Chloe Wright
Junior Editor
This article was edited in April 2024 to provide additional resources.
When you enter the Language Lab (Gailor 225), you will see me and plenty of other students languishing on the couches or chairs. We’re either working on homework, surfing the Internet, or taking a well-deserved nap. You wouldn’t know it, but we’re language tutors. We’re supposed to help any students who walk in with questions about homework or the language they’re studying as a whole, but more often than not, no one comes. I wondered where this issue stemmed from, so I talked to students, professors, and tutors across departments to grasp what tutoring resources are on campus, how well-received/well-known they are, and why.
The language department has received criticism from the student body for poor marketing and confusing directions. I interviewed a couple of underclassmen to get to the root of the issue: why won’t the students come, even if they need the help? Ivy Chambers (C’ 27), who currently takes Spanish, remarked that the tutoring times offered by the department are “inconvenient.” “I feel like they don’t showcase or put it out there as much as they should, especially considering the fact that a lot of students would feel grateful to have that option available,” Chambers said. “You have to search with a treasure map just to find out if you even have tutoring available.”
Candelaria Montoya (C’ 27), a native Spanish speaker, who also takes the language at Sewanee, speaks about her hesitation to attend tutoring sessions as well. “Going to tutoring means I’m doing something wrong, and saying I’m doing something wrong that I’ve been doing my whole life is weird,” Montoya said. “Growing up being a bilingual person and having someone tell me, ‘Oh, that’s not the correct way to say that’… It makes me feel like I didn’t learn anything correctly. But in reality, I did, because I know a different Spanish than what they actually teach here.”
Former French tutor Ryan Ehrhard (C’ 25) has also encountered the confusion Chambers noticed circling around the schedules for language tutoring. “From what I understand, the advertisement was done widely,” Ehrhard said. “However, when I talked to some peers in my classes, some had no idea that tutoring was offered.”
On the other side of the spectrum, the opinion about the humanities tutoring resources on campus is not all doom and gloom. The Writing Center has received a positive opinion from the student body. Their tutors have been lauded for going out of their way to help. Even without a draft, Emily Litchfield (C’ 27) was able to have a walk-in session to work on an English essay, and the tutor reportedly “stayed longer than her allotted time because she didn’t have any appointments afterwards.”
In order to better grasp the situation, it is essential to listen to the person providing help (or at least available to provide the help): a tutor. Laura-Anne Moore (C’ 25), a Writing Center Tutor (specializing in art history, French, and biology which is an accomplishment on its own), shared with me her passion for the program and her ability to assist students in their writing whether it comes to basic writing tips or one of her specialties. One to two people visit her per shift (which is significantly more than what the language tutors get). But, her ability to help people write their essays in French has been underutilized, and she believed that “[French students] normally go to the language tutoring.” Interestingly enough, Moore told me that fewer people visit her for help on biology papers compared to art history.
I already noticed a pattern of miscommunication across most fronts. Students say that the language tutoring is hard to find, but tutors, professors, and fliers advertise it relentlessly. Different tutoring departments chalk up their unfortunate lack of tutees to an outsourcing of a department that barely receives any students to begin with. So why is this even happening?
The STEM tutors themselves gave me plenty of insight on how their jobs work on their end. Máté Garai (C’ 24), a former calculus and current physics tutor, detailed his experience about the change in popularity of the two subjects aforementioned. “In the past years, my most popular tutoring sessions were, of course, the calculus students[…] Unfortunately, physics hasn’t had as many people come to tutoring as I would’ve expected,” he said. “I think a lot of people discount themselves and give up way before they even think of seeking help.”
Regarding the marketing of the tutoring (which, as we’ve seen, is remarked as an issue in the student body when it comes to languages), organic chemistry tutor Channita Keuk (C ‘24) said, “At the beginning of the semester, Dr. Joslin will give out bonus points for those who come to tutoring to just get to know the tutors and ask review questions, which I think is super helpful.”
Overall, according to my interviews from Garai, Keuk, and chemistry tutor Grace Byron (C’ 26), an average of 34 students visit a STEM tutor per month, which is more than the entire amount of students I’ve heard from my other interviewees.
STEM and the humanities are different in many ways, which could be an explanation for the difference in the amount of students the various torturing opportunities receive. Dr. Stephanie Batkie, the director of the Writing Center, spoke on this difference.
“I think there are differences in STEM fields and in the humanities, often involving how knowledge and skills are tested in the classroom,” Batkie said. “Exams and quizzes generate a different kind of anxiety than paper-writing can, and unfortunately anxiety is often why students seek out tutoring.
During his time at the language lab, Ehrhard had to grapple with an incredibly heavy schedule, including but not limited to working on the Fire Rescue team, a work-study at the airport, and living off campus. All of this was on his plate alongside spending hours in the language lab tutoring 4 students total, which he believes he is “being very liberal with my number.” “With the lack of students, it felt more like I was underutilizing my time and stretching myself thin for no reason,” he said. “If I had more [regular] students, I would have stayed throughout the semester. I did enjoy the language lab, interacting with my fellow tutors, and helping students get that ‘Ah Hah!’ moment.”
The passion from these tutors who care about aiding their peers makes me disheartened seeing it not optimized to its full potential. However, what do the professors– those overseeing the tutoring– think about the where and why of Sewanee’s tutoring problem?
After speaking with one of the professors who oversees the French tutoring program, Madame Helen Stapleton, the question of why the tutoring programs are certifiably underutilized is answered. The language tutoring program has been in place since when Stapleton was hired in 2006, but she said, “[The popularity of the tutoring services] has always been the same.” When asked why students may be afraid of going to a tutor, she believes “it’s human nature that [students] only do what they absolutely have to do. In Chinese [and Russian], for example, they are required to attend. Those languages get the tutoring because it’s required, not just incentivized. With the other languages, it’s not required, so… they don’t go, sadly.” Stapleton referenced the systems that German and Spanish have where students are required to attend speaking practices, cultural events, and lectures; “They always end up benefiting from it and saying, ‘Oh, I’m so glad I did that!’ But you just have to get them there.”
On the marketing of language tutoring, Stapleton said, “I go the digital route. We have it up on the language labs website. Each language department has it up on their website. Student Accessibility Services has been made aware of it. I put paper signs in all of the rooms where they teach French. Beyond that, I don’t know what else to do.” For the French department, each student taking any level of French is added onto the French House email list that references upcoming French activities and, of course, tutoring.
After considering the students’, professors’, and tutors’ opinions, one can see that effort is being made on all sides. The tutors are eager to help, the students need the help, and the professors are working hard to promote it. It sounds easy on paper. But the empty rooms speak louder than all the advertisements in Gailor. No one is “the bad guy” here, however. There will always be, for example, the unavoidable scheduling conflicts that injure the possibility of a student coming in during a walk-in, and as any reader can see, the students and tutors have plenty of extracurriculars and commitments. Unfortunately, the comments Stapleton made are true. A student has to commit themselves to getting out of their dorm, walking across campus, and meeting with a potential stranger. If someone doesn’t have to go through the effort, more often than not, they won’t do it.
However, there is a silver lining when it comes to the impact tutoring can have on a student’s experience in class, grades, and sentiment towards their studies. No longer having a tenuous understanding of a subject thanks to an enriching experience with a tutor feels incredible. The weight on your shoulders will subside. Trust me.
If someone is confused about the schedules of any tutors on campus, reach out to the department of choice. At the risk of this article sounding like a sad ASPCA advertisement but for tutors instead of dogs, please meet with a tutor if you need the help. Your professors and tutors will be grateful, and you will too. Also, it’s free.
As a massive thank you for all the tutors I interviewed and their thoughtful comments, I will post their tutoring schedules below.
To request a tutor for pre-health courses, visit the University’s website, where there is a request form. Here, you can receive help from Keuk, Garai, and Byron. What follows are various tutor’s available times throughout the semester in the Writing Center and the French department.
According to the Writing Center website, Moore has sessions from 1-5 pm on Tuesdays and another session from 9:30-10:00 pm.
Even though Ehrhard is no longer a French tutor, here are this semester’s hours.
- Tuesdays: 10:00am-12:30pm (Vivine Kampire) & 4:00pm-6:00pm (Chloe Wright)
- Wednesdays: 2:00pm-5:00pm (Vivine Kampire)
- Thursdays: 10:00am-12:30pm (Vivine Kampire) & 2:00-4:00 (Chloe Wright)
The Foreign Language Department’s website has additional resources.