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.

Disability Services and Accommodations

The Learning Support Center (LSC) 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, classroom notetaking and books on tape. The College is not required to and will not provide accommodations that fundamentally alter the academic requirements for a course, a major or the degree. The College will provide support services to students who have provided the LSC with adequate documentation, met with a staff member to determine appropriate accommodations and request the accommodations each semester. The College cannot make retroactive accommodations. The LSC staff also provides general academic support services. These include 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.

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.

Quantitative Skills Center

The Quantitative Skills Center provides support for students in all disciplines. Frequently addressed issues include applications of mathematics, logic or statistics in various courses and specific strategies for approaching college-level mathematics courses. 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, and preparing for graduate school entrance or teacher certification examinations.

Writing Center

The Writing Center supports the entire College community: our goal is to help all students become better writers, from the novice to the already experienced writer. Peer consultants at the Writing Center support writers by responding to writing in process—working together with student writers—rather than by proofreading, editing or writing students' papers. Consultants are trained to work one-on-one with writers at every stage of the writing process, from initial brainstorming to writing drafts, and from organizing ideas to revising or final editing. In addition, consultants help students with the wide variety of writing taught in different academic disciplines, as well as other kinds of academic or professional writing (e.g., cover letters for internships, resumes for job applications, personal statements for scholarships or graduate school). The Writing Center's mission is to provide assistance for every writer at the College.