The University Writing Center opened last week at full capacity after Columbian College of Arts and Sciences officials scaled back hiring efforts and hours due to budget cuts last fall.

Faculty overseeing the center – which provides free support to students aiming to enhance their writing skills – said following a “productive” meeting with officials, the center opened for 59 hours per week at full capacity this spring. The budget increase comes after officials decided against hiring two graduate student writing consultants and suspended services at its three satellite centers in Eckles and Himmelfarb Libraries and the Multicultural Student Services Center after officials cut the center’s budget in the fall but made plans to replenish the budget this spring.

Phyllis Ryder, the director of the University Writing Center and an associate professor of writing, said the center typically hires more consultants in the spring after consultants complete the required Pedagogy for Peer Tutors training class. She added the budget constraints in the fall did not impede the spring hiring process.

“All of these processes were the same this year as they have been in the past,” she said in an email. “The budget process did not affect our spring operations.”

At a Faculty Senate meeting in November, faculty senators said multiple departments within CCAS, including the Writing Center, experienced hiring issues and “inadequate” financial support.

Officials reduced the center’s hours of operation last semester to cut its expenses, introducing a lunch hour from noon to 1 p.m.

Ryder said the center will reopen satellite centers in Himmelfarb Library and the Multicultural Student Services Center later this semester, but the Eckles Library center will remain closed due to its reduced hours.

Officials reduced Eckles library’s hours of operation last semester after finding out that a limited number of students used the library in the mornings and after midnight, drawing criticism from freshman students and other Mount Vernon campus residents who frequently use the library to study.

Nearly “every one” of the University’s 3,000 first-year students will utilize the writing center during their time at GW, according to the Center’s website.