Academic Skills Center

The Academic Skills Center (ASC), located in the Mudd Learning Center, provides a variety of peer tutoring and academic assistance services for Albion College students. In addition, the ASC has three centers that offer professional assistance in learning skills, quantitative skills and writing. See the ASC Web site (www.albion.edu/asc/) for current information regarding subject area help rooms, to submit requests for peer tutors, or to request appointments with ASC staff. All services of the Academic Skills Center are free to Albion College students.

Learning Support Center
The Learning Support Center helps students who want to improve or streamline their academic performance. Common student goals include improving reading speed and comprehension, learning effective test preparation, and organizing an overwhelming workload. First-year students often seek assistance from the center to bring their study skills up to college level; upper division students utilize the center for a wide variety of academic concerns. Students may request appointments or assistance at any time of the semester.

The Learning Support Center also coordinates services and accommodations for students with disabilities. These services are provided in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and are intended to remove barriers to participation in the college environment. Examples of accommodations include extra time on examinations, distraction-free test locations, note-taking and books on tape. The center also monitors first-year student performance, and provides academic coaching for time management, supplemental advising regarding course selection, and initial screening and information for students with questions regarding possible learning disabilities and ADHD.

Quantitative Skills Center
The Quantitative Skills Center assists students interested in enhancing their abilities in areas related to quantitative skills, such as mathematics, statistics, logic and using computers and graphing calculators. Students may consult with the director to determine their individual strengths and weaknesses and to help devise strategies leading to their success. The resources of the Center include a collection of mathematics texts that students may check out and a set of computerized self-paced tutorials in algebra and trigonometry that students may use at their convenience. Students can receive help on a drop-in basis, and those desiring long-term one-on-one tutoring in math can be paired with trained student tutors. In addition to these services, the Quantitative Skills Center sponsors a series of workshops. Recent workshops have included such topics as using graphing calculators, solving story problems, overview of important calculus concepts, study skills, test-taking strategies and preparing for graduate school entrance exams.

Writing Center
The Writing Center supports the entire College community. Peer consultants at the Writing Center are trained to work one-on-one with student writers at every stage of the writing process--from initial brainstorming to writing drafts, and from organizing ideas to revising or final editing. The Writing Center consultants support writers by responding to writing in process--working together with students--not by proofreading, editing or writing students' papers. The goal is to help students from all academic departments, class standings and writing abilities become better writers.

Writing Center consultants help students with the wide variety of writing taught in different academic disciplines, as well as other kinds of writing they might need to do while at college (e.g., cover letters for internships, resumes for job applications, personal statements for scholarships or graduate school). The director of writing, in consultation with the individual student, may plan a program of writing practice to meet the student's needs. The Writing Center's mission is to provide assistance for every writer at the College, even already good writers.

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