The Writing Center is a student support service entirely funded by student tuition and fees. We are part of the Office of Academic Affairs and the Office of the Provost.

Like other student support services such as academic advising, university counseling services, the library, and many others, all students—acting in accordance with DePaul’s Code of Conduct and not violating any of our Workplace Expectations & Protections—are entitled to Writing Center services by paying tuition and as such we ask that you work with any writer on any topic.

In addition to our institutional identity as part of the Office of Academic Affairs and the Office of the Provost and the right to our services all students have as part of their tuition fees, your obligations derive from DePaul’s Guiding Principles for Speech and Expression at DePaul University.

🌎 All Students, Any Topic

• Tutors must work with every writer who makes an appointment with them.
• Tutors must make a good faith effort to treat every writer with kindness, respect, and professionalism.
• Tutors may not opt out of an appointment based on discomfort with the writer or their paper topic.

We only hold you to these obligations given the range of Workplace Expectations & Protections that, taken as a whole, allow each one of us to have a safe and healthy workplace and serve our mission to DePaul. If an appointment or any other communication between a writer and tutor involves a tutor being harassed or threatened or otherwise violates Workplace Expectations & Protections, the writer will be reported to the appropriate DePaul office(s) so that the matter can be further investigated.

Consequences for Not Following Your Obligation to Work With Any Writer on Any Topic

Tutors who refuse to work with a writer or on a given paper will be subject to progressive discipline measures up to and including termination.

🗯️ Speech and Expression

Part of DePaul’s Speech & Expression Policies & Procedures; Guiding Principles listed here approved on May 26, 2017

DePaul University's Mission is built upon the Vincentian ideal of universal dignity in which each person is invaluable and worthy of respect. That dignity depends in no small measure upon an individual's freedom and opportunity to give voice to their beliefs and on each individual's freedom and opportunity to choose whether and how to respond. DePaul therefore aspires to be a community marked by mutual respect and a community in which we never lose sight of the potential effects, both beneficial and harmful, of our words and of our expressive conduct. In this spirit, we affirm the following principles of speech and expression: