By Amelia Kibbe
Features Editor
St. Bonaventure’s Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) will celebrate its 25th anniversary this fall. The center hopes to install new initiatives to attract a broader range of students.
Dr. Gordon De La Vars, along with a panel of faculty members, established Bonaventure’s TLC 25 years ago this fall. Today, TLC instructors help students in almost every subject.
Jean Ehman, current director of the TLC, explained De La Vars wanted the focus to be a peer-to-peer approach. Any Bonaventure student is eligible for tutoring at no cost. All students are also welcome to make use of the TLC writing lab.
“We offer academic support services for all students,” Ehman said. “It comes in terms of peer tutoring for almost every subject. In addition to this, we also offer some group tutoring. Our writing lab is across the curriculum. If students are having difficulty in any phase of the writing process, we are eager to help them.”
The TLC hires student tutors. Students who excelled in a particular class can apply to tutor.
“A student who has been successful in a class simply needs to come down and fill out a request to tutor form,” Ehman said. “And the class does not necessarily have to be in his or her major, it could be a Clare class or just any class that was successful. Certainly if it’s a major course, that’s fine as well. We also ask the professor from whom the student took the course to verify that the student would be a good tutor.”
Student tutors are paid through the work study program, Ehman explained.
In the past, the TLC has focused on students who have slipped behind academically. To celebrate its 25th anniversary, the TLC is incorporating new ideas into their structure.
This week, graduate students who are instructors for the TLC are in Café La Verna to recruit students to make use of the TLC. Next Wednesday, TLC instructors will set up camp in Robinson Hall from 2 to 3 p.m. to attract freshmen.
The point, Ehman explained, is to encourage students to regularly use the TLC and not just as a last resort.
“Through a survey we took (last year), we netted a rich conglomeration of what students thought about the TLC, what their needs are…” Ehman said. “That helped us mold where we want to be in our next quarter century. We have always been at the ready to help students who are on the verge of or in an academic jam. Our emphasis this fall, in addition to helping those students, is to try to reach students before anything goes south.”
Ehman added the TLC is willing to help students with a variety of things, including organizational skills and the writing process.
“It could be with the brainstorming part of it or maybe reading a rough draft or final editing,” Ehman said.
Ehman is looking to give students the boost needed to help them reach their full academic potential.
“Basically, this fall, we are looking to help students who are doing fine but who want to excel,” she said.
As another activity for their anniversary, the TLC will host a passport event for freshmen called “The Good, the Bad, the Bonaventure” early in October, with the exact date still pending. Freshmen will be given the opportunity to talk with older students about all aspects of the college experience.
For more information on the Teaching and Learning Center, call 716-375-2066 or email TLC@sbu.edu.
