Friday, March 4, 2011

SGA senators discuss fee to support tutoring

SGA senators discuss fee to support tutoring

SGA senators discuss fee to support tutoring

Posted: 03 Mar 2011 09:12 PM PST

Students might be paying more next year if a temporary tutoring fee proposal for a $1 charge per credit hour is passed.

At the Student Government Association meeting on Tuesday, Executive Director for Academic Retention Initiatives Jill Simons and Coordinator of the Learning Support Services Andrea Forrester spoke about the idea of adding a temporary fee to help fund more tutoring programs for students.

"We are trying to help students succeed in college," Forrester said. "Most students drop out of college during their freshmen and sophomore years. Right now we provide tutoring for general education classes, but we want to broaden our tutoring to help students in their classes that go towards their majors."

The fee would be temporary and, if possible, would start next fall.

"Right now, it's just an idea we wanted to bring up," Simons said. "We aren't announcing it as a proposal just yet, but we will be in the next couple of weeks and hopefully we can get it passed and start it this coming fall semester."

There are currently 30 part-time students tutoring different subjects. The students are getting paid and get raises over a period of time. In order to qualify to be a tutor a student must have completed the course they want to tutor in with an A or B and have a 3.25 GPA.  

"Just because you are majoring in one subject doesn't mean you have to tutor in that area," Forrester said. "We have had English majors help tutor in math. It all just depends on how well you know the subject you want to tutor in."

Students do not have to pay for tutoring. They can come to the Learning Support Center on the first floor of the library and get help in their general education classes. With the $1 fee per credit hour, the Learning Support Center can expand what classes they tutor in by hiring more student tutors who can help other students in the classes required for their majors.

Internal Vice President of the Graduate Student Council Tom Henry also spoke at the SGA meeting about how GSC receives little funding compared to SGA.

"GSC and SGA are linked to the university as a whole, but with the way the structure is set up, funds aren't being distributed evenly between the two," Henry said. "Currently, GSC has no office, no telephone, no office supplies and no money to give away for scholarships."

Henry said graduate students live off-campus and have more responsibilities than undergraduates and they need more funding than undergrads because they have bills and other expenses.

"GSC currently receives no funding and has very little support from SGA," Henry said. "In 2009, GSC tried to pass a proposal to where funds were going to be more evenly distributed between GSC and SGA. We got the Grad Council to approve, the deans to approve and almost everyone to approve of the proposal except SGA. This time we are taking a different approach. We already met with the president of ASU and have overwhelming support behind our proposal."

GSC is proposing to split the graduates' student activity fee. GSC will receive 75 percent of the fee and SGA will receive 25 percent. Currently GSC is receiving no funds while other university graduate councils are receiving a good portion of the graduates' student activity fee.

"SGA is concerned with only undergraduate students and GSC is only concerned with graduate students, and together they can include both undergrad and grad students in different activities on campus," Henry said.

GSC meets every other Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. on the 8th floor of the library. Henry and GSC members want to encourage graduate students and SGA members to come to their meeting and express their opinions about the proposal.

"My ultimate wish is for you guys to agree with me and the rest of the GSC members and stand behind us to pass this proposal," Henry said.

After the guest speakers, the senators were asked for any staff reports. SGA president Adrian Everett announced that over 100 students applied for the Create @ stAte day for undergrad and grad students. Create @ stAte allows students to talk about research projects they have been working on throughout the year.

In new business, SGA had an open junior senator seat to fill. Two students were applying for the open seat, Josh Waters and Hunter Petrus. Waters was in SGA at Arkansas Tech and then transferred to ASU. Petrus was in SGA at ASU his freshmen year, but didn't reapply for the next year because of scheduling issues. Petrus is also a member of the Student Activities Board.

Waters won the majority vote and was later sworn in to SGA.

SGA wanted to announce that there is an open senior senator seat for anyone who wanted to apply. Applicants must have at least 90 credit hours.

It was announced that there will be a Mardi Gras celebration Tuesday in the Union. There will be a palm reader, slushes, cake and Mardi Gras themed food.

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