2008 Woodie Awards
Tutoring Center to close in July
Mary Ann Georgantopoulos
Issue date: 5/23/07 Section: News
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The Peer Tutoring Center is set to close by July, with each department assuming responsibility for providing individual students, with academic support Provost Ahmed Abdelal announced recently.
The move is intended to increase the role that faculty and graduate assistants play in tutoring students, said Michael DeRamo, the Student Government Association interim-vice president for academic affairs.
By placing tutors within each department, students will turn to professors and teaching assistants (TA) for help.
"The best supplemental instruction in English comes from the English department, instruction in math from the math department, and so forth," Abdelal said.
Julie Levy, a sophomore physical therapy major, and Caitlyn Bauer, a sophomore international affairs major, both tutors at the Peer Tutoring Center, said they are concerned about sending students to professors and TAs.
Levy, who serves as president of the Northeastern University Tutoring Society, said she has developed one-on-one relationships with many of the students she tutors and has become a mentor to students, especially freshmen, when university-related questions on topics like housing and co-op have arose.
"Students are often uncomfortable seeking help from their professors and graduate assistants, who control their grades," DeRamo said. "Moreover, peer tutors make themselves available at all hours of the evenings and weekends, when faculty members are not on campus."
The discussion surrounding the center's fate started in 2003, DeRamo said. "The university administration has become increasingly aware that the Peer Tutoring Center is an unfair financial burden on Snell Library."
"The tutoring center offers an academic service, and therefore should be funded through the university's academic budget," DeRamo said. "Yet, Snell Library has been paying for the center since its inception, as the center is housed on the second floor of the library."
The move is intended to increase the role that faculty and graduate assistants play in tutoring students, said Michael DeRamo, the Student Government Association interim-vice president for academic affairs.
By placing tutors within each department, students will turn to professors and teaching assistants (TA) for help.
"The best supplemental instruction in English comes from the English department, instruction in math from the math department, and so forth," Abdelal said.
Julie Levy, a sophomore physical therapy major, and Caitlyn Bauer, a sophomore international affairs major, both tutors at the Peer Tutoring Center, said they are concerned about sending students to professors and TAs.
Levy, who serves as president of the Northeastern University Tutoring Society, said she has developed one-on-one relationships with many of the students she tutors and has become a mentor to students, especially freshmen, when university-related questions on topics like housing and co-op have arose.
"Students are often uncomfortable seeking help from their professors and graduate assistants, who control their grades," DeRamo said. "Moreover, peer tutors make themselves available at all hours of the evenings and weekends, when faculty members are not on campus."
The discussion surrounding the center's fate started in 2003, DeRamo said. "The university administration has become increasingly aware that the Peer Tutoring Center is an unfair financial burden on Snell Library."
"The tutoring center offers an academic service, and therefore should be funded through the university's academic budget," DeRamo said. "Yet, Snell Library has been paying for the center since its inception, as the center is housed on the second floor of the library."
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