Faculty members at Skyline College struggle with communicating new Learning Center policies to students Students and faculty alike have been dealing with the new changes in The Learning Center. Last April, State regulations revised the title five, which defines how student services are administered on college campuses. This title five has made it clear to faculties that students must use the learning center for academic purposes only. A large number of the students that were utilizing the center used it primarily for emails and Myspace.”Half of the students that were using the learning center were not taking advantage of the resources” said Ali Niciejewski, a student tutor in the learning center.The faculty of Skyline College was presented immediately with a problem. Over the summer they had to strategize a way to smoothly transition this change to the students. At the beginning of the semester, faculty passed out forms to be signed by students in order to acknowledge the changes. Theses new changes to the learning center now require student who use the computers, to sign in. The use of the computers must be linked directly to school activities. The State is keeping track of student activities in the learning center so that Skyline can continue to receive funding. “Federal money pays to provide extra assistance to about 300 students” said Learning Center Director, Leslie Shelton. Students were not properly introduced to these new policies and how they could be beneficial to them. As a result, a lot of them became confused and upset. “If we pay for our classes, why can’t we be in the learning center if we’re coming to school?” Said Skyline student Rodrigo CanoThe Learning Center offers a lot of resources that are free. Checking out media, 8 hours tutoring, studying and even the Macintosh computers are still open and not constricted.”None of us want to be policemen” said Felix Perez, tutorial coordinator, about accusations of staff being too strict in the learning center. Many Colleges do not have a learning center; Skyline offers students free tutoring in all subjects. Hours by arrangement, which is required by some classes, can be executed in the learning center. “You get one on one tutoring as much as you want for only 10 dollars, that’s a steal,” said Ali.Students would need to enroll in some of the learning center courses if they plan using some of the more specific services, or getting extra tutoring. The learning center continues to “fine tune” all of the glitches as time goes by said Leslie.
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New learning center policies confuse Skyline students
Alicia Johnson
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March 6, 2007
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