Communications across the Curriculum hosted a “Night Against Procrastination” in the LSU Library Tuesday. With the help of free pizza, they helped students in the fight to meet deadlines and ace midterms through a collaborative study space.
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Also known as CxC, the program aims to improve students’ communication and writing skills regardless of their course of study.
“We work with people at every level of ability and every stage of a process from brainstorming a topic to helping somebody polish up their delivery for a speech,” said Christina Rothenbeck, CxC’s manager of student support.
CxC student advisers, in tandem with LSU librarians and the Center for Academic Success, were available to assist LSU students for three hours.
At the event, which is held once before midterms and again before finals each semester, tables were filled with students eating snacks while working on projects with student advisers at their sides combing through their essays, slideshows and speeches.
“It is peer mentoring… it’s nice, because when you have a peer like that, it takes some of the pressure off of people who don’t necessarily want to go see their professor necessarily but can have somebody be that middle ground for them,” Rothenbeck said.
Logan Schilling, a biological engineering freshman attended to learn how to write a partial lab report, since this was his first time ever writing one.
Other people attempting non-communication based work such as calculus homework couldn’t be helped to the same degree as those from communications-related fields, a fact that Rothenbeck hopes to change by partnering with the Shell Tutorial Center in the future.
Student advisers at the event had each gone through six weeks of training where they learned how to give feedback, talk to clients and help people identify issues with work. Afterward, the new advisers shadow senior student advisers to get hands-on experience. All the student advisors continue their education by having weekly meetings with professors in different departments that come in and instruct on how to write for their coursework.
“We get a lot of people who come in and want to make sure that everything is cohesive,” said Michael Jarvis, a writing mentor and wildlife ecology sophomore. “A lot of it is just putting a second pair of eyes on their work.”
Besides hosting a night against procrastination, CxC offers its services online and in Studio 151 located in Coates Hall, the Art and Design CxC studio in 215 Julian T. White Hall and the CxC Chevron Center in 1233 Patrick F. Taylor Hall.
LSU students can talk one-on-one with student advisers for writing, visual and or oral communication support in person or online. Studio 151 also offers equipment rentals for media creation devices such as microphones, cameras and tripods, and students can even reserve a sound booth.
The white board reads "Night Against Procrastination!" on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023, in the LSU Library in Baton Rouge, La.
