Writing and Tutoring Center now open for spring semester

Elizabeth Nestor, Staff writer

Assignments, due dates, and exams are looming in every student’s mind. Especially with COVID-19, many students are left with lectures to watch, video assignments to film, and endless typing.

Thankfully, Mercyhurst has the Writing Center and the Tutoring Center to help each and every student.

These two centers can help students better their writing, figure out classwork, and overall, improve academic performance. These centers, along with everything else, have been affected by COVID.

Despite these challenges, however, the Writing and Tutoring Centers have been adapting well to the ever-changing environment and restrictions.

Justin Ross, Ph.D., director of the Honors and Prestigious Awards Programs and the Writing Center, has been open to the changes he and his staff have had to adapt to.

“I give great credit to our staff and our students who have been able to adapt so well and so quickly to all of the changes we’ve faced in the past several months,” Ross said.

Staffed with brilliant workers, the Writing Center and Tutoring Center are ready to tackle the semester alongside students. Similar to the fall semester, the Writing and Tutoring Centers will be fully virtual. While face-to-face tutoring may be the favorable delivery of academic support, the Tutoring Center offers virtual tutoring sessions via Zoom which is not only COVID-friendly but allows students to attend even in their pajamas.

Last summer, the directors, Ross and Lori Krause, and coordinator, Jeanette Long, spent a great deal of time attending workshops to find ways to better equip these centers for virtual victory. To say the least, the Writing and Tutoring Centers are well adapted to virtual delivery.

As usual, in order to get an appointment for the tutoring center, students must log on to TutorTrac and schedule a date and time. After scheduling, a tutor will get a notification of the appointment and a Zoom meeting will be generated.

On the day of the appointment, the student will revisit the Tu-torTrac website and find the link associated with the meeting and a tutor will be ready to help. The TutorTrac website can be accessed through the Mercyhurst student Hub page and will be used for the entirety of the spring semester for tutoring services.

As for the Writing Center, the staff is piloting a new platform called WCOnline. The new program is being integrated with hopes of reducing confusion around navigating Tu-torTrac. Until the new site is up and running, students can email writingcenter@mercyhurst.edu to schedule appointments.