The Academic Skills Center launched an initiative last week to make student study groups free of charge for all students regardless of financial aid status. Prior to the change, students on financial aid paid an up-front fee of $10 for the term, while those who were not on financial aid paid $30, said Holly Potter, assistant director of Tutor Clearinghouse.
During the fall 2016 term, 214 students participated in student study groups, divided among 33 study group leaders. The greatest participation was among the freshman class, accounting for 62 percent of participants.
Students who opt-in for this program meet with study groups once a week for eight weeks to go over class content. Student leaders, who are invited to become tutors based on their previous success in the course, create topics for discussion or further explanation, and students are also encouraged to bring in outstanding questions regarding class material.
The transition comes from a desire to increase academic support for those who fall in between the categories of “financially independent” and those receiving financial aid, Potter said. It is not clear what the number of those students is, she said, because people may not want to put a “spotlight” on themselves as being unable to afford the service. This, however, is the reason Potter believes it is necessary to eliminate the financial barriers altogether — to see whether there is a significant part of the Dartmouth student population that has gone without desired academic support.
“If the numbers creep up, and they creep up significantly, that will be an indicator that more thought needs to go into my whole theory of taking away the financial barrier,” she said.
In addition to the cost itself, the student study group system presents challenges for students in terms of availability and schedule alignment, study group leader Ali Siddiqui ’17 pointed out. Siddiqui noted that the study groups are planned according to the leader’s availability, so a study group may meet at a time that is advantageous for the student — before an exam — or after meeting is no longer needed for the week.
Vivian Lee ’18, a former study group leader and study group member, said that she sometimes had difficulty making it to study group sessions when she attended them as a member.
She also noted that students might be less willing to pay up front for a service they may or may not use.
Though the fee removal alleviates this potential barrier to using the service, an increase in student participation may also cause a burden on student study group leaders and study group capacities. Siddiqui mentions the potential for “bumping” students’ requests for one-on-one tutoring to student study groups because of a lack of tutors.
“That works to an extent,” he said. “I can’t exactly effectively study group a class of 25 people.”
Students also wonder what the effects of the cost elimination will be on other academic programs offered at the College, such as the resident expert program, in which former students for classes — primarily in STEM — work with students through the housing communities. Potter noted that the revenue generated by the $30 or $10 fee had only served as a minor offset to costs, and that removing those costs have not resulted in a change for the total budget for the tutor system.
“In the idealistic sense we want to give the maximum benefit to as many students as we can — it seems like a good idea,” Siddiqui said. “The question then becomes will we be able to do other programs as well or expand other programs in light of this.”
