The NJCU administration has ordered the Writing Center to close its doors on June 30, putting up to 30 people out of work. Tutoring services will now be handled through The Hub tutoring center by undergraduate students with little formal training. This is the latest "cost-saving" action of the university's administration to remove academic support services from students who need highly trained help in order to succeed. The administration expects to save money by substituting top-quality tutors with lower-paid, less-qualified tutors.

All Writing Center tutors have been fired. Some of the peer tutors have been invited to apply for positions at The Hub, yet with no information about wages, hours, or terms of employment. All of the professional tutors are losing their jobs.

The Writing Center offers a unique and vital service, one that cannot be duplicated by the HUB.

• The Writing Center’s staff of 30 tutors held 2,800 one-on-one tutoring sessions in the 2015-2016 school year, a dramatic increase from 1,900 sessions the year before. Additionally, more than 1,600 students attended workshops, orientations, and events in the Writing Center last year, with 74 customized class sessions led at instructor request.
• Writing Center peer tutors are trained in an intensive, semester-long 400 level course, undergo a closely-supervised internship, and participate in regular professional development.
• Writing Center professional tutors are also professors in the English department with advanced degrees from Master to Ph.D. level, who bring specialized skills to their work with NJCU students and on advanced writing projects.
• The Writing Center is a run by a faculty member with extensive writing center experience and an academic background in Composition and Rhetoric. This faculty-supervised multi-tiered tutoring staffing structure follows the recommendations of the College's most recent Middle States Accreditation evaluator.
• The Writing Center is an academic support service under the School of Arts and Sciences; further, writing center pedagogy is its own field of study. Qualified oversight by academics is essential to ensure quality. 
• The Writing Center incorporates research-based best practices employed by professionals and well trained peer-tutors alike.

Nearly 86% of students surveyed by the Writing Center this spring felt that their sessions were helpful to them. NJCU students need Writing Center support. NJCU students cannot afford to see more instructional dollars redirected to support administrative bloat.

Tell President Sue Henderson, Provost Dan Julius, and Raphael Perez, Chair of the NJCU Board of Trustees, that you don’t want them cutting corners on academic support for NJCU’s students. Tell them you want NJCU's dollars used to ensure our students' success. Tell them you want the Writing Center!