Correction: In the original version of this article, Allison Wong’s name was misspelled.
Peer learning in math and science courses at Covel Peer Learning Labs will not be replaced for at least a year, a UCLA administrator said Tuesday.
The labs close down at the end of spring quarter. Around that time, a faculty group will decide if it is feasible to continue math and science peer learning, and in what form.
The group, composed of faculty in lower division math and science courses, will provide recommendations for the way tutoring should be managed in the future, said Judith Smith, vice provost and dean of undergraduate education.
She has set a Dec. 1 deadline for the report.
“If they advise me against forming a new structure, then I have to take that advice in mind,” Smith said.
Smith previously proposed a new science center integrated into other departments, but she said there is no business plan in place now for science or math tutoring because she first wants to hear from the advisory group.
In the meantime, she said her first goal with respect to tutoring is to open a new student writing center under the English department’s Writing Programs by fall.
Running the drop-in writing service for the Covel labs currently requires $65,000, not including administrative costs. Smith said she sent a proposal two weeks ago for about $80,000 from the Lincy Foundation’s Dream Fund. Meant to support academic programs, the fund could help the new center.
Smith said she will also submit a proposal to the Student Fee Advisory Committee for funding through student services fees, but she does not know when she would hear back. Other University of California campuses use this source of money for peer learning, she added, and UCLA has been the only one to use tuition-based money.
For such a proposal to be approved, Smith must make the case that the new writing center’s services will be essential to students and therefore qualify for Student Fee Advisory Committee funding, said Ray Franke, the committee’s chair. The remaining money is available only for emergencies, and decisions for its allocation must be made by July 1.
Right now, Franke said he knows of several other units that also have a need for the money, including the Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center and the Central Ticket Office.
Peer learning advocates, including the Save Covel committee and Suza Khy, Undergraduate Students Association Council Academic Affairs commissioner, met with Smith this month to open lines of communication.
The goals were to understand the dean’s plans and incorporate peer learning into her proposed tutoring model, but they could not convince Smith to continue peer learning for math and science in the fall, said Allison Wong, a peer learning facilitator on the committee and a fourth-year biochemistry student.
“I think the meeting went well in the sense that we shared common concerns,” Smith said. “I think some of their ideas are worth considering, but the bottom line is it considers funding I don’t have.”
Khy’s current plan, she said, includes convincing the Student Affairs Office to house tutoring programs to restore Covel’s services and continue peer learning for more courses than just writing.
Khy said the tenuous state of peer learning worries her, and she thinks the advisory group that will form is ridiculous.
“Why would you need a committee to tell you that students need this?” Khy said. “I’m just concerned that we’re moving forward to something that we have no absolute control over.”