Chalmers stuff

I wish Chalmers had turned out differently. I was really looking forward to discussing the bigger questions with our faraway peers. I also wanted to know how writing centers are perceived there versus here, but then I wondered...how ARE writing centers perceived here?

Before I started working here, I had no opinion of the writing center. I just thought, hey, there's a big room by my classroom and people always ask if they can help me with stuff when I mosey on in to grab a reference book. But I never considered the kind of work people did or the type of people/students they helped. I feel that the writing center itself is severely under-promoted, and I'm certainly not saying that falls on anyone's shoulders — I just think it's something that's difficult to "promote" and, even if you can, who are your target audiences? Freshmen? International students? Well, they already come — so what about the people who don't come who could actually get a lot out of everything?

I want to know these things about Chalmers University. How do people perceive writing centers, do they understand them, do they even have an opinion of one in existence? Are they at all common? Is collaborative learning a common practice there, or is writing consultation simply a different entity?

I feel that if there had been fewer responsibilities on both ends for participating students, we may have been able to make this a priority. Maybe in the future, it can be like a three- to four-week project where we actively engage with the students. But the problem with that is similar to the problem we occasionally have with consultants — without interaction on their end, how do you possibly compensate?

Questions to ponder.