The Academic Success Center, located on the ground floor of Pearson Hall, provides students with a number of services they can seek when they are in academic peril.

The services range from tutoring and individual academic counseling to supplemental instruction offered through or administered by the center.

Gwen Woodward, director of the Academic Success Center, said the center’s Academic Learning Lab is the service most utilized by students.

The Academic Learning Lab is a learning center run by graduate students who are trained to help students at any level of class work or ability. The learning lab focuses on improving students’ study skills.

When coming to the center, a student is first evaluated through an interview, which determines where the student’s main area of difficulty lies, said Woodward, graduate student in curriculum and instruction.

From there, the student is directed either to the learning lab or to supplemental instruction, a program which provides additional instruction for difficult courses.

However, if the student’s problem requires more personal attention, individual consultation is provided for particular study problems.

Woodward said it is rare for students to be directly referred to individual consultation after the initial interview.

“Usually, the students who warrant individual consultation are referred to us by their professors or advisers,” she said.

However, advisers do not only refer students with academic problems to the center.

“I refer one-half to two-thirds of all of my advisees to the Academic Success Center,” said Dan Rice, an academic adviser in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Students must make appointments for the Academic Success Center.

Supplemental instruction, another service offered by the center for additional instruction in certain areas, is led by students who have proven their proficiency in particular courses.

Woodward said math and science courses have the highest rate of supplemental instruction.

She also said the groups often develop high community interaction during the sessions.

“Supplemental instruction provides a sense of empowerment [for the students] because of the community that develops through the group sessions,” Woodward said. “Students take with them not only new study skills and information but a new confidence level as well.”

Another widely known service provided by the Academic Success Center is tutoring.

Mary Camp, Academic Success Center secretary, said tutors are generally graduate or undergraduate students, but some are alumni.

Tutoring is the only service through the center that charges a fee for use.

An individual tutor will cost $6.50 per hour, and a group tutor costs $3 per hour.

Camp said financial aid available through the university can be applied toward tutoring services at the Academic Success Center.

She said a portion of funding for the Academic Success Center comes from tutoring services.

The center is also funded through Student Affairs and the provost’s office.