Students looking to get a leg up in their English courses will soon be losing one of the campus’s main resources for writing. After June 9, the English Department Writing Center will be closing its doors and capping its red correction pens for good.

Aside from facing $700,000 in cuts, the English department’s decision to close the writing center was made within the context of also having to eliminate more than 100 English classes.

“If we can’t get students into class in the first place — which is going to be the case — then funding added support for writing becomes harder to justify,” said Gary Handwerk, chair of the English department.

The English Department Writing Center, housed in a small nook on the basement level of Padelford Hall, hosts roughly 2,000 tutoring sessions each year.

“They need to keep this place open,” said UW graduate student Jaya Conser. “It keeps me motivated. It’s hard to find as many people who are willing to talk with you about [your work].”

Conser is wrapping up her master’s thesis in China Studies at the Jackson School of International Studies.

“I started [using the center] in 2006,” Conser said. “And I’ve been coming three times a week, fairly regularly.”

The center has served as a community for staff and students alike. Not only do students get help from tutors, but tutors benefit from the center.

“To have it disappear is kind of a blow to me,” said tutor Ethan Anderson. “On a personal level, I derive a lot of satisfaction from working here.”

Since 1992, the English Department Writing Center has helped students polish up essays and dissertations and has become a popular place for English as a second language (ESL) students.

“Forty percent of students we see are people whose first language is not English,” said John Webster, director of writing for the College of Arts & Sciences. “By virtue of numbers, it’s become the primary support for ESL.”

The English Department Writing Center isn’t the first writing center to see the ax. The writing center shared by CHID, women studies and American ethnic studies has already closed down.

Webster, who started the Odegaard Writing and Research Center in 2004, is now unsure about its future as well.

“We don’t know, yet, whether we will still have funding for the Odegaard Writing Center,” he said. “This is one of the things we’ll be working out over the next couple of weeks. It’s up in the air.”

While the Odegaard Writing and Research Center is still alive, it has already experienced a 25 percent cut this year. Pamela Saunders, assistant director of the center, said it has felt a big impact because of this.

“The center has already begun feeling the pinch,” Saunders said. “The center hasn’t been able to give full hours to [its] tutors, and the cuts have reduced the amount of workshops and training we’ve been able to fund.”

But hopes are high for the Odegaard Writing and Research Center. Saunders said the center has plenty of support from students, and she hopes that will help justify keeping it open.

“Last year, we had over 6,000 sessions. It’s the largest writing center on campus,” Saunders said. “While we’re kind of in limbo right now, we’re also optimistic.”

Reach reporter Eric Staples at news@dailyuw.com.