By Marie OryManaging Editor

History 101 students who did not have a 25 on the Social Studies portion of the ACT test were required to pay a history tutoring fee of $25 for supplemental instruction sessions, starting this semester.

The University has decided to begin with the History 101 classes making the supplemental instructions classes mandatory, resulting in the $25 fee for funding of the sessions, Pecoraro said.

“On the first day of class, students were supposed to learn about the program and the supplemental instructor was supposed to be introduced,” Alice Pecoraro, vice president for academic affairs, said.

Because of the concern for student success rates, the decision was made to mandate this program for all students. Freshmen level courses in particular were the focus of the studies that were conducted to make this determination.

“Several years ago, we began to look at freshmen level courses and investigate programs that might help students achieve a better success rate,” Pecoraro said.

This fee was approved by the Board of Supervisors for the University of Louisiana System last fall.

The supplemental instruction program was one of the programs that was considered. Laurie Kraus-Landry, history instructor, wrote a grant that was approved by the Board of Regents.

“Last year and the year before, we were able to have the supplemental instruction program using grant funding with voluntary participation by students. In classes where they had a supplemental instructor, that person would lead the students in study sessions after the classes for a certain number of sessions per week,” she said.

A supplemental instructor is an upperclassmen who has taken the class before, did well in the class and is an overall good student.

This student sits in the history classes and takes notes to use for the study sessions. The supplemental instructors are paid a stipend of $900 per semester.

In Fall 2000, 80 out of 359 students used the history supplemental program and 60 percent of those 80 students earned a grade of A, B or C in their History 101 course, Pecoraro said.

When the grant money had been depleted, there was no chance for refunding of the program, Pecoraro said.

“We studied the data from the supplemental instruction program, and it was evident that the students who attended the supplemental instruction classes had a higher rate of success than the students who did not,” she said.

“We decided to aggressively pursue ways that we could improve student success in courses that are called ‘killer courses.'”

The term “killer courses” is used by Noel-Levitz, a national company hired by the Board of Regents to help Nicholls with recruitment and retention. One suggestion that the company had was that the University find the courses that had the highest failure and withdrawal rates and develop programs where students could be helped in those particular courses.

“About half of our students who enroll in History 101 do not make an A, B or C,” Pecoraro said.

The University realized that when students are given choices to volunteer for programs, they do not take advantage of the opportunities they are being given, Pecoraro said.

“For example, only 10 percent of the students here take advantage of the tutoring center,” she said.

All money from the tutoring center and the history tutoring fee is in one restricted account, and from that account eight supplemental instructors are paid.

“We thought that it was in their best interest to have the program mandatory,” Pecoraro said.

Kraus-Landry was asked to be in charge of the program, and was also asked to make the sessions at as many different times as possible to accommodate all students.

“We realize that it might cause some difficulty with some students, but we were hoping that students would be able to work those difficulties just as they would work them out if they had to take a test at a different time, or if they were sick,” Pecoraro said.

This decision was not brought up before the student body or the Student Government Association, although the SGA was involved in some discussions concerning the funding of the program.

Pecoraro said Nicholls loses about 60 percent of the freshmen class every year, because of the transition from high school to college and their difficulty with reading, taking notes and time management.

“In the study sessions, supplemental instructors review notes with students, and help them to select the most important issues. The instructors clarify misconceptions and misunderstandings, so the study sessions can be a great help to all students,” she said.

Faculty members will know if students have been attending the sessions, however, it will not reflect on their grade or attendance records for the class. Pecoraro said those students who do not go are just not taking advantage of the opportunity that is set up for them. Also, the students will still be paying for the sessions even if they should choose not to participate.

“My main thing is all students who keep their grade point average up, and who understand the values of grades, should have a tutor forced on them by the University,” Melanie Scruggs, secondary education sophomore from Chauvin, said.

Jana Stewart, mass communication sophomore from Houma, said she has never attended supplemental instruction sessions.

“With adequate study time, I did not feel I needed to go to the sessions,” Stewart said.

The program will be re-evaluated at the end of this semester since this is the first semester that the University is using this approach, Pecoraro said.

Circumstances will be evaluated and feedback will be reviewed by Pecoraro and Kraus-Landry in order to see if a new decision needs to be made concerning the program.

History is not the only subject that will have supplemental instruction. English and Math developmental courses were also identified as killer courses, and plans are in the works for supplemental instruction in those courses, she said.