Student tutoring program looks for more funds

PATRICK MCGARVEY/YH C ME AFTER CLASS: Yale College Student Tutors Liz Milbank, PC '01, Steve Shafer, PC '01, and Layla Ertegun, PC '01, prepare for action.

Everyone involved with the Yale College Student Tutoring program, which offers free peer tutoring to students, agrees that it's good at what it does. But they also believe that because of insufficient funding, the program isn't doing as much as it could. As of now, the tutors can only offer help to students who are already getting a C in a class.

"We need more tutors and the number of requests for tutors has increased," Assistant Dean Richard Chavolla, who heads the tutoring program, said. "We are limited to students who are getting a C or in danger of getting a C because of the way funding is." Chavolla said this restriction could be lifted if more tutors were hired.

Until two years ago, the peer tutoring program was only accessible to students on financial aid. It has since been expanded, but the demand for tutors still exceeds the number of tutors available in some subjects, particularly economics. Chavolla is working on a proposal to increase funding for the program.

Many of the tutors cite the C stipulation as a barrier to providing help to students who need it. Kathryn Wilson, SM '99, is tutoring economics for her fourth semester. "It's a good program," she said. "The only thing that's a problem is that people can't get a tutor until they're already doing badly. If they're struggling with the material for a midterm, they have to blow the midterm before they can qualify."

However, Dean Richard Brodhead, BR '68, GRD '72, pointed out that students don't have to do poorly on their midterm exams before they can get help. "The principal form of supplementary teaching is through sections and office hours rather than tutoring," he said. "Students can engage in one-on-one conferencing if they need help before their grades are low enough to qualify for tutoring." Although Brodhead acknowledged the value and success of student tutoring, he said, "I don't see it as the first place a student should turn."

But some tutors believe they offer a different perspective than do teacher's aides. "I've found that sometimes it's helpful to have taken the class that the person you're tutoring is in," Roger Peng, CC '99, a statistics tutor, said. "That way you're familiar with the professor and you might recognize some of the problem sets."

The Dean's Office can't afford to give a tutor to everyone who wants one. Chavolla said, "It would be great if we had the funding to provide tutoring for anyone who simply wants to know more, but one-on-one tutoring is very costly."

In addition to the $10 per hour the tutors are paid, the program generates administrative paperwork such as applications, time cards, and progress reports. which requires extra time and funding to process.

In order to receive tutoring, a student must fill out an application which then must be signed by the course instructor and the student's residential college dean. Once accepted, the student is then entitled to 10 hours of tutoring for the semester, and, if the tutor thinks it necessary, the student can get five more hours.

The program employed about 130 tutors for 400 students during the last academic year. The departments which offer tutoring include math, sciences and foreign languages. The tutors usually major in the subjects they tutor but this is not a requirement. They are hired based on a recommendation from the director of undergraduate studies of the department in which they intend to tutor and an interview with Chavolla.

Chavolla said that subjects in English and the humanities aren't included because they are largely covered by writing tutors in the residential colleges. There are math, science, and economics tutors in all the colleges, and college tutors are open to all students regardless of their grades.

With all these outlets available, most students probably find a place to turn to for help, but many feel that the extra personal attention resulting from an expansion of the program would be worth the financial cost. "If the program expands then it's a good thing," Elaine Kung, ES '99, a chemistry tutor, said. "Students won't be afraid of being denied tutoring if they ask, and students who really want to boost themselves can get help."

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