Considering Role While Answering Questions

It was not long after I sent an email to the Publications students on Feb. 14 offering guidance that several of them took me up on it.

Several staff members had minor changes they wanted to make to the article roster, a spreadsheet containing basic information for all of the stories being written for a given issue. A few students wanted to know with whom they should share their drafts.

One student called me for clarification about how he should put together the information he had already collected into a working draft.

Another emailed me a series of questions she was planning to send to one of her sources so that I could give my thoughts on them. (They were good – one I suggested be changed from a closed-ended question to an open-ended question.)

There are limits to what I can do as an educational assistant, however. I cannot make final editorial decisions – that is under the exclusive jurisdiction of the editors. I can make advisory suggestions and, if needed, strong recommendations (if, for instance, we discovered plagiarism, I would be quite adamant that the article be cut). But the last word rests with them.

I am also not responsible for grading. The Professor makes the decision there. I can make suggestions for how to move forward in uncertain circumstances (such as when the February blizzard changed our schedule). I can also help with reviewing, which can be a daunting task given some of the tight turnaround times involved in production.

I inhabit a between-states role, and I have to be aware of that as I assist students. When one student emailed me asking if we could run ads or articles supporting local businesses, I said I liked the idea, but to check with Editor-in-Chief Dave Weidenfeller. Another student asked if there was a problem with dropping from two stories to one. I said I would make the change, but could not say how it would affect her grades, if at all.

Despite the limitations I’ve described, there is still plenty I can do to help. Even when I can’t directly answer a question, I can direct a student to the person who can because I know from experience what roles other members of the class occupy.

There is also another benefit to my position that Professor Karyn Smith mentioned in class the other day – there is absolutely no reason for anyone to feel intimidated by me. My job is to help, not to judge.