The Writing Center at the University of Rhode Island is making an effort to draw in more students, seeing as writing majors pay a fee for the lab but it often goes unused.
According to the production lab website, it contains at least 12 Apple desktop computer, which run Adobe Creative Suite. The lab also has a printer and multiple iPads and GoPros.
Writing and Rhetoric Department Chair Jeremiah Dyehouse said writing majors taking certain courses pay a “lab fee” of $25 to $75. The need to do this stems from just how expensive the Adobe programs are, costing hundreds of dollars per year.
Dyehouse assured that the fee is strictly to help pay for the lab equipment and nothing else. “A [writing] student should feel confident that if they are paying the lab fee, it will go towards the production lab,” he said.
Dyehouse also explained that the lab is mainly used by writing majors and minors, and programs like Adobe Creative Cloud help students working on capstone and electronic portfolios. The system makes it easy to create brochures, as well.
“It’s not only a computer lab,” Dyehouse said. “There are student consultants there who can help you use the tools.”
Julia Ludovici, a writing and political science double major, is one of those students.
“We’re kind of fighting to keep the lab open,” Ludovici said. “Some people don’t see it as a valuable resource.”
At the same time, however, the word is slowly getting out about the lab. Ludovici said only 329 people signed into the lab all last semester, but Dyehouse said
Ludovici, along with other students using the lab, seemed to agree that their activity on social media platforms such as Instagram has helped make the difference.
Dyehouse realized the flaws of the current system but said the writing department is working to correct them by first trying to get the lab fees to become as low as possible. These lowered fees would be no more than $25 per student writing major.
“When we created [the production lab] ten years ago, the HUB in Ranger Hall wasn’t there,” Dyehouse said. “Perhaps the mission can change now to welcome in more and different students.”
According to Dyehouse, there are other similar writing lab-style facilities on campus, and he hopes that someday the spaces can become integrated. This may attract more students, also causing the necessary lab fees to be worth much more.
“Writers are not being best served by having spaces like the Writing Center and the production lab separated… For what the production lab is, it’s doing pretty good,” Dyehouse said.
“I feel like the interns here are extremely passionate,” Ludovici said. “We are motivated to get people in the door.”