By Rose Domingo
During my first year in college at UC Santa Cruz, I was among the incoming freshmen that did not satisfy the Subject A requirement. I felt incompetent in writing. In my first quarter at school, I took Oakes Writing Core with Robin King. I found out that every person in the class also did not satisfy Subject A, so all of us had to sign up for a writing tutor because it was mandatory and it might possibly improve our writing. Each student was assigned to get at least an hour per week and received about 10 hours of tutoring for the whole quarter. However, if the student was in EOP (Educational Opportunity Program), the student can receive more than 10 hours of tutoring for the whole quarter. Even though I was not in EOP, 10 hours was enough for me to get the help I needed, I thought. Eventually, tutoring helped improve my writing and I satisfied the subject A.
In order to qualify for EOP, there are three major requirements that a student must have. According to the website of the EOP center, http://www2.ucsc.edu/eop/eligibility.html, the EOP webmaster writes:
To qualify for EOP services, a student should be:
- 1) The first family member to attend college, AND
- 2) Must demonstrate a history of being from a low-income or educationally disadvantaged background, AND
- 3) Is a resident of the state of California, or bona fide residents (except if American Indian or Alaskan Native).
EOP offers many good benefits to a lot of students. For being in EOP, students receive free tutoring, work-study, faculty-mentor program, internships, and many more. The goal of EOP is “to promote the retention, academic success, and graduation rates of First Generation College, low-income, and educationally disadvantaged student populations, and to assist these students with preparation for admission to graduate and professional schools” (EOP Webmaster).
EOP is a wonderful program, but what happens to the other students who are in need of EOP? What happens to the other students who were able to qualify for 2 out of the 3 requirements and still couldn’t be in EOP? What happens to the students whose parents do earn a sufficient income but have many debts and bills to pay, and can barely pay for their child’s tuition? What happens to those students who can’t get the help they need?
I raise these questions because I’m among the students who qualify for only 2 of the requirements of EOP. I am a low-income student and I’m the first generation in the family to go to college. However, since I am only a permanent resident in California and I’m not an American citizen yet, I do not qualify for EOP. Although I do get some of their benefits such as work-study, I can’t receive any free tutorial services.
Now, that I’m a writing tutor for students who did not pass subject A, the advantages that EOP students have over non-EOP students are more visible. I believe that students that did not pass Subject A all have problems in their writing whether it’s structure, grammar, or writing a good thesis. However, since EOP students receive more benefits, then non-EOP students are at a disadvantage. I feel that EOP students will most likely pass their subject A and non-EOP students are at risk of not satisfying their subject A exam because they don’t receive the adequate help that they really need.
One problem that causes this unequal tutoring opportunity for the students is the financial situation. Because the school decided to cut the budget of the writing program, many non-EOP students have no other choice but to pay a $69 fee in order to receive tutoring. Some students are hesitant to pay a $69 fee because they’re already paying for their tuition, housing, food, and health insurance during their first year in college. As a result, there’s this burden of having to pay another fee for tutoring. Since tutoring is not mandatory also, some non-EOP students would rather spend their money on something else. Therefore, it hinders the students from experiencing the significance of having a writing tutor and the improvement they will get out of the tutorial.
Another issue that relates to the fee problems is the amount of hours that the students can use. Instead of getting 10 hours of tutoring, non-EOP students can only receive 5 hours for the whole quarter. As for the EOP students, they get a fee waiver and receive 10 hours of tutoring. I have to spend 30 minutes per session for each non-EOP student in order to divide their hour structure for the whole quarter. This is not enough time to tutor someone. There’s a lot of patience and time that involved in tutoring. Surely, it’s hard to finish proofreading an essay within 30 minutes. In my few sessions, I use up about 15 minutes with the student in order to brainstorm for topics to write on their essay. What happens when the non-EOP students need more time to structure their essay format and they ask for help in finding the right quotes to prove their topic? The answer to that is that they will have to wait until the next week’s session. As for the EOP students, most of my students have the rest of the 45 minutes to look for passages and outline their essay. It’s unfair that non-EOP students can’t receive more hours of help while EOP students have enough hours to use.
Because of the time limit that puts more pressure to the writing assistants, tutors can only show a few techniques or exercises for a student. The session is sometimes rushed and I usually don’t finish giving all the suggestions to my non-EOP tutees. For instance, during my session, I have to pick one or two important problems they stumble upon their essay. In this case, I had to explain some methods of starting an introduction and allow them to create their own introduction using that method. It takes a while for a person to learn a new instruction and start writing which causes the student to rush his or her essay just to beat the time. While as the EOP students, I can finish proofreading their essays and give them advice on more than one specific problem. We are able to work and fix their problems with their thesis or transitions. Most often during or after the session, there is still time to converse about personal stories. The EOP students learn more tactics on how to fix their mistakes on their essays and their session is not rushed.
Usually when my tutee’s core teacher asks them to get their essay proofread, I only focus on one problem to work on because it’s hard to get through one problem, especially if the student has a difficult time thinking. For instance, allowing the student to read aloud takes time. In the article Impromptu Conference by Sarah Warshauer Freedman, she describes six steps to use as a guideline during a tutoring conference. Freedman’s second step involves reading and giving the student a chance to read his or her paper aloud. By doing so, Freedman points out to “ask the student to be a self-critic, to look for the rough and smooth spots in paper, to be prepared to identify them and perhaps to discuss ways of solving some problems” (217). Considering the time and effort that is being used up, tutors essentially need to the students to start critically thinking. We stress the need for the students to think for themselves because they cannot always depend on their writing tutors. However, brainstorming for ideas is not as easy as it may seem. Sometimes, the students are too lazy, too burned out from schoolwork, or too tired to even think. These students also have problems academically and personally. We must take that into concern because it affects the way that they communicate and connect with the tutor. Therefore, time is a huge factor to consider when tutoring. EOP students get more help in their writing because they have more time to settle down and talk in depth of their personal lives as well as their academic lives. As a result, non-EOP students are at a real disadvantage over the EOP students during their sessions.
For the EOP students, I can take my time when working on a specific problem. And, if we don’t complete one recurring issue to fix on their essay, I can meet up with them for an hour or so. EOP students can receive more help from their tutors. They get more knowledge on how to improve their essays. For instance, when I was tutoring one my students whom I will call, Moesha, her sentence and paragraph structure was too long and dry. I had to give her examples of how to divide the sentences to prevent fragments or run-ons and to be straightforward with her point. Afterwards, I let her fix other sentences to make it brief and concise. It took about 15 minutes or so until she was comfortable when revising her sentences. As for the non-EOP students, they only get a small amount of information in order to improve at least one problem on their essays. With my non-EOP students, I mostly spend time on their thesis and how they will argue their thesis because I want them to gain a sense of what to write in the beginning. Therefore, they won’t be confused on what to write about when our session ends. It’s unfair how time can make a big difference on one’s improvement and knowledge.
On top of the time limit, I don’t get to know my non-EOP students on a personal level. One of the most important parts of tutoring is to gain a student’s trust and provide a comfortable environment for the student. As Abigail Stryker explains in her article Dear Tutor, talking to the students about issues on school life rather than just writing helps build “a foundation of trust and personal rapport” when working on their essays (9). A tutor has to be like a counselor or a friend who is there to give them advice on what to expect and do during the school year. Most often, I feel myself getting in personal conversations with my EOP students more than with my non-EOP students. For instance, I am able to share my stories and listen to the stories of my EOP students. I gain a sense of knowledge about their personality and their family background since their writing topics consist of values and change, and their values usually come from their families. I converse more with my students and still able to finish proofreading an essay. However, I do not feel the same connection with my non-EOP students. I don’t get to know them well enough to understand how they personalities are except when they share their personal stories that they use in their papers. Even though I was able to gain their trust in me, I had a better relationship with my EOP students as oppose to my non-EOP students.
The advantages of the non-EOP students place them at a rough position. The problems that put them at a disadvantage on writing are not entirely their fault. I believe that EOP should at least consider that some non-EOP students do need as much aid and benefits as EOP students received. Some non-EOP students’ parents only make enough money to support their children. Parents still have to distribute their earning for their own family’s needs, bills, debts, and more. With all those fees to pay, parents strive at their work in order to pay for their children’s education. For example, one of my tutees, whom I will call Sarah, is emotionally and physically neglected by her parents even though her parents might earn an abundant salary. She is able to pay her tuition through her most of her scholarships and some money that her parents have given her. She doesn’t receive any grants or loans. Next quarter, she’s trying to raise money just to stay in UC Santa Cruz and now, she needs loans because her parents, mostly her father, feel that she’s wasting her education in UCSC. What will happen to her if she drops out to UCSC because she cannot receive free tutoring and counseling? EOP needs to recognize that some non-EOP students encounter the same problems as EOP students regarding academia, financial situation, and family problems. They deserve the right to succeed using the programs at UCSC that help students graduate and get through college.
To serve justice for the non-EOP students, I believe that they should be granted at least 10 hours of tutoring once again so they can receive a full hour of tutorial per week. In that way, non-EOP students can improve their papers more and gain a friendship or mentor relationship with their tutors. Moreover, EOP should base their qualification requirements on performance as well. The mission of EOP program is to decrease the retention rates, so why not expand that goal by also helping out students, mostly concerning non-EOP students who are in need of aid at school to further their education.
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