HHMI Grants to Kenyon

Question 1. How is your center is run and where it is located within your campus?

As the Supervisor of the Math Skills Center, the day-to-day supervision of the lab is in my hands. I do all the day-to-day supervision of the student tutors, set up the Center’s hours, and generally run the lab. I also do all the one-on-one tutoring hook-ups for all math and computer science courses, and supervise the math and computer science student Prefectors (special tutors who are assigned to introductory level courses that are considered especially difficult. They attend all classes for the course, do the assigned readings, sometimes grade for the course, and hold two lab sessions each week to review and verbalize the material covered in class).

Although I am a part of the Academic Support Center and am under the direct supervision of the Director of the Academic Support Center, Steve Davis, my first level of contact on a day-to-day basis is with the Math Department and its chairperson, Gail Nelson. I attend all department staff meetings and participate in as many of the department’s activities as I can find time for. Also from time to time, math faculty have stopped in at the Center to help students from their classes and to just talk to them in a more informal setting.

My next level of contact is with Steve Davis, the Director of the Academic Support Center and with the Academic Support Center Staff. This contact has allowed me to gain a more encompassing view of the students who are having academic difficulty and the extent to which this difficulty crosses academic boundaries from one discipline to another. It also allows me to share interests and concerns with others who have similar interests and concerns. As a member of this group, I am on a committee called ESS (Ensuring Student Success) that meets bi-weekly with the class deans, the res. life director, and other support staff to discuss students who are having academic difficulty.

My third level of contact and the umbrella under which I exist is the Division of Student Life, under the Directorship of the Dean of Students, Mark Govoni. This umbrella group consists of all the staff members of: the Academic Support Center, the Career Center, Residential Life, the Wellness Center, Campus Activities, and Multicultural Affairs. Contact with this group manifests itself in monthly meetings in which we all get together to discuss current issues on campus and is usually led by the Dean.

Let me now describe the day-to-day running of the Center. The Center is staffed by myself and from 35 to 40 student tutors and we are open for walk-in tutoring assistance seven days a week: from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm Monday through Saturday, from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm on Sunday, and from 7:00 pm to 11:00 pm Sunday through Friday.

At the present time our working schedule is set up to coincide with our ‘a’ day class schedule, with a different student tutor present during each period; 1a (8:30 am to 9:45), 2a (9:45 am to 11:05), 3a (11:15 am to 12:25), and 4a (12:25 pm to 1:45); and two student tutors present during periods 5a (1:45 pm to 3:05) and 6a (3:05 pm to 4:20), with the 6a crew staying until 5:00 pm. I usually come in each day around 10:00 am and work along side my student tutors until 5:00 pm. On Sunday through Thursday evenings there are two student tutors, plus myself, present from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm, with two additional student tutors coming in at 8:00 pm and working until 11:00 pm. On Friday evening the Center is staffed by one student tutor from 7:00 pm to 11:00 pm, on Saturday we are staffed by one student tutor in the morning, by two student tutors from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm and on Sunday afternoon we are staffed by three student tutors from 2:00 pm to 5:00pm.

There are six basic services that either I or the Center provide. They are; our open tutoring, the administration of our diagnostic placement exam, the one-on-one tutoring that we provide, the supervision of the math/CS prefectors, the maintenance of our video, audio, and computerized tutoring materials, and the maintenance of our lending library and magazine rack:

Open Tutoring: This is by far the most widely used service that we offer. We assist all students who come in for help, no matter what course they are taking (in some instances it may even be a math related question in a course outside of the math department). Most of the students seeking assistance are in the Analysis Sequence (Calc. I, Calc. II, Calc. III, and Linear Algebra), but we also assist students in our two lower level Statistics courses, and our ‘Math for Poets’ class.

Diagnostic Exam: During the summer each year, we send out a diagnostic exam to all the incoming freshmen who score below 625 on their Math SAT exam or below 28 on their Math ACT exam and ask them to take this exam and send it back to us. We grade the exam and use it to determine their placement either into our Calc I with Review class or into our regular Calc. I class.

One-on-One Tutoring: I have hired an office worker to help me supervise all the one-on-one tutoring hook-ups for math and computer science. During the first week of each term, I request that any of my lab tutors who are interested in one-on-one tutoring fill out an interest form. From this stack of forms, I select one-on-one tutors to work with students who fill out a request form for a tutor in the class they are taking. I do the selection for the hook-up and my office worker sends out all the appropriate forms.

Prefector Supervision: We use prefectors in our Calc. I with Review course and in our three introductory Computer Science courses. I select the prefectors for these courses and assist Steve Davis (who selects the prefectors for all the other departments on campus) with the training and supervision of these prefectors.
Video, Audio, and Computerized Tutoring Materials: At one end of the main floor of the Math Skills Center we have a VCR, computer, and tape player that can be used to view or listen to statistics videos, audio tapes, and computer software designed to supplement the course material, review basic math, or prepare students for the GRE, MCAT, or LSAT exams.

Lending Library and Magazine Rack: We maintain a lending library containing all the text books that have been used in our old math courses. When a course is being taught, we buy the text book and put it on closed reserve in the Math Skills Center. Then when the course is over and the book is no longer being used in a course, we catalogue it and put it in the Math Skills Center library. We also maintain a magazine rack containing mathematics magazines, mathematics journals and monthlies, and a wide selection of computer science magazines.

Since its inception in 1975, the Math Skills Center has been located at various places on the Carleton campus, from Willis Hall to Olin Hall, back to Willis Hall, then to Laird Annex, then to Scoville Hall, and finally to its present location in the Center for Mathematics and Computing (the CMC building). Through all these moves, the Math Department has expressed a consistent desire to have the Center located in closer proximity to the Math Department. In fact one of the stated reasons for constructing a new Math and Computer Science building was so that this goal could be achieved. So, with the completion of the CMC building in 1993, the Department got its wish and the Math Skills Center is now located squarely in the center of the Math Department, with the staff offices in one wing of the building, the class rooms and computer labs in the other wing, and the Math Skills Center in between with a large glass wall facing the hallway, making its interior visible to all who walk by.
Because of this close proximity to the department and to the class rooms and labs where most of the math and computer science classes are held, the Center has become an integral part of the Math Department and the students have adopted the Center as a place to study, to do their homework, to grade papers, to meet for one-on-one tutoring sessions, to meet as a group while working on a computer lab, and in general as a place to ‘hang out’ between their classes.

In its present and ‘hopefully’ permanent location, the Math Skills Center is broken up into two physical spaces, one on the second floor of the CMC building and the other on the third floor, connected by an open stairway with a balcony overlooking the lower level. The upper level has become a quiet study area and a place where small groups can meet to work on labs or meet for one-on-one tutoring sessions. The lending library is located on this floor and contains copies of most of the text books that have been used in our old math courses. From time to time the tutors visit this floor to see if the students there have any questions that might require their assistance. But most of the walk-in tutoring takes place on the lower level. This level is shaped like an ‘L’ with the top of the ‘L’ facing west and the bottom facing north. At the top end of the ‘L’ is a semi-secluded space containing a VCR, a tape recorder, and a computer, with VCR tapes used in our statistics sequence (called ‘Against All Odds’), other VCR and audio tapes, and computer software on GRE, MCAT, and LSAT prep. and Pre-Calculus review. At the bottom end of the ‘L’ is my office (large enough for two desks, one for me and one for my office assistant). Most of the walk-in tutoring takes place in between these two spaces where we have three round tables that each seat six people and a large table that seats ten. Each of the round tables has a graphing calculator attached to it on a flexible cable and the large table has two graphing calculators attached to it.

Question 2. What are the qualifications of your center’s director?
I have a BA degree from St. Olaf College, with a major in Mathematics and a minor in Physics (1964). I spent two years in the Peace Corps, where I taught mathematics at all the high school and junior college levels and physics at the high school level (1965-67). Upon returning to the states, I went to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where I amassed 43 graduate credits in mathematics, selecting from a broad range of mathematical topics without specializing in any one area (1967-69). My goal there was to acquire a math background that was “a mile wide and hopefully at least a couple of feet deep”. After two school years and two summers of course work there, I got involved with raising money for the migrant farm workers in the midwest who follow a migrant circuit picking cucumbers and strawberries. Eventually I ended up in Montreal, Canada, where I worked with one of the Grape Boycott Groups, doing union organizing for the United Farm Workers Union under the leadership of Ceaser Chavez (1969-70). After working there for a year, I returned to Minnesota and to school.
After completing an MAT degree in teaching mathematics, from the University of Minnesota, Mankato (1971), I taught for a year as a long term substitute physics teacher at Vocational High School in Minneapolis (1972-73) and for a year as a long term substitute math teacher in Sidney, Iowa (1973-74). Then in the fall of 1974, I was hired by Carleton College to tutor minority students as a part of a FIPSE grant (Funds for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education). While working at Carleton in a part time capacity, I also taught for a term in the Math Department at Inver Hills Community College and for a semester in the Math Department at St. Olaf College.

Question 3. Is the director’s position a full-time or part time position?
My job as the supervisor of the Math Skills Center sort of evolved from my work here as a one-on-one tutor. As I and another tutor, hired under the same grant, worked one-on-one with students, we began to talk of ways that we could help more students than the few that we were able to work with on a one-to-one basis, to the point where we asked if we could move chairs aside in a class room during the evening and, in the spring of 1975, we opened up a walk-in tutoring facility and made ourselves available for 12 hours each week to assist grant recipients with math-related problems.

The Math Department, whose members were looking for a better format for their pre-calculus offerings, liked the idea of a lab and hired us to open up such a lab for the next academic year with the following directives:

1. To administer the Diagnostic Placement Exam during freshmen week each year and to counsel the students taking this exam as to which introductory level course they should be taking.

2. To offer an individualized modular program of study, which covers the spectrum of topics from Arithmetic and Analytical Geometry to Logarithms and Trigonometry, these ‘mini-courses’ to be made available to the students on a non-credit basis along with a set of placement exams to help determine which mini-courses to review (we still have them but do not use them any longer unless there is a unique request for them).

3. To provide walk-in tutoring assistance to all students taking any math courses and experiencing difficulty with them.

During that first year, we were funded by the grant under a unique contract structure. Today I have a full time position, its definition somewhere between a faculty and administrative position.

Question 4. What types of students generally use the center? Students in intro classes? Math majors? Students with deficiencies?
All of the above. In the fall of each year, I used to hold a pre-calculus review program directed toward those students who scored poorly on our Diagnostic exam. This was a non-credit program designed to prepare these students for our two term Calc. I with Review course that would be offered winter and spring terms, and to get them familiar with the Math Skills Center. It was a low key program that met over cookies and juice every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday morning from 8:30 to 10:30 am. Our goal was to get through the workbook text, ‘Algebra and Trigonometry Refresher for Calculus Students’ by Loren C. Larson and the format usually consisted of me talking about the new material for the first twenty minutes or so and then having everyone work problems for the rest of the session. Because it was not offered for credit, out of about ten students starting the program, about two or three would finish. But I do think it got them comfortable with working in the lab and gave them the message that we were there for them. Unfortunately, that and the two term format of the Calc. I with Review class created a group of students that wanted to take more calculus, but were not prepared for the faster pace of our regular Calc. II course and consequently did not do well in that class (out of eight who went on to take Calc. II, six ended up dropping the course). So we are trying a different format next year. We have hired a 5th year Intern from our senior class who will hold lab sessions for the Calc. I with Review course every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon (a job that was presently being done by a Prefector). But the Intern will also grade for the course, and the two terms during which the course will be offered will switch to fall and winter, from its present winter and spring format. The Intern will then continue with the class during spring term as they adjust to the faster pace of a regular Calc. II class.

Also, as I mentioned earlier, the Math Skills Center has become a congregating place for math majors. They come here to do their grading, to check their e-mail, to work together in small groups (or alone) on the upper level courses they are taking, and to just hang out between classes (this spring they got so involved in playing a computer game, called Text-Twist on the lab computer, that we organized a student/staff competition). All of our one-on-one tutoring hook-ups meet in the Math Skills Center, usually on the upper floor. Other students in the statistics courses also come in for help or to work together in small groups on their stats lab activities.

Question 5. Please comment on the strengths and weaknesses of your center.
One of its greatest strengths is its wide acceptance here on campus and the openness with which students at all levels accept it as a place where they can come for help without feeling any negative stigma attached to their request for help. We have always tried to promote the idea of ‘enrichment rather than remediation’.

On the other end, we have felt a sense of weakness in our efforts to expand the services that we offer to include more computer science courses. In fact, back in the 90’s, I actually went back to summer school up at the U. of Minn. for three summers to take computer science courses with the idea of expanding our services in that direction. But after taking six computer science courses over three summers, we found the line between providing computer science tutoring assistance and simply feeding students the code that would get their programs to run to fuzzy for comfort and we pretty much dropped the idea. Now our only effort in that direction is to identify with a star those tutors on our schedule who have taken our first two entry level CS courses so that students taking those courses can come in for help when one of those tutors is working.

Another area in which I feel a sense of weakness is in our tutor training efforts. At our old locations, I used to put old calculus exams in the tutors Math Skills Center PO Boxes with the idea that they would work these old exams in their down time as a review of the material that was currently coming up in class. But with our move to this location, we have not had enough down time to keep up on these old exams. Consequently the training has dropped to a once a term meeting of the new tutors at which a member of the Math Department reviews the calculus syllabi and introduces the new tutors to the department.

Question 6. What words of advice would you offer to someone who is in the position of creating a math center at a liberal arts college?
Words of advice come to mind and leave again so quickly that I will simply list some of them as they come to mind without identifying any one as being more or less important than any of the others:

1. As you work with each student, give that student your complete attention and never leave a student until that student has received the help needed to move to the next level. Word of mouth that a student got the help they needed (or didn’t) is the best way to gain (or lose) clients. I’ve found that students are willing to wait for help if they know that when it is their turn, they will get the help they need.

2. It is important to have a supervisor present even while other tutors are present and working with students. There are numerous times when I overheard incorrect information being presented by a tutor and was able to step in and provide a ‘learning moment’ for not only the student being helped, but for the tutor as well.

3. The Center needs to be open and adequately staffed when the students need the help and are free to spend time at the Center. This means being open on the evenings before ‘a’ days (our busiest shifts are the 7:00 pm to 11:00 pm time slots on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings, the night before ‘a’ days).

4. As someone who has been teaching and re-teaching the same concepts for the past 28 years, it certainly helps to have patience. By making my goal that of seeing each student understand the concept being presented and have them finish our interaction with a sense of satisfaction on his/her face makes explaining the concept the 100th time just as fresh as explaining it the first time.

5. Students have marveled at my ability to ‘shift gears at a moments notice’ and speak intelligently about any math concept in any calculus course, any linear algebra course, any statistics course, and just about any math course that they are taking. As someone who has been doing this now for 28 years, I certainly don’t see anything out of the ordinary in this, but it does help to have a broad math background when you begin a job of this type.

6. And finally, I think a job of this type requires someone with dedication. My service in the Peace Corps taught me that knowledge possessed by one culture grows only to the extent that it can be shared by other cultures and that with the increase in our minority populations here in the states, we need to make access to higher education more accessible to our minority populations. Through my 28 years here at Carleton, this has been one of the core goals that has kept me motivated to continue doing what I do.