For Tau Beta Pi, an engineering honor society, finding tutors isn’t the problem. What this group needs is students who want to be tutored — for free.

Every semester, Tau Beta Pi offers free tutoring services to students taking basic math, science and engineering classes. However, not many students take advantage of the service, said Sean McCargar, projects officer for Tau Beta Pi.

“We’re trying to get the word out,” said McCargar, senior in chemical engineering. “A lot of times, tutors show up, and there’s just nobody there.”

Even though the group has a posted schedule in Marston Hall and on the Internet, the response is pretty low.

To help students, the schedule lists names of tutors, the time they tutor and their majors. This allows students to meet with tutors who have varying engineering backgrounds, McCargar said.

Most of the 26 tutors are members of Tau Beta Pi, are juniors or seniors in engineering and rank near the top 10 percent of their class, McCargar said.

Tutoring often is used as a service project for members and initiates, he said.

Tau Beta Pi Society President Mark Meacham said tutoring has two purposes.

“It helps refresh the memories of upperclassmen, and it helps underclassmen with coursework in their basic classes, like physics and calculus,” said Meacham, senior in mechanical engineering.

But when no one shows up, tutors just end up doing homework, and that can get frustrating, said Tory Keyzer, Tau Beta Pi society treasurer.

Another problem could be that people don’t know the free tutoring service is available. McCargar, Meacham and Keyzer said they didn’t take advantage of the free service because they weren’t aware of it when they were underclassmen.

“I know there were definitely times when I could have used it,” said Keyzer, senior in civil engineering.

At present, tutors are available on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 402 Marston Hall.

Interested students can find out more about the tutoring program by checking the honor society’s Web site at www.iastate.edu/~tbp/local/ tutoring.html.