The Challenge: Reaching our Students

At the Writing Center, we believe in what we do, and we are passionate about reaching students on campus. And with our research on writerly self-efficacy, we have come to understand the importance of students working with a writing tutor repeatedly and over time. 

However, a problem that has emerged for us recently is our lack of visibility on campus. While we visit classrooms and present to large groups of students, many students are still unaware of the Writing Center until later in their studies. 

A Step in the Right Direction: A PR Team

To address our lack of visibility on campus, we had a group of new interns work on developing a strategic PR plan for the Writing Center. This team — composed of five new tutors — worked hard for an entire term to come up with posters, a strategic marketing plan, a revised mission statement, and a new logo.

The PR team decided that working on a new logo would help us brand ourselves to the campus and community and express the values that we strive to embody at the center. To begin, then, the tutors identified the core ideas and values that are important to us at the Writing Center: writerly self-efficacy, community, collaboration, positive and genuine feedback, a safe, and a judgment-free environment.