The Writing Center is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year by hosting 20 events, which began in August 2012 and will continue through May 2013.
Since Trixie Smith, director of The Writing Center, joined the department six years ago, it has doubled in locations and staff. Last year, more than 13,500 sessions were completed, not including workshops workers did in the community as well as in classrooms on MSU’s campus, Smith said.
The first anniversary celebration featured a cookout, fair and carnival for students and the community, Smith said. With the help of supporters, The Writing Center will host more events ranging from an open mic night April 11 to a 1992-throwback birthday party May 10 in honor of the anniversary.
Smith said one of the center’s goals is to help students on campus and community members improve their writing skills.
Graduate student Jenni Marlow, a consultant in The Writing Center, said the staff is made up of consultants from different departments on campus. The goal is to provide students with specialized assistants who can provide more information on writing papers for classes outside of the English department.
“For us, we say we serve the MSU community,” Smith said. “As a land-grant institution, that means that there is a much broader community that we serve. We try to take that seriously and that’s part of our mission too.”
However, there still are students who do not utilize the facilities available in The Writing Center.
“I know people who use The Writing Center, but they still failed a paper they had to turn in,” general management sophomore Nick Thayer said. “No matter the work you put into it, in the end it really just depends more on the teacher.”
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
