The University at Albany is celebrating new tutoring hubs meant to improve retention among STEM students.
The Learning Commons will serve as a one-stop-shop for students looking for peer tutoring and supplemental instruction.
Students can meet with peer tutors up to three times a week, online or in-person. Chemistry Professor and Associate Vice Provost for Learning Commons Rabi Ann Musah says the new center could combat high attrition rates.
“We learned that if you can pair these tutors with up to 10 students for a particular course, over the entire course of a semester, the end result is this dramatic increase in persistence, which means the students don't drop the course,” Musah said. “And also, graduation rates, ultimately, for STEM majors.”
STEM students make up roughly 2,900 of the more than 13,000 undergraduates at the university. A college spokesperson says attrition rates for STEM majors who re-enroll in non-STEM programs is disproportionately higher for those from underrepresented backgrounds.
The new center is located between the lecture center and main library. A space within the library is divided from a group study area and has whiteboards and private study rooms where students, tutors, and groups can meet.
Housed within the Learning Commons is the Center for Achievement, Retention and Student Success and the EXCELIence in STEM program. Here students enrolled in first- and second-year biology, chemistry and physics courses can receive free, tailored academic support meant to increase graduation rates within the programs. The new area has two
A $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation and a $2.5 million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute last fall is being used to create a more inclusive, STEM-focused learning environment for all students.
To tutor, students must have an A or A- in the course and go through training courses to learn how to articulate complex topics to others. And they must get a letter of recommendation from a professor who can affirm their abilities in that course. Once they’re selected, peer tutoring becomes a paid position.
Kawssar Obeid-Charrouf began tutoring students in math, chemistry, physics, and Arabic this semester after tutoring at Hudson Valley Community College. Obeid-Charrouf says helping students helps her.
“I might be taking that course with difference professor and every professor provide the material differently,” Obeid-Charrouf said. “So, I sometimes find new ways that I need to, that I can solve that problem different than what I learned. So, I actually need to learn their way so I can teach them what their professor teaches in the class because I can't confuse the student and teach them what I know— I need to go with what they know.”
She says it’s important to not make her peers feel like they’re being supervised — rather they’re there to learn from each other.
Emilia Motolinia is being tutored by Obeid-Charrouf. She uses CARRS—which is required for students enrolled in a class with CARSS tutoring.
“They do understand that aspect of that we are going through the same thing we are going to same problems and they understand how difficult that may be,” Motolinia said.
Campus President Havidán Rodríguez says UAlbany is one of the most diverse research universities in the country and in order to continue to grow, new services to assist typically underrepresented groups is essential.
“We are meeting our students right where they are to give them what they need in order to be successful,” Rodríguez said.
Niara Nichols wears many hats at UAlbany. She’s a graduate student teacher, a PhD student, and tutor. Nichols says the center gives new life to the services.
“Before we had like a couple of rooms are kind of out of the way hard to find sometimes but having like this bigger space, it's in a high flow area, and it's like well decorated, it's just a lot more like happy vibe about it,” Nichols said. I feel like it makes the tutoring process were easy and it and feel like it makes more of like a communal area where people feel more welcome to come in and get help.”
But what about non-STEM fields?
Sarah Rucker, an English and Journalism double major, says the university often lacks resources for liberal arts students.
“On this campus it's more STEM oriented,” Rucker said. “And I feel like any writing minor or major that is happening right now, like it's slowly being phased out. Like I know the English department. I think it's getting smaller; the journalism department is getting smaller. So, I don't know if it's strictly from administration or just like a lack of people want to do it. And that may be because they're pushing forward STEM related majors more because there's more out of it, they think.”
Rucker tutors in the university’s writing center. She says engagement is low because students don’t know what’s there.
“When it comes to professors and stuff like that, they don't typically use the writing center all the time, to push their students to work on their confidence when they're writing and stuff like that,” Rucker said. “It's never really coming from the professors.”
