Expanded tutoring services and more supplemental instruction opportunities are on the menu from USC's Student Success Center, a newly funded Columbia campus initiative.

The new center will focus on improving student retention and academic performance, particularly among freshmen, and cultivating other strategies for academic success. The center also will work with other existing academic support programs, including the Writing Center, the Math Lab, University Housing's Academic Centers of Excellence, and University 101.

"The Student Success Center isn't one big program but lots of different initiatives that meet the needs of many groups of students," said Chrissy Coley, director of retention and planning and of the new center. "We've been developing these partnerships with other programs and pilot testing new initiatives to make this happen. So many people at USC are passionate about students and ensuring their success."

Last year, USC launched the Supplemental Instruction (SI) program as a pilot project, providing after-hours review sessions for several key courses in biology, math, and chemistry. The sessions, led by trained undergraduate students who had successfully completed the courses, proved to be valuable to participants.

"About 2,200 students attended Supplemental Instruction (SI) sessions last year, and most who attended did better in those courses than non participants," said Julie Holliday, coordinator for Academic Success Initiatives.

The program will expand this fall with 55 undergraduate SI leaders leading review sessions in several disciplines, including business, economics, accounting, engineering, computer science and engineering, philosophy, psychology, math, history, chemistry and biology. The SI leaders coordinate their efforts with faculty members in the respective courses and meet with students up to three times weekly in group sessions.

Beginning this fall, most of the sessions will take place in study rooms in the library, which has provided space for Student Success Center staff on the mezzanine floor.

The center also is expanding tutoring services for writing and 100-level math courses, and another coordinator and graduate student will be hired to administer that program.

The center also will hire a coordinator of early intervention initiatives, which includes another program that began as a pilot project last year. The Excessive Absence Referral System identified and contacted freshmen who missed University 101 and English 101 classes. Those students were referred to the University counseling center, which led group sessions emphasizing the importance of class attendance. The program will continue and a freshman call center will be added to contact all freshmen twice each semester to check on their progress and remind them of important upcoming academic dates.

Another coordinator will oversee initiatives for special populations such as transfer students.

"Students often have the perception at a public university that the institution doesn't care if they graduate," Coley said. "Our hope is that USC students will avail themselves of these academic success opportunities and realize that the University does care about them."

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