Academic Success Center expands tutoring services

The Academic Success Center (ASC) is gearing up for a new semester with their usual services and a few changes.

Among these changes, the ASC’s tutoring department is now referring to help rooms as “study centers.” This is because students go there for support in their studies, not just for help when they are having serious academic problems.

Moreover, the service is unlimited and free to all students. Help room tutors can provide referrals to students for additional individual tutoring.

Over 100 help room and individual tutors are employed at the ASC. In order to become tutors, students must complete an application online and get requests from faculty in the fields they want to tutor. They also need to have gotten a grade of an “A” or “B” in the subjects they want to tutor. If students are selected to be tutors, they are contacted by email.

Tutoring can lead students to succeed in several different areas. Tutoring Services coordinator, Luke Barber said, “Being a tutor provides many transferrable skills such as communication, problem solving and other leadership that apply to a variety of career paths.”

Tutoring Services has two components: individual tutoring and study centers. When they come in for individual tutoring, students need to sign into Tutor Trac. The Tutor Trac website is tutoring.uwrf.edu.  Students may also visit the study centers for additional assistance in using Tutor Trac.

Tutoring Services has a total of nine study centers in six locations around campus. Tutors assist in subjects such as English, physics, chemistry, math and psychology. Study centers for physics and chemistry are located in Centennial Science Hall, a math study center is located in North Hall and the English department has the Writing Center in Kleinpell Fine Arts. Tutors can provide feedback to students on their work and advise them on their writing skills. Students can stop in the study centers whenever they are open.

The main tutoring center is in Chalmer Davee Library. This center has a service called Speaker’s Corner in which tutors converse with students who are learning English as a second language.

Once or twice a month, the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages program features cultural activities at conversation tables in Speaker’ Corner. At these conversation tables, students can try cuisine and learn about different languages and cultures of countries by talking with natives of the countries.

Rebranding help centers as study centers can lead students to seek assistance without a negative connotation attached, and can guide all students toward academic achievement. Speaker’s Corner aids achievement as well, helping speakers of other languages to learn English, and exposing English-speaking students to languages and cultures outside of the United States.

This can broaden the international horizons of native English speakers. Together, ASC managers and help room workers hope to combine their efforts and extend their valuable services to as many students as possible in 2013.