UC DENVER/AMC

New Student Fee & Budget Proposal

FY 2011-2012

Prepared by: Justin Bain, Director, UCD Writing Center (DDC/AMC)

Part I: Overview of fee

UCD Writing Center

Dollar amount of new fee: $8per year/degree seeking student enrolled in a degree program at AMC who also pay the Student Activity Fee. References to ‘degree seeking students’ or ‘AMC students’ below refers only to students as defined above.
Fee will be charged in the Fall term, effective Fall 2011.
This is a mandatory, student purpose fee. Students will not be able to opt out of this fee.

Purpose /Justification:

Since Fall 2006, the UCD Writing Center has provided assistance to students at the Anschutz Medical Campus using the Denver campus location, online services as well as the AMC satellite location in the Health Sciences Library.

  • 2006-2007 AY: conducted approximately 360 sessions (Downtown and online)
  • 2007-2008 AY: conducted approximately 400 sessions (Downtown and online)
  • 2008-2009 AY: conducted approximately 500 sessions (Downtown and online)
  • 2009-2010 AY: conducted approximately 1,000 sessions (including AMC satellite site)
  • 2010-2011AY: conducted approximately 675 sessions (to date) (including AMC satellite site)

These figures represent an average increase of over 25% in number of sessions conducted.

Due to increasing demand from AMC students, the Writing Center piloted a Satellite Center at AMC during the Spring 2009 semester. This Center, housed in the Health Sciences Library, provided one-on-one sessions on a variety of writing issues, including academic papers, grants, proposals, theses and dissertations, resumes, cover letters, and curriculum vitas. During the 50-minute sessions, Professional Writing Consultants worked with students on issues such as understanding assignments, generating ideas, organizing, revising paragraphs and sentences, and editing.

Through funding via the Associate Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, the Writing Center continues to maintain the AMC Satellite pilot program. This funding is temporary and will cease at the end of the summer 2011 semester; after this time all Writing Center services to AMC will cease unless the proposed student fee is approved.

The Writing Center seeks to make this Satellite Center a permanent institution at AMC in the Information Commons of the Health Sciences Library and to continue to provide the following services:

IN-PERSON: Tuesdays & Fridays: 10am-6pm / Sundays: 2pm-8pm

Health Sciences Library, Information Commons, Room 1204

303-724-4143

ONLINE, SYNCHRONOUS: Every night, 6pm-10pm

In Adobe Connect (our virtual, real-time consulting platform), students can upload/share/edit documents, chat (typed or spoken) with consultants, and receive feedback on or off campus.

ONLINE, ASYNCHRONOUS: Anytime

Degree seeking students can submit documents to our Drop Box service and receive written feedback in 3-4 business days.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: Handouts, PowerPoints, and links to helpful information about successful writing and genres are available at

With the continuance of the AMC Satellite Center, the Writing Center will continue to provide services to AMC students at the Denver Campus location and online.

Intended student population/cohort to be charged:All degree seeking students at AMC.

Fall termyear to be implemented: Fall 2011

Expiration date: Fall 2015. For the fee to continue in Fall 2016, the fee will be reviewed and resubmitted for referendum approval by the Anschutz Medical Campus student body.

Part II: Overview of Program/Activity/Service

Describe the mission, vision and values of your program/activity/service:

UCD seeks to provide students, whatever their ages or circumstances, with opportunities to enhance their lives and careers through higher education. The UCD Writing Center supports that purpose by equipping our community of writers with the necessary skills of composition to expand their academic opportunities and further their careers. We view writing as a process and all texts as works in progress. We build confident and accomplished writers through the development of strong cognitive and writing abilities. Ideally, the ultimate outcome of any session in the Writing Center is that the writer is improved, not necessarily the text. Our mission is to empower writers through collaborative work.

Our services include one-on-one and small-group writing consultations in areas such as:

  • Generating, organizing and developing ideas
  • Establishing effective proofreading skills
  • Analysis, synthesis and argument
  • Summary, paraphrase and documentation
  • Understanding error pattern analysis
  • Information literacy and research strategies

Our Consultants are here to work with writers on any type of written work—scholarship applications, personal statements, CVs, resumes, engineering reports, critical essays, article reviews, creative writing submissions, theses, statements of purpose, dissertations, lab reports, grants and proposals,public speaking outlines and graduate school applications.

Consultations may take the following forms:

  1. In person, one-on-one or small group sessions in the Writing Center
  2. Live synchronous, one-on-one sessions via Adobe Connect
  3. Asynchronous, constructivist feedback via a virtual drop box

Differentiation of Services in Regards to Resumes and CVs: Writing Center and Career Center

The Writing Center has over 20 years of experience assisting students with resumes and curriculum vitaes (CVs). Our Consultants receive ongoing training in these genres and have assisted AMC students with these documents for the past 5 years. At present, the Writing Center is the primary source of assistance with CVs at AMC—in fact, Justin Bain, Writing Center Director, provided the first and only training on CVs for the Career Center staff in Spring 2010. Current Career Center staff at AMC has not been trained to assist with CVs. In addition to offering annual workshops on CVs(which routinely average 75 attendees at AMC), the Writing Center continues to assist students from all schools and colleges with composing CVs or variations thereof, including hybrid CVs, short-form CVs, residency CVs, and bio statements.

As for resumes, Writing Center Consultants are among the current group of Instructors who teach Business Writing (including resumes and cover letters) to all students at the Denver Campus. The Writing Center and Career Center co-authored a pamphlet on creating effective resumes and have basically divided services as follows:

  • Students should primarily seek out the Career Center for questions relating to its “Just ASK” brand—Assessing career paths, Searching for jobs, and Knocking on the doors of employers
  • The Career Center can also help students with questions related to the content and format of resumes, especially as these pertain to industry-specific keywords
  • The Writing Center assists with content and format questions related to both resumes and cover letters, especially at the graduate and professional level where these genres routinely move beyond standard conventions (from chronological to functional to hybrid)
  • The Writing Center is most qualified to assist students with the writing craft — from idea generation to outlining to drafting to completion
  • The Writing Center only refers students to the Career Center for services external to these documents, such as interviewing and networking skills

Program/Activity/Service Provided:

The UCD Writing Center has, and will continue to provide, Professional Writing Consultations in the following formats:

  1. One-on-one and small group face-to-face consultations in our location at the Health Sciences Library:
  2. Tuesdays & Fridays: 10am-6pm / Sundays: 2pm-8pm
  3. Currently staffed at 30 hours per week -
  4. Online real-time consultations via Adobe Connect
  5. Every night, 6pm-10pm
  6. Currently staffed at 40 hours per week
  7. Virtual Drop-Box, online asynchronous feedback AMC students
  8. Averaging 50 reviews per semester
  9. Averaging 105 hours per semester
  10. Web-based resources (
  11. Handouts, PowerPoints, and links to helpful information

Other Resources:

In 2008 the UCD Writing Center was the recipient of a grant designed to modify and extend current services to graduate students and faculty at the Denver Campus. This grant is used to partially fund Drop-box Sessions and provides full funding for all Writing Center Workshops. Funds from this grant also support a limited amount of faculty development and in-class support for writing intensive courses. When the AMC Satellite was established in Fall 2009, these new services were offered to AMC as well. If this fee is not approved and the AMC Satellite is closed, the grant will cease to apply to AMC and all associated services will also cease.

The Health Sciences Library has graciously continued to provide a central space in the Information Commons on the first floor. In addition, they have provided the necessary furnishings to conduct sessions. The Library staff sees the Writing Center as an integral part of their Information Commons and their mission to support student learning at AMC and has pledged to continue to provide space and furnishings in support of the Writing Center if the fee is approved.

Supporting Data:

Writing Center Usage Fall 2010: Anschutz Medical Campus

Total Usage Across All Locations

Sp 09 / F 09 / Sp10 / F10
Total Sessions Conducted / 276 / 460 / 554 / 675

Statistical Breakdown of AMC Students by Location (AMC, Denver, Online, Drop-Box)

AMC Center / Sp 09 / F 09 / Sp10 / F10
Total Sessions: / 113 / 210 / 246 / 270
Denver Center / Sp 09 / F 09 / Sp10 / F10
Total Sessions: / 88 / 117 / 213 / 303
Online Center / Sp 09 / F 09 / Sp10 / F10
Total Sessions: / 32 / 77 / 58 / 50
Drop-Box / Sp 09 / F 09 / Sp10 / F10
Total Sessions: / 43 / 56; 130 / 37;
86 hours / 52
120 hours

Yearly Session Totals

Academic Years / Total Sessions
06/07 Downtown and Online / 360
07/08 Downtown and Online / 400
08/09 Downtown and Online / 500
09/10 also includes AMC Satellite / 1,014
1,137 hours
10/11 to date also includes AMC Satellite / 675
745 hours

Workshops Conducted

Creating a Curriculum VitaeWriting Effective Grant Proposals

Citation and Documentation: APAWriting a Literature Review

Timed Writing PreparationGraduate Application Essays

Part III. Budget

Proposed Budget 2011-2012

1,400 individual sessions (in person or online) / $15 per hour / $21,000
120 drop-box sessions / $20 per hour / $2,400
General Administrative Recharge / 8% of total fees / $2,000
Marketing Materials / $400
Office Supplies / $200
TOTAL COST / $26,000

Total Revenue:

Estimated at $26,000 per year (c. 3250 students X $8/yr)

Expenditure Plan:

Salary:$21,000

The majority of the fee goes toward salary for Professional Writing Consultants. The Writing Center currently employs 24 Consultants. At AMC, all Consultants are graduate-students or post-grads and all have experience teaching courses. Consultants receive ongoing training in tutoring techniques, ESL/ELL, the teaching of writing, and various genres specific to AMC, such as grants, CVs, case studies, bio statements, reflective essays, reports, etc.

Drop-Box (Salary): $2,400

The next largest portion is allocated to salary, but specifically reserved for Drop-box sessions. These sessions, available via our website to graduate students only, provide in-depth formal and constructive feedback on writing. This service allows graduate students to submit lengthy papers and provides Consultants with the additional time necessary to review and comment on complex texts.

General Administrative Recharge (GAR): $2,000 (approx)

GAR fees for auxiliary programs are currently 8% of total fees assessed, approx $2,000 for the year.

Marketing: $400

Funds are allocated to the production of brochures, the development of website materials, and the creation and distribution of virtual and hardcopy signage for Writing Center services and events. The Center distributes more than 1,000 brochures per semester to students at AMC.

Office Supplies: $200

Funds are allocated to the purchase of pens, pencils, notepads, etc, necessary for conducting sessions at our Satellite location in the Health Sciences Library.

If Proposed Fee Is Declined:

In the event that this proposal is declined and no fee is assessed, the Writing Center will cease to offer any and all assistance to AMC students. This includes a complete closure of the AMC Writing Center and a refusal of services at all other locations (Downtown, Online, Drop-Box). The closure of the AMC Center would subsequently cancel all workshops and faculty support funded by Writing Center grants.

The Student Assistance Office (SAO) does not have the monetary resources to offer ‘tutoring’ assistance for writing / consulting services in the areas currently managed by the UC Denver Writing Center. Students requesting assistance will be referred to outside services/resources that the SAO is able to compile – writing assistance will become an out-of-pocket expense for Anschutz Medical Campus students.
The various schools/college/programs at Anschutz Medical Campus are not prepared to offer writing services at the level currently managed by the UCDenver Writing Center.