USC's Student Success Center has moved into new offices and study rooms in the Thomas Cooper Library's mezzanine floor (an open house is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Feb. 1), and has launched a new program this semester to assist students with faltering GPAs.

Students Tackling Academic Recovery (STAR) is focused on students who have GPAs 2.5 and lower. Research at USC has shown that first-year students with GPAs in that range have significantly lower graduation rates, lose scholarships, and face limited academic major options.

We've sent letters to the students and their parents in this category to let them know about a series of STAR workshops that could help them to improve their academic performance," said Chrissy Coley, director of the Student Success Center. "These workshops will not be mandatory, but that could change in the future if research proves their effectiveness."

STAR workshops will focus on note-taking skills, test anxiety, understanding VIP and financial aid, and other academic life skills.

At least 1,000 USC students have GPAs of 2.5 and below. About 500 students are below 2.0, and have received letters from the Financial Aid Office directing them to the Student Success Center.

The Student Success Center is part of the new Department of Academic Support that reports to Dennis Pruitt, vice provost and vice president for Student Affairs. The center is focused on improving student academic performance, student retention, and graduation rates.

In addition to the new STAR initiative, the center also plans to launch:

• a clearinghouse Web site that outlines minimum GPA requirements for USC's academic majors. The site will be particularly useful to students planning to change majors; 25 percent of students change their major in the first year of college.
• a first-year call center this spring that notifies all first-year students about important dates for registration and advising
• a drop-in tutoring service housed at Thomas Cooper Library featuring a trained cohort of tutors in biology, chemistry, accounting, math, physics, and foreign languages. Each of the tutors will be available for at least fours per week (10 hours maximum) and will be available by appointment beginning in the fall. Tutors will be paid, but their services will be free to students.

The center also is continuing its early intervention initiative that steers students who miss three or more class sessions in all sections of University 101 and English 101 and 102 to a Class Absence Reflection group.

Another Student Success Center initiative has geared up to help sophomores, transfer and out-of-state students, and students of color to become better adjusted to studying at USC and living in South Carolina.

"We get as many as 1,300 transfer students every year, and one-third of them are from Midlands Technical College," Coley said. "We want to help them and these other students to adjust to college life here. So many of our out-of-state students are very academically capable, but they need help in making the transition to living in a culture that might be different from home."

The Success Center's Supplemental Instruction program is moving its tutorial sessions to the library this spring. The program, which provides thrice-weekly group tutoring sessions in a number of courses, recorded 8,000 student visits in the fall. Research has shown that students who attend several SI study sessions for a given course achieve higher grades.

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