Wheel program gets rolling with on-line aid

The new programs offer support in residences and over the Internet. Being a student is often said to be a 24-hour job, but while Wawa and Kinko's provide all-night service, finding help with Calculus 140 at 3 a.m. can be a difficult task. The Residential Faculty Council and student volunteers have joined together to solve this problem with a program offering academic support in residences and over the Internet -- 24 hours a day. The Wheel program --Ewhich took its name from a feeling among faculty that they were "reinventing the wheel" -- tailors current tutoring programs to the needs of particular residences, while planning for the addition of new services, according to RFC Chairperson and English Professor Al Filreis. Because it involves re-allocating resources from current programs, most of the initiative can be implemented without extra cost to the University. A Wheel program to provide in-residence writing assistance, for example, uses money from the existing Writing Advisors program in Bennett Hall. The first stages of the program involve providing the college houses and freshman dormitories with services such as computer assistance and writing advising. In-residence services are not yet available in the high rises because providing such offerings in buildings which do not have residential staffs is more expensive and complicated than providing services in fully staffed houses, Filreis said. In addition to the new in-house writing and computing support, math workshops have also been tailored to individual residences. Following the suggestion of a student tutor, the math advising program --Ewhich used to offer weekly sessions with graduate students in a few dorms -- was revamped this fall to include nine undergraduate tutors. The tutors, who are attached to one or two of the 11 college and freshman houses, have extended hours and provide help via e-mail. The additional help sessions typically occur later in the evening and are advertised over e-mail to residents taking math classes. College junior Laura Kornstein, who organized the program, said these factors have led to increased turnout. The tutors have also begun making an effort to maintain personal contact with the students in their house, Kornstein said. "The tutors e-mail students so they know who will be there," Kornstein said. "You feel like it's an actual person, not just a body." Another Wheel project in its initial stages is a pilot library liaison program, under which one liaison in each of the 11 houses provides library and database tutorials. The program, which is funded by a grant from the 21st Century Project and a matching grant from the library budget, also provides all-day e-mail help and after-hours training sessions in Van Pelt Library itself. Filreis said he hopes to begin several other new services in the near future, including language tutoring and a music and art program. The RFC also hopes to extend an in-house research support program beyond Van Pelt's EFFECT initiative, which involves a small community of students based in the residence. And the RFC is considering residential economics tutoring, according to Vice Provost for Information Systems and Computing Jim O'Donnell. Implementation of the Wheel initiative comes as the Residential Communities Committee prepares to release a follow-up to a report last spring by Art History Professor David Brownlee outlining sweeping changes to campus residences, including multi-year residential communities. The follow-up report will outline the exact mechanisms and timetables for residential renovations and community programs in residence. The interest among faculty and administrators in residential academic services and the current efforts to restructure residences combine to make this a "rare opportunity" to implement a program such as Wheel, Filreis added.

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