Dear ELSO community,
We realize that, for many of you, Fall semester has been even more challenging than the typical semester of graduate school. We hope that those of you who have been able to make time for ELSO courses, tutoring programs, workshops, write-ins, English conversation hours, and the Take a Break with ELSO social event have found community, warmth, and, of course, knowledge and skills that lighten your load as you write and speak across your degree programs, fields, professional spaces, and job searches.
I am writing to let you know that some tutoring spots are still open:
- December 14 is the last day of tutoring in the Pronunciation Tutoring Service
- December 16 is the last day of tutoring in the Presenting & Writing Tutoring Service
- December 19 is the last day of tutoring in the GenAI Writing Tutoring Service
This semester, many of you have enjoyed taking part in write-ins, either as part of an ELSO writing course or through the ELSO/GWS Write-in series. Even though we aren’t available to continue running them during the break, we invite you to self-organize write-ins and continue showing up for one another during this winter break.
We have set up a module in the ELSO program Canvas site for this purpose (you may self-enroll in this Canvas site). In this site, you’ll find two relevant modules: "Winter Writing” (which has a discussion board) and “Materials for Writing Groups.”
If you would like to meet to meet with others via Zoom for on-line write-ins, all it takes is to go to the discussion board in this module and post something like: "I’ll be writing at x time on x day each week. Who wants to join me? Here’s a Zoom link."
If you are in Ithaca, winter break can be a lonely place during the winter. Meeting with others to write can be really helpful--uplifting for your emotions, productive for your writing -- plus you can make new friends.
Cornell Libraries have great places to meet in winter, and we included information about this in the Winter Writing module, plus a link on how to reserve group study spaces. But really — any place in a Cornell library is a good meeting place, as our libraries are underused in winter. They are large, lovely, comfortable quiet places in winter with librarians just happy to see other people. You could really plop down anywhere.
If you to initiate this, simply say in the discussion board: “I’m going to be at Mann Library on the comfy couch in x corner on x day at x time each week to write. Who wants to join me?”
But if you choose to put out a call for others to meet with you in person, please do so safely: meet in a public place, meet in an open space (not a small group study room), at least until you get very comfortable with one another, and always carry a working phone.
Winter can be hard for folks for lots of kinds of reasons. I’m happy to let you know that Cornell Health is open during Winter Break, providing their full range of services — support for physical and mental health. There is no shame with meeting with a professional for mental health support. It’s a normal part of American culture. Most Cornell community members do it. Students, staff, faculty, and upper administration. Really. It’s true.
In winter, most Cornell offices stay open. Just faculty take a break. (And just to let you know, ELSO instructors are faculty). You can continue to make use of Graduate School offices, the Postdoc Office, the Office for International Services, and other resources. The university as a whole closes from December 25 to January 2, but otherwise it’s business as usual, and it’s a great time to make use of campus resources.
We in ELSO hope you have a restful, restorative, and safe winter break. We care about you and look forward to welcoming you back to ELSO courses and programs in the spring.
Sincerely, Michelle Crow, Nathan Lindberg, Melissa Myers, Amanda Munson
