Ashley Larson

Contributing Writer

The ESU Senate meeting discussed tutoring, updates on the leave of absence policy, possible change of entrance requirements and perhaps introducing electronic vehicle charging sessions. The most in-depth conversations focused on tutoring and entrance requirements.

Talk of the effectiveness of tutoring, improving the tutoring program and the possibility of reintroducing professional tutors has been an ongoing discussion point in the university senate meetings this year.

Members are waiting on the Gardner analysis, a report that contains data of tutoring sessions, including student ID numbers and number of sessions. This data can be cross-referenced with the data from Warriorfish and Degreeworks, which contains academic data, to see how tutoring impacts grades.

“One of the issues I know we have is getting tutoring to the people who need it most. That is an issue. So it’s far more complex than creating more tutors or different forms {of tutoring},” says Margaret Ball, vice president of academic affairs.

Nieves Gruneiro-Roadcap, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, proposed using warrior modules to target students who have attempted multiple credits without completing them. She also talked of possibly adapting courses to help students complete their credits instead of withdrawing.

The current goal is to put together a presentation of what is effective and what is not, and then start making improvements to boost student success.

The topic of official leave of absence was dealt with swiftly. The main concern with the leave of absence policy is how financial aid is handled.

“The process would work with federal {and} state financial aid regulations, or some type of tuition process. Also added, the group began drafting a leave of absence policy which we need to finalize to get vetted. The leave of absence policy will include how financial aid can be handled,” says Robert Cohen, senate member.

The motion was moved to refer this to the budget committee.

On a more controversial note, there was disagreement over the state of new students and whether or not expectations need to be raised.

Susan Dillmuth-Miller, senate president, said, “I’m hearing from across the campus, there are some students across campus that, even with accommodations to make the curriculum accessible, there are still students who, just, are really struggling.”

She went on: “They’re not successful. And perhaps, you know, in high school they had their curriculum altered so that they could be successful. They get a good GPA. They’re here. But you know we don’t alter. Here we deliver accommodations. But these are students who actually need alterations.”

Domenico Cavaiuolo, professor of special education, countered: “There have been some students who, just clearly, are not college-bound students. And they would have been better served to have received a different direction in terms of a career goal for them.”

“We’re into the numbers game,” he further explained. “We don’t want to shoot ourselves in the foot, but it also comes back to, are we selling students a bill of goods by bringing them in, taking the money and then saying ‘You know I’m sorry, you’re just not competent or capable enough to graduate
and we’re not about to alter our courses’?

“We will do all that we can, and I’m in the special-ed department, and I’m more than accommodating to my students. I will do whatever it takes to help them achieve and be successful. But the bottom line is that, with all of that being done and said, they still struggle, and there’s nothing more I can do. And I don’t personally don’t feel comfortable having a student in the class, knowing that they probably shouldn’t be there. But yet we’re allowing them to be there.”

The discussion led to the possibility of looking at attributes other than high school GPA to determine college readiness. The decision was made to postpone the discussion until the Garner report comes back, and then refer the issue to the department of enrollment.

On a final note, the possibility of putting EV charging stations on campus was brought up by Bill Broun, English professor,  and the discussion was referred to the budgeting and finance department