Butler’s Writers’ Studio had its official grand reopening on Aug. 26, redefining the studio and providing more resources for the campus community.
The new changes include three peer-led writing workshops covering academic writing and comprehension, fiction writing and world-building and writing for wellness. Workshops are open to all undergraduate and graduate students, as well as faculty, staff and alumni.
Senior art history major Ava Watson has been a peer consultant for three years and is leading The Art of Articulation Workshop, which is focused on critical reading and effective writing. While familiar offerings are still available, these changes aim to benefit students beyond one assignment.
“We do still have our individual consultations, but [these workshops] are to help outside of just writing a paper,” Watson said. “We’re trying to help people with skills that they can use anywhere, whether that’s scrolling social media or writing academically.”
While there are currently three workshops, offerings are expected to expand in the future to cover more niche topics and help more attendees.
“This [is] our pilot season; we’re still testing the waters,” Watson said. “We don’t know how everything will go, but hopefully next year we’ll have more workshops.”
New additions also include efforts to create a more welcoming atmosphere and encourage students to utilize the studio.
Sophomore dance performance major Eleanor Brown is entering her second semester as a writing mentor. Brown often works with a wide range of students, making the title of ‘peer consultant’ more fitting.
“Oftentimes, I’m helping people who are older than me, and that doesn’t fit inside the [traditional mold] of a tutor,” Brown said. “I think changing [tutor] to ‘peer consultant’ makes it more welcoming to people who may be nervous or self-conscious asking for help.”
The space is also being opened up to students who need a place to work without an appointment.
“I think there’s been two main framings of the Writers’ Studio which is, I’m forced to go there [or] I finished my paper, and I’m going to go ask for someone to read it,” Brown said. “We want people to start using this space as less of an appointment-based thing and be more of a lounge area where you can come in at any point of your writing process.”
From a faculty perspective, the Writers’ Studio can be used to address the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sunny Romack is the director of the Writers’ Studio and a senior lecturer in the English department. Romack’s motivation for the changes comes from the missed opportunities many students had from online and hybrid learning.
“When we look at where students were in their educational experience when COVID-19 greatly disrupted education, a lot of those foundational [reading] skills are simply not there,” Romack said. “If you were in the fourth grade when [the pandemic] hit, did you really get a solid foundation in reading for comprehension during those two years? It’s a domino effect, [and] it’s going to be a long time before we get all the way to where nobody was in school before COVID happened.”
The new open-house format can provide additional support for students.
“I think [the Writers’ Studio] is a place [with] that individualized support for figuring out what this person needs in terms of reading skills to get where they need to be,” Romack said. “That’s absolutely crucial, and the Writers’ Studio can help provide that.”
Over the course of the semester, workshops are available every other Tuesday and Wednesday to help students build their skills.