
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION
If you feel that a student has
academic, psychological, or physical needs that cannot
be met through tutoring, please talk to me. St. Edward’s
has many resources available for such students.
IDs: Tutors can get identification cards,
which allow you to use the library, gym, and pool. To get
an i.d., go to Auxiliary Services in the Main Building,
room 212, between 8 am and 5 pm. (Check with me to make
sure your payroll forms have been processed before you
go over there.)
Parking: Alas,
tutors do not rate very high in the parking hierarchies
here at St. Ed’s.
The parking permit that tutors qualify for is worse than
useless. So, tutors will need to park either in visitor
spots, or in the dirt lot east of the softball field, where
a permit is not required. If you ever do get a parking
ticket, let me know. Often, I can get the ticket rescinded.
Books and supplies: Let me know if there
are any books or supplies you feel the Tutoring Lab should
have. Please also let me know when we start to run low
on timesheets or other forms.
INCLEMENT WEATHER HOTLINE
If the weather’s really
bad and you’re not sure whether the University is
open or not, call 416-5800 or go to http://www.stedwards.edu/emergency/index.htm. |
