Correction: The original version of this article contained an error. The Undergraduate Writing Center served more than 900 students in total during fall quarter.
The Undergraduate Student Writing Center began offering drop-in and scheduled tutoring services in Rieber Hall last Monday, expanding from its previous on-campus location.
The center opened on campus last quarter to replace the services lost by the closing of the Covel Peer Learning Labs in spring.
Services for the Undergraduate Student Writing Center will now be available in Rieber Hall 115 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., Sunday through Thursday.
“This won’t replace (the Covel Peer Learning Labs), but it’s much more convenient,” said Seema Kamble, a third-year microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics student who discovered the Undergraduate Student Writing Center when walking past Rieber Hall.
“I don’t think I would have gone to campus, as it is too far away.”
Writing centers in the past have not been open on Sundays, an effort to increase convenience for campus residents, said Christine Holten, director of the Undergraduate Student Writing Center.
Holten also said a writing center on the Hill marks a return of having writing services easily available to both on- and off-campus residents.
“Several years ago, writing centers were on campus and then they moved onto the Hill,” said Bruce Beiderwell, director of UCLA Writing Programs. “What we are trying to do is make the best of both worlds.”
The campus location served as a test run for the effectiveness of the program, Beiderwell said.
More than 900 students used the center during fall quarter, and Holten estimated that they even had to turn away 300 to 400 students. That encouraged administrators to begin offering services on the Hill.
The center is funded by the Office of Residential Life through funds previously used for Academics in the Commons, small-group tutoring in Covel Commons that was cut last year, said Scott Carter, assistant director of ORL.
The Rieber center will have two peer-learning facilitators, who are expected to help 40 people a week.
More peer learning facilitators might be hired, depending on the use of the program, Carter said.
The Undergraduate Student Writing Center has no plans to expand in the future but is looking for possible partners to help extend the service to other locations on campus, Beiderwell said.