Tutoring and workshops on the Hill to be discontinued
By Golmah Zarinkhou
March 10, 2011 2:55 a.m.
Free tutoring programs and workshops in Covel Commons, which assist about 3,000 students per quarter, will close at the end of spring quarter due to budget woes.
The Covel Peer Learning Labs for math, science and composition will be discontinued, as will the Peer Advising Network. Peer learning for student athletes will continue because it is paid for by non-state funding.
Under current budgetary conditions, the programs in Covel are not likely to return, said Judith Smith, dean and vice provost of the Division of Undergraduate Education.
If Covel tutoring shuts down, UCLA will be the only UC without peer learning that is blind to issues like financial status or race, said Ryan Tsuchida, a peer learning facilitator for five quarters and a fourth-year psychobiology student.
The labs employ about 120 students as peer learning facilitators each year, said Bruce Barbee, director of Academics in the Commons.
Three staff members will lose their jobs, and 20 to 30 fewer peer learning facilitators will be hired next year, Smith said.
Tsuchida said the math and science labs are open to all students and fill up very quickly each quarter.
Health science students will likely feel most concerned because the math and science tutorials have the most students, Barbee said.
Also, students who speak English as their second language will lose a resource to improve their writing.
Tsuchida said he and other peer learning facilitators hope to spark a significant response from students and others on campus to protest the cut.
“I would have failed (Chemistry) 14C without Covel tutoring,” said second-year anthropology student Emma Basaran. “It’s getting harder and harder to be successful.”
Smith said she hopes to work with other departments to expand academic service to students.
For example, the Office of Residential Life runs math and science drop-in peer learning, and the Mathematics Department provides similar services, which Smith said she would like to help develop.
“It’s a shame we’re in a situation where something like this (has happened),” Barbee said. “But it’s strictly a business decision.”
Smith said other cuts will come as she is still making budget decisions.
