The Writing and Learning Commons (WaLC), formerly the Catamount Academic Tutoring and Writing Centers, is a division of the Office for Undergraduate Studies. WaLC staff members include a full-time Director, Associate Director, and Administrative Support Associate. In addition to the full-time professional staff, the WaLC also employs between 45 and 60 course-specific tutors, several writing tutors including Writing Fellows, seven office assistants, and between six and eight academic skills consultants (WaLC Org Chart).
WaLC Mission:
The Writing and Learning Commons seeks to enhance the academic environment and raise
the level of academic discourse at Western Carolina University by providing tutoring,
academic skills consultations, and workshops.
WaLC Goals:
- Support faculty members’ efforts to maintain academic rigor
- Build students’ confidence in their ability to achieve academic success
- Provide engaged learning opportunities for students and faculty members
- Promote students’ intellectual versatility and flexibility across the disciplines
- Collaborate with faculty to support QEP and UNC Tomorrow initiatives
- Challenge students to be active learners
- Help students understand their responsibilities for learning, reading, and writing in the academy
- Advance the principle that writing, learning, and teaching are recursive and interconnected processes
- Train and support a workforce of tutors and peer educators who model and facilitate effective learning practices
WaLC Services:
- Writing tutoring
- Course-specific tutoring
- One-on-one and group tutoring
- Writing and research skills workshops
- Learning skills workshops
- Writing Fellows - a curriculum-based peer tutoring program that places trained undergraduate tutors in eligible courses
- Online, open-access writing, research, and learning resources
- Academic skills consultations
- Extensive training for student employees
- Documentation of students’ tutoring visits, communicated to course instructors weekly
- Support to faculty and staff campus-wide