Peer Tutor Guidelines

 1.    Conduct:  The tutor-tutee relationship is a professional, working relationship. A friendly and comfortable rapport can make the learning experience more effective, but socializing should be kept to a minimum during tutoring appointments. Tutors and tutees should maintain a respectful relationship. Sexual, racial and/or physical harassment by either party will not be tolerated.

2.    Scheduling and canceling appointments:  You and your tutee will arrange a schedule based on need. If an appointment must be cancelled, tutors and tutees should provide at least 24 hours notice to each other. Tutors are instructed to wait only 15 minutes when tutees fail to show up for a scheduled appointment; tutees should do the same. If appointments are missed more than three consecutive times or a tutee does not respond to a tutor's contact within two weeks of the match being made, the tutoring service is no longer considered necessary and will be cancelled.

3.    Appointments with tutees: It is expected that tutors provide no more than two hours of tutoring per student per course each week. Any additional weekly tutoring hours require prior approval from either Class Dean, Shirley King or Rebecca Bliss.

4.    Role of the tutor:  After meeting with the tutee, the tutor is to contact the tutee's instructor to discuss ways to help the tutee, however the role of the tutor is not to interact with an instructor on the tutee's behalf. It is not appropriate for a tutee to call upon a tutor on a regular basis to answer quick questions outside regular scheduled meetings. Also, if a tutor is the tutee's TA, the tutor is not to mark the tutee's assignments or exams. When you meet with the tutee's professor, ask the professor if they would like you to complete the Report to Professor form. If so, then you will need to complete the form and send it to the professor via email within 24 hours of meeting with the tutee. The form can be located on Academic Advising web site under the link for "Peer Tutoring Program."

5.    Tutoring venues: Tutoring should be conducted in a safe, public area, on the campus. Other people should be in the general vicinity. A faculty building might be appropriate during the day, but after hours when no one is around, it is not. Possible locations include group study areas in libraries, empty classrooms with the door left open, and student lounges. Inappropriate locations include private residences, licensed establishments, and classrooms with closed doors. 

6.    Academic integrity and plagiarism:  Where any work of the tutee is subsumed in whole or in part by the thoughts of the tutor, both parties are subject to an allegation of plagiarism. Tutors and tutees are often surprised by the range of activities officially considered plagiarism.  Tutors and tutees should not work on assignments that will be handed in.