Here on campus a number of resources are available to help each student make the most of his or her college career.
One of these resources is the Writing Center. The Writing Center offers a number of classes throughout the year as well as one-on-one conferences. Students can get help with their writing either online or face-to-face.
The staff of the Writing Center consists of seven professional writing instructors and 38 advanced doctoral students in English literature and composition studies. In addition the Writing Center also has a group of writing fellows to assist students with their writing. The staff members often help students develop ideas, organize papers and give constructive advice for revisions.
Jason Crabb, a recent UW-Madison graduate, was a Writing Center fellow for two years. As a fellow, he was assigned to a writing- intensive course each semester.
He was responsible for reading students' drafts and making comments on their essays or papers. After the students reviewed comments, he would meet with each student individually for about a half hour.
\One of the cool things about the program [as a fellow] is that you are able to work with the faculty and staff in the university,"" Crabb said.
The Writing Center's main location is 6171 Helen C. White, and the staff is stationed in the residence halls and other places around campus for a few hours a week. The full schedule and more information about the Writing Center can be found on it's Web site http://www.wisc.edu/writing.
The McBurney Center is the resource center for disabled students on campus.
""Our job is to accommodate students with disabilities on campus with their classroom needs,"" said Barbara Lafferty, the office manager at McBurney.
McBurney offers a number of services to students with disabilities. Some of the services they offer are: textbooks on tape, a notetaking service, alternative testing, interpreting services, real-time captioning and more.
""We try to help students with disabilities not go through any more hoops than any other students do,"" Lafferty said.
All services are free of charge to students who need them. However, McBurney requires written documentation of the students' disabilities before they can decide how best to help.
Once they receive documentation, an accommodation specialist, together with the student, will work out a Verified Individual Services and Accommodations. The VISA determines how each student can be assisted, and each VISA is put together on a case-by-case basis.
The McBurney Center is located at 905 University Ave. It is open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Students with more questions should stop by the office, call 263-2741 or visit the home page
When people on campus talk about GUTS, they are referring to the Greater University Tutoring Service. GUTS offers drop-in tutoring at five locations on campus: Helen C. White, Union South, Steenbock Memorial Library, the Multicultural Student Center and Gordon Commons. Students can drop into one of these locations during the set hours and ask questions about their classes and homework.
GUTS can arrange for international students to meet with an American student each week to talk and practice their English. Interested students should sign up in the GUTS office at 302 A Union South. These informal meetings usually take place for about two hours a week.
GUTS will also meet with students who want to improve their study skills. The GUTS staff will meet with students individually to discuss topics like study skills, test taking and exam preparation. There are also seminars held a few times a semester on similar topics.
The dates and information on the seminars is not finalized yet. Check the Web site for more information in the future.
GUTS also has an extensive exam file. The file contains past exams in math (through 234), chemistry (through 114), physics and statistics (through 224). These exams may be checked out at the GUTS office and photocopied to help students prepare for exams.
""I really like working here because I feel like we're helping students and really making a difference,"" said Shaina Wilson, a UW-Madison junior who works part time for GUTS.
GUTS is open Monday through Thursday from 11:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. The phone number is 263-5666.
After a few times of responding ""Do what?"" when someone says ""Do it,"" students realize that on campus, DoIT stands for Division of Information Technology.
""There is so much stuff going on with technology on campus that there is never a dull moment,"" said Brian Rust, communications manager at DoIT.
One branch of DoIT is the Help Desk. They offer technical support 24 hours a day seven days a week over the phone at 264-HELP. They also accept walk-ins and internet help requests.
A great resource that DoIT wants students to take advantage of is WiscCal, a free, online calendaring system available to students as a part of the My UW-Madison account. Students can personalize their own calendar and include in it everything from their class schedule, to athletic events to concerts at the Union.
With WiscCal, students can even set up appointments to meet with professors during office hours. Once a student finds a time in the calendar, the program will e-mail the professor and when the professor confirms, the date is then set in both calendars. If a date for any of the events changes, it will automatically be changed in the WiscCal.
Another great resource for students is the spam filtering system for WiscMail. There are four levels of filtering available. Information about the spam filtering is found at
DoIT also offers computer courses. There are a number of free computer courses on various software systems for students, faculty and staff. These classes are funded with a technology fee that is part of a student tuition surcharge. There are also some fee-based training courses available. Visit for a complete list and schedule of all of the classes offered through DoIT.
