The Bernard B. Rinella, Jr. Learning Center has seen an increase in students looking for tutoring services, aiding 1,323 students in fall 2008-154 more students than fall 2007.
"We have seen a huge increase in students seeking the tutor services," said Sandra Mastandrea, administrator for the tutorial program. "Increases have been across the board, with languages, math and sciences all up."
According to Mastandrea, all subject areas were popular last semester, with students seeking help in everything from statistics to foreign languages.
The most popular subject was science, with 36 percent of students seeking help with science classes, followed by 31 percent looking for help with math and 20 percent looking for help with languages.
"We had a huge increase in the language department (as compared to last fall semester)," Mastandrea said. "Also, we had a lot of students looking for help with statistics first semester."
Mastandrea said many of the students seeking tutorial help are international students, mainly because of the language barrier they face in classes.
"We do have an increase in international students," Mastandrea said. "This is the first time in the last year that we really have been able to have (Asian) tutors. What I found is that those tutors were able to tutor (Asian) students, which helped the students. That is a big change."
Barbara Jones, vice president of student affairs, agreed.
"(The Rinella Learning Center) also have increased tutoring support for international students with 14 international peer tutors on the staff," Jones said at the Board of Trustees meeting Dec. 12, 2008.
The majority of students that use the center are first-years. Forty-one percent of students who used the center last semester are in their first year, while only 10 percent were seniors. The center tutored for a total of 8,139 hours fall 2008, up 1,122 from fall 2007, according to Mastandrea.
While there has not been enough time to evaluate the data to see why the number of hours increased so drastically, it could be because there is no longer a fee for tutoring. In fall 2007, the $23 charge was dropped and the services were offered for free.
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"I think that students like the fact that they can receive these services for free," sophomore Jonathan Rogowski said. "Even though it was free last year, I think more students are hearing about it now."
Mastandrea said she hopes the increase will continue, but it does surprise her.
"If (the numbers) keep rising we'll have to add on over here at the CAB," she said. "We tutor an hour at least 22 tables from 8 a.m to 8 p.m. We are pretty much bulging over here. The demand is definitely up."
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