A pinch in the budget is knocking the props from under some students who are seeking extra help with their writing skills.

Forty percent of the tutorial staff in the English Communications Skills Writing Lab, DuSable Hall, Room 228, were hit by the hiring freeze, said Robert Self, director and professor of freshman English.

Self said the cuts will eliminate much of the one-on-one help students received in the past.

“It was a blow to our approach. We lost experienced and valuable people,” he said. “We tried to appeal to the administration, but our appeal was denied.”

Susan Dorbek, director of the writing lab, said the 40 percent that was lost consisted of two full-time graduate students who each worked about 35 hours a week.

Dorbek said 365 students are required to come to the lab once a week and 18 tutors are on staff to work with them, but their hours cannot compare.

“The 18 we have working for us now do not put in the kind of hours like the ones we lost,” she said. “They put in eight to 15 hours a week … and some are getting extra hours. Most of the tutors are doubled up with students.”

Because of employee shaving, Self said the present lab staff had to pick up the load with more hours and English faculty are not giving as many assignments that require work in the lab.

Self said the cuts also caused the lab to lose its flexibility when dealing with “drop-in” students who often come to the lab voluntarily for help.

English 104 instructor Patty Benson said most of her students come from the CHANCE program, which deals with students who need extra academic assistance, and are scheduled for one hour of tutoring per week with two students per tutor. She said the only effect she has seen so far is on the students dropping in for additional help.

Dorbek agreed and said students who are not required to come to the lab for specific classes will no longer have the luxury of just stopping in for extra help.

“We are going to have to send them elsewhere if we don’t have the time at the moment,” she said. “Right now our first priority is to those 365 students who are required to be here.”

Benson said she has been sending her students to the Writing Center, Reavis 306, for extra help.

“I’m worried now that I’m going to start over-burdening the Writing Center,” she said. “I think it really stinks that our athletic director is getting an increase when my kids are hurting.”