Ashland has several tutoring programs set up among the different fields of study such as psychology and mathematics. Students go to these programs whenever they need help with a certain class in the form of drop-in tutoring or when assigned by a teacher to visit the tutor in an attempt to better understand the material. Now, another tutoring program is gaining its foothold in Ashland University, after its start this past summer: the Academic Success Center. This facility, directed by Bruce Keller in room 704 of the library, is a more broad system of tutoring that is offered to any undergrad who needs assistance, regardless of grade in the class.

The Academic Success Center was set up by Keller and a steering committee from the Provost’s office to be easily accessible to the common student. Normally, a student would have to contact the individual department responsible for the tutoring but now a student can simply contact the Academic Success Center via e-mail or phone to set up tutoring with a wide range of classes that are in demand for tutoring. The purpose of this is to make a more student-friendly system where someone needing tutoring can go to one place instead of jumping through multiple channels. Keller compares the system to a mall, where all the shops and stores in the malls are the individual subjects that people would need help with but instead of just going to the singular store, you can go to the mall where all the subjects are covered.

Originally an offshoot of Disability Services, the Academic Success Center is the home of over 50 tutors so far and still more are currently in the training stages. Tutors are all students recommended by a teacher who has recognized the student’s potential of being a tutor for the teacher’s class. These tutors must go through a multi-session training period in less than two weeks that assists them in dealing with individual student’s needs and convey information in multiple different ways to ensure comprehension. When completed with the training session, the student is a certified tutor for the program and is assigned other students who need tutoring in the class or classes the tutor is qualified for. The program also offers tutors who can help students with basic need-to-know college skills such as time management, which is only briefly covered in Accent on Success classes. Tutors and their students then communicate with one another to determine a time that each can meet for a certain amount of time in a common place easily accessible to the student like a lobby of a dorm or study tables in the library or elsewhere.

Keller stresses how focused the program is on the needs of the student.

“I want students to know there is help available; that there is a great education at a great school and I encourage everybody to use any resources and other people for help,” Keller said. Keller is an alumni of Ashland University, class of 1972, and stood aside from being the president of the Alumni Board to be the Director of the Academic Success Center. He wants asking for help to come as natural to a student as breathing, regardless of strength in the subject, and wants to expand this program as much as possible in the year to come and those following. Keller also plans to have a larger list of courses the Academic Success Center tutors are read for by March.

Thus far, there are about 50 tutors who have completed the peer tutoring training and have been assigned students and subjects they can cover. The tutors are paid a minimum wage of $7.40 an hour, as long as they have completed the training session. If the tutors have tutored for two full semesters previously, they get paid an additional 25 cents an hour and if they have tutored four full semesters, they are paid another 25 cents extra. This is set up to attract more experienced tutors to the program to help get the program on solid ground and establish the program as a qualified and capable tutoring structure. Samantha Diemer, a sophomore a psychology and criminal justice major, is registered as a psychology tutor for the Academic Success Center. When asked what she thought of the new program, Diemer sees it in a positive light.

“It’s helpful because instead of going through the Center of Disabilities, you can go through others and you don’t have to do everything yourself,” Diemer said.