Lab Policies

Canal Coy at the Alamo (San Antonio, TX)
San Antonio, TX | March 2004 | T. Duckart

The Way of the Program
Guidelines and Resources for Composition Faculty at Humboldt State University

Lab Policies
Questions concerning the following policies should be directed to Barbara Goldberg, Developmental Writing Program Coordinator, at either 707.826.4442 or bag4@humboldt.edu.

Updated: 02-Jan-2008

Lab Instructor Responsibilities | Lab Make-up Policy | Make-up Sign-in Sheet | Student Lab Policies (Handout Text)

Responsibilities of Lab Instructors--Under Reconstruction. Please Stay Tuned.

Monitor Attendance:
- Enforce lab attendance policies by noting absences, late arrivals, and early departures.
- Take responsibility to remind students as soon as they return to lab about making up lab absences within one week of the student's return. Absences not made up within one week of a student's return becomes a permanent absence, and three permanent absences add up to one failing grade in all five units of English 100i. Encourage writing consultants to participate in this process.
- Ensure that the make-up deadline for an absence is recorded on both the student and file record sheets. Please use only space reserved for recording absences at the bottom/back of the record sheets for these notations; please do not make notations in the body of the record sheet--unless you are doing so for your own lab student.
- Please spend a good five minutes with students who are making up a lab with you; get them to commit early to a task for the period.
- Encourage students to "bank" a lab if they know they will miss. Clarify that a "banked" make-up lab is still considered a made-up absence and, as such, counts towards the five allowable absences.
Monitor Student Progress:
- Develop a strategy for remaining cognizant of student progress and for making that information available to lecture instructors. For each lab session, students' files must reveal the following:
  - the topic/title and stage of their current writing task,
  - the students' next step in continuing work on that paper, and
  - whether the student had a conference.
  - The next step should also be recorded on the student's record sheet.
- To maintain the most productive and pleasant lab environment, lab instructors are required to enforce regular student-consultant writing conferences without mandating that students work with a consultant every lab session. A student must have a conference at least every third lab session.
Monitor Writing Consultants: Support consultants in their support of lab students, help consultants maintain the lab atmosphere you deem most productive, and report difficulties to Barbara.

Lab Make-up Policy:

Students who wish to make up a lab must sign in on the make-up sheet (follow this link to download the form). They must also bring their green sheet to the make-up lab session for that instructor's signature. No green sheet, no credit for making up a lab.
"Home Room" lab instructors are responsible for recording the make-up session in their lab student's file, for updating their own white lab forms when the student returns after a make-up session.
Lab instructors should never feel responsible for accommodating more than two make-ups in any given session; we can send away the third, fourth, etc. supplicant if we have full and/or busy labs.
We have officially suspended the last-make-up-day rule. Students get one week from their return to lab to make up that absence. If they don't make up an absence, it becomes permanent. The third permanent absence--no matter when it happens--earns the student an F or NC in all five units of English 100i

Below please find the text that appears on the student "Lab Policies" handout--Under Reconstruction. Please Stay Tuned.

The lab is intended to support your work in English 40/100I. Please be sure, therefore, that the work you accomplish in lab—which can include conferencing with consultants and/or peers; drafting, revising, polishing papers; researching; journaling; reading—is required in your English class. Although you are not required to work with a writing consultant during every lab session, we expect you to take full advantage of all that the lab offers by maintaining regular contact with writing consultants.
Please be considerate of those who are working around you by helping to maintain a pleasant, supportive, and productive working environment.
Please do not eat or drink at computer stations.
Attendance Policy:
- Two absences are permitted without penalty. Additional absences must be made up within one week of your return to lab. The total number of absences, whether made up or not, may not exceed five. A sixth absence will result in a final course grade of "U"—equivalent to an "F" or "NC"—in English 40/100I. No lab sessions can be made up during the final three weeks of the semester.
- Please plan to remain for the entire lab session: late arrival and early departure will be noted and will require make-up sessions.