Information for Current UWC Consultants

Fall 2019 Dates and Deadlines

UWC Consulting Roadmap (useful as a handout); UWC Contract Addendum (addresses professional behavior and responsibilities)

UWC Volunteer Opportunities

UWC Email Archive: Fall 2019, Spring 2019 and Fall 2018, Spring 2018, Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2016

• Wednesday, October 16, 2019, 10:17 AM: NO SHIFT SWAPPING
• Monday, October 14, 2019, 10:20 AM: Turn Timesheets in Early
• Wednesday, October 2, 2019, 1:52PM: COB 300 Groups
• Monday, September 16, 2019, 12:11 PM: Reminders
• Monday, September 9, 2019, 10:37 AM: Clarification on Leave Policies
• Tuesday, September 3, 2019, 12:21 PM: Reminders and Communication
• Thursday, August 22, 2019, 10:29 AM: Semester Dates and Deadlines
• Tuesday, August 20, 2019, 9:19 AM: Ready?

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Fall 2019 Dates and Deadlines

UWC Consulting Roadmap

Refer to or share the UWC Consulting Roadmap handout as a quick reference guide regarding the James Madison University Writing Center's Mission, Vision, and Values; marks of consulting excellence; and essential components of consulting practice.

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UWC Volunteer Opportunities: The Next Step

You consult in a university writing center. You help students in academic disciplines across the university to become better writers. You took a semester-long course in UWC theory and practice before you were hired. Since then, you've attended and participated in all UWC all-staff and small-group professional development meetings.

Good! Great, even! What's the second paragraph in your personal statement, or the deeper talking point in your job or grad school interview? What's the story you want tell about your UWC experience twenty years from now?

You don't need to plan that far ahead. Just take a little step: if you're interested in digging a bit deeper into a particular aspect of the UWC experience, or if you want to start building a bigger-picture view of what we're doing in the UWC, simply express your interest in one of the UWC's volunteer opportunities (starting with the list below). And/or express your interest in exploring a connection between your UWC expertise and a local writing community. As you consider taking this first small step, know that your UWC colleagues will notice, encourage, and celebrate your engagement.

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UWC Email Archive: Fall 2019

Wednesday, October 16, 2019, 10:17 AM: NO SHIFT SWAPPING

Peer consultants and grads, please note that we are no longer swapping shifts. We stopped doing this several semesters ago when we switched from stipend pay to hourly pay. 

We only did swapping in the past because your paychecks were fixed and we had to meet those hours. We found that accounting for these swaps in the schedule and in our records took up a lot of our time. In order to remain compliant with JMU student employment policies, we have to be very careful in our accounting for hours. One of the reasons we switched back to hourly pay was to avoid having to schedule make up hours and shift swapping. 

Please do not attempt to organize a shift swap. You each have 3 hours of personal leave per semester. If you need to review the related policies, please see the Field Manual: https://www.jmu.edu/uwc/tutor-resources/_consultant-field-manual.shtml#missing

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Jared Jay Featherstone, MFA
Associate Director, University Writing Center
Associate Professor, School of Writing Rhetoric and Technical Communication

Monday, October 14, 2019, 10:20 AM: Turn Timesheets in Early

UWC consultants, you'll need to turn timesheets in a bit early because I will be out of town Thursday and Friday. Please have them turned in as soon as you can (5 p.m. Tuesday at the latest), and check them closely for errors. If your timesheet hours are even slightly different than your projected hours worksheet, I need an orange slip attached to your timesheet. The slips can be found in the bins mounted to my office window. 

Jared Jay Featherstone, MFA
Associate Director, University Writing Center
Associate Professor, School of Writing Rhetoric and Technical Communication

Wednesday, October 2, 2019, 1:52 PM: COB 300 Groups

Greetings, colleagues. Just a heads up that you might have COB 300 groups booking sessions with you soon. This is because all of the COB 300 specialist sessions are booked for the week. You'll probably want to use one of the two spare offices available in the UWC for these groups. 

In preparation for these sessions, please read over the guidelines for group sessions given in the Field Manual:

https://www.jmu.edu/uwc/tutor-resources/tutor-field-manual.shtml#GROUPS

Also, please click through the Group Writing simulation located in the UWC Professional Development Canvas site (under the Modules).

If you have any additional questions or need advice in working with these students, please check in with Austin, Elizabeth, Nick, or Caroline S. They are all currently Course-Embedded Consultants for COB 300. You can also check in with any of the UWC faculty. 

Jared Jay Featherstone, MFA
Associate Director, University Writing Center
Associate Professor, School of Writing Rhetoric and Technical Communication

Monday, September 16, 2019, 12:11 PM: Reminders

Thanks for a great meeting Friday, colleagues! 

Remember to consider the potential rhetorical roots of higher order issues in the writing of multilingual students, as we covered in our contrastive rhetoric discussion. During your downtime this week (whenever you don't have a session), please read the rest of the article: https://wlnjournal.org/archives/v24/24.7.pdf 

Also, remember to explain all grammar and style suggestions you make to students. Some sessions may call for "instructional editing," but no UWC session calls for non-instructional editing. Lastly, be aware that students may come to the UWC looking for help with digital assignments. Even if you are unfamiliar with the genre or platform, you can examine the writing situation from a basic rhetorical perspective of audience, purpose, context. Also, you can pay attention to basic visual considerations, such as white space, alignment, chunking of text, proximity, readability, and contrast. Remember that you have access to Digicomm's excellent online resources. 

Other reminders:

1. Please check the Greeter Schedule located by the name badges in the UWC or on the Information for Consultants page. 
2. the UWC needs someone (or a few people) to maintain our social media pages. If you need this kind of experience on your resume, please contact me.
3. Unabridged, a locally-produced podcast about literature, needs a social media intern this semester. Here's the flyer, info sheet, and form to apply.

Have a great week!

Jared Jay Featherstone, MFA
Associate Director, University Writing Center
Associate Professor, School of Writing Rhetoric and Technical Communication

Monday, September 9, 2019, 10:37 AM: Clarification on Leave Policies

Peer and grad consultants, I wanted to clarify the UWC policies related to personal leave, cancelling shifts, and communication. As I mentioned in my last message, you should familiarize yourself with the policies in the UWC Contract Addendum that you signed as part of your employment contract. In addition, you should review the policies listed on the Information for Consultants page of our website. I'm noticing that some of your requests show an unfamiliarity with these first two policies in particular. 

1. 1. Requests for personal leave must be made at least two weeks in advance of the date leave would be taken.
   2. You may NOT miss professional development meetings because of personal leave. Please do not request to miss those hours. 
   3. In your contract addendum, you agreed to respond to UWC requests for information or action within 24 hours. 
   4. You do not have to use personal leave for official religious obligations, class-related obligations (like required attendance at an event), or job interviews.   

Jared Jay Featherstone, MFA
Associate Director, University Writing Center
Associate Professor, School of Writing Rhetoric and Technical Communication

Tuesday, September 3, 2019, 12:21 PM: Reminders and Communication

Welcome to our opening week, colleagues. We were a bit busier than usual on day one, which is cool. I enjoyed Friday's meeting. However, I didn't get to review some of our UWC policies as planned. I just wanted to remind you of a few items. 

Please review our updated illness, personal leave, and inclement weather policies: https://www.jmu.edu/uwc/tutor-resources/tutor-field-manual.shtml#ILLNESS If you have any questions, let me know.

For any request related to cancelling a shift due to illness or personal leave, please email me and Rudy. We both need to be in the loop on this. 

Also, please review the UWC Contract Addendum that you signed with your position description. It clearly explains your professional responsibilities surrounding issues like communication. The UWC contract addendum can be found in the UWC Canvas page. If this page is not appearing in your Canvas courses, please let me know. 

Remember to keep me or other UWC faculty aware of issues you notice, such as numerous students from the same course arriving with misconceptions about the UWC or students misusing the writing center space. We need to be aware of trends in the center, and it is difficult to monitor everything that is happening. Also, please remember to use the UWC faculty and your peer consultant colleagues as resources during and after your sessions. If a session was difficult for you, please talk to one of us about it. 

Hope you are having a great first week! 

Jared Jay Featherstone, MFA
Associate Director, University Writing Center
Associate Professor, School of Writing Rhetoric and Technical Communication

Thursday, August 22, 2019, 10:29 AM: Semester Dates and Deadlines

Colleagues, a condensed version of this will be sent out to the consultants, but I wanted to send you these dates. Notice that I included some faculty-specific dates here for interview week and end-of-semester reporting:

1. 1. • 8/30/19 – opening all-staff meeting 2:30-4:30 in the UWC 
      • 9/2/19 – UWC opens for the semester 
      • 9/13/19 –all-staff meeting 2:30-4:30  
      • 9/27/19: all-staff meeting 2:30-4:30  
      • 10/11/19: all-staff meeting 2:30-4:30  
      • 10/25/19: all-staff meeting 2:30-4:30  deadline to submit the # of hours requested for the spring semester 
      • 11/12/19: New Consultant Application due (cover letter and resume) 
      • 11/18/19--11/21/19: new hire interviews [Faculty] 
      • 11/15/19: deadline to inform Jared if you are interested in working during Finals Week (depending on budget) 
      • 11/22/19: deadline to submit Spring 2020 schedule availability  
      • 11/24/19-12/1/19: UWC is closed for Thanksgiving Break (including both Sundays) 
      • 11/8/19: all-staff meeting 2:30-4:30 3:30 (k.j).
      • 12/13/19: Semester Data Summary and Pro Dev group report due [Faculty] 

Jared Jay Featherstone, MFA
Associate Director, University Writing Center
Associate Professor, School of Writing Rhetoric and Technical Communication

Tuesday, August 20, 2019, 9:19 AM: Ready?

Dear UWC,

I hope you are all enjoying the last days of summer break. I just wanted to remind everyone that our mandatory opening meeting is Friday, Aug. 30th from 2:30-4:30 in the UWC. Yes, there will be pizza, so arrive hungry. Also, be sure to bring your planners or laptops as we'll be scheduling your small group meeting for the semester and filling our your projected hours form. Lastly, I have attached the final fall schedule. Rudy has made a few edits since the last version, but most of it is the same. Please review your hours and put them into your personal schedule. If you see a conflict or error, please send Rudy a message right away. 

Looking forward to seeing everyone!

Jared Jay Featherstone, MFA
Associate Director, University Writing Center
Associate Professor, School of Writing Rhetoric and Technical Communication