Departments
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Week of 5 September 1997 |
Vol. I, No. 2 |
Feature Article
Resource center aids students' academic success
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Writing fellow Louise Harrison offers advice to Masayo Hada (CAS'98) at the University Resource Center. Photo: Kalman Zabarsky |
by Marion Sawey
Help in making the difficult academic transition from high school to college is among the services available at the University Resource Center (URC), which assists over 8,000 students every year.
Open seven days a week, the URC tries to provide a comprehensive academic support system for students, offering help with writing problems or with undergraduate course work through its Writing Center and Peer Tutoring Program.
A very common problem that staff encounter is the difficulty students have in managing the transition from high school -- where they might have consistently earned As -- to university, where they might receive, for example, their first C grade for an important paper, says Louise Harrison, who helps staff the Writing Center.
"We will say, 'Don't worry, you're not the only one; a lot of people have this experience. Let's work together to capitalize on your strengths and figure out what your weaknesses are.' Often students will be intimidated by their professor because they have just got that first C, so we try to encourage them not to be afraid to talk to their professor about it because it is important that they get a sense of the grading patterns of college compared to high school. The situation is difficult for new students who have been used to being high achievers at school."
Despite the services it offers, the URC is emphatically not a remedial program, Harrison says. "It is an academic support program for people at all levels in all schools from undergraduate through to graduate students. We provide the materials, resources, advice, and tutoring so that students, regardless of whether they are A students or whether they are struggling, can maximize their potential."
The Writing Center is staffed by eight writing fellows, doctoral students with teaching experience, who see students individually for 40-minute sessions by appointment. Also, for less formal consultations, they hold weekly drop-in meetings at Warren Towers, Loretto Hall, and Sleeper Hall.
"We are open to everyone in the Boston University community," says Harrison, who is working on a Ph.D. in English at GRS. "We find ourselves tutoring freshmen struggling with basic English skills -- maybe because English isn't their first language or because they went to a high school that didn't emphasize writing skills very much -- right through to graduate students who might need some feedback on a research paper or suggestions for alternative approaches to a writing project."
The Writing Center, she says, supplements the help that students receive from professors. "A lot of problems that students have with papers are not content-based," she points out. "While they would prefer to go to their professors to discuss ideas and concepts, when it comes to actually figuring out how to organize and structure a paper, how to list citations and avoid plagiarism, that is where we can help. However, if we see a student who has a problem that a professor should be dealing with, we persuade the student to go to see him or her. Really, a lot of what we do is supporting and encouraging students, because being able to write well is basically about having the confidence to get something down on paper."
Harrison stresses that under no circumstances do writing fellows write or edit papers, but rather, they try to enable students to become editors of their own papers. "We are very conscientious about that," she says. "Some people may be under the impression that we are some kind of proofreading service, but that is not the case. Actually, I am working on developing strategies for helping students who come here expecting to have a paper proofread and corrected. I want to find a way of making them realize it is not that difficult to do the work themselves. Our task is to make better writers rather than to make better papers."
Under the Peer Tutoring Program offered by the URC, peer tutors, who are recommended by their professors and have done well in their own classes, spend two or three hours a week providing individual or group tutoring to students who are having difficulties with their work. Students seeking help fill out a peer tutor request application form, available at the Center.
Peer tutor Rishi Lulla (CAS'99), a biochemistry major, stresses that the free tutoring offered in most undergraduate courses is not a means of doing students' work for them.
"Tutoring is a great opportunity for me because it helps to reinforce principles that I already know as I teach them to another student," says Lulla, who tutors in chemistry and biology. "At the same time, it is good for the students because it helps them move along a little faster."
Students who want tutoring are encouraged to come to the URC right from the start of their courses, he points out. "We want to help them stay on top of their work throughout the course of the semester. We would rather not have them coming to us for help the week before final exams. Not only do we have final exams then too, but it is much more difficult, if not impossible, to catch up at that stage."
It is not only students having difficulties who avail themselves of the free tutoring, he adds. "We also get academically gifted students who could do well on their own, but the tutoring enhances their academic experience. You might have heard something a thousand times, for example, but hearing someone else say it a little differently might make it click."
Located on the first floor of the Sargent Gymnasium building at 1 University Road, the Center -- established by the Office for the Vice President and Dean of Students -- also provides free access to a Macintosh Lab and a Resource Room stocked with self-directed learning programs giving advice on time management, study skills, and other useful techniques.
For more information about the services offered by the URC, call 353-7077.