By KRISTIN HODGES

kdh027@latech.edu

 

Holding open house tomorrow, the Student Achievement Center is the latest way for Tech students to receive assistance with academics.

The SAC will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday in Wyly Tower of Learning, main and third floors.

Norm Pumphrey, director of retention and advising, said the center was formed to help students be successful at Tech and beyond.

“We are about trying to help them succeed, so they can get their degree, hopefully from Louisiana Tech, and go on to bigger and better things,” Pumphrey said.

The center has several ways to assist students, Pumphrey said.

“Right now, one of the main academic ways is we provide math learning assistance for math classes,” Pumphrey said.

He said these classes include Math 099, 101, 102, 112, 125, 240 and 241.

Another way for the SAC to help students is the Writing Center located in Wyly Tower, Room 325 which offers assistance for the lower levels of English classes, 099 through 102, Pumphrey said.

“We don’t proofread, we don’t edit,” Pumphrey said.

“We help them to learn, so they can fix [the current] paper and future papers.”

Paula Brown, coordinator of the Writing Center and a instructor of English, said the writing assistance will help students feel more relaxed and happier when it comes time to write.

Brown said students have someone to help them work on their papers, but the students have to take an active role in correcting the problems.

“They do have to sit here and we assess what the issues and problems might be and we go over it together,” Brown said. “We don’t guarantee that when a person walks out the door that they’re going to have a perfect draft, because we’re not just here to fix it.”

Brown said she and her assistants make the students do the correcting, and supervise their efforts.

“It is a balancing act between helping and helping too much. You cannot help too much, because it’s not like math tutoring, where it’s clear cut,” Brown said.

Brown also said the assistants have to be careful to make sure the students write their own paper.

Jennifer Bailey, a writing assistant and a senior English major, said the Writing Center helps students with their fear of English classes in general.

“Everyone must go through the basic composition courses,” Bailey said. “It helps to have someone who is enthusiastic and willing to sit down for an hour for one-on-one tutoring.”

Brown said in the future, she hopes to expand the center’s hours and offer writing help to students in every discipline, such as support with thesis and reports.

Pumphrey said the math and writing assistance is just the beginning for the SAC.

He said the SAC is in the process of transitioning advising for undeclared majors from the basic and career studies.

Pumphrey also said this process will probably take two years to get the students fully transitioned.

Pumphrey said other projects, including the advising of undeclared majors and the development of a first year experience program to coincide with university seminar classes, are in the future and are all a part of the additional support the center offers.

Pumphrey also said hopefully the services the SAC offers will cause students to stay at Tech and graduation rates to go up.

 “We feel like if we can do things to connect students to the university and make them like being here and help make them successful in their academics, then they will stay and graduate,” Pumphrey said.

“Those two numbers will take care of themselves if we can help the students to achieve and be successful.”