By Cassandra Paradise-Mull / Staff writer

Even the best student needs a little help every now and then. Whether in need of a minor explanation or a total clarification of the day’s lecture, UPG’s Learning Resources Center is there to help students out.

Started in 1997 by Lou Ann Sears, the Learning Resources Center is more than just a tutoring facility; it also aids students in writing skills, study skills and disability services.

Every semester the center employees 25 to 30 students through university employment, and yet, sometimes it just isn’t enough help for Sears.

There are several qualifications needed to become a tutor — the most important are teacher recommendation, a positive attitude and a willingness to uphold the quality of the Learning Resources Center.

On average, each semester the resources center provides between 150 to 200 students with regular tutors and at least a couple of hundred students with drop-in comp tutoring.

While these numbers may seem high to some, Sears says she would love to see more students taking advantage of the resources that the university offers.

“It’s free and painless,” said Sears, professor of English and director of the center. “Plus, everything that happens here is confidential.”

In addition to the drop-in composition tutoring, the center offers tutoring for other subjects such as Spanish, accounting, probability and statistics. It also offers tutoring in math and science. Help with chemistry and biology is in the most demand.

“It always seems that the courses that deal with numbers are always the ones that have the most students in need of tutoring,” says Sears.

Kate Mitchell, a 19-year-old freshman, has been coming to the Learning Recourses Center for tutoring since she started UPG this past fall. She says it has helped a lot.

“Sometimes in class it’s embarrassing to ask questions, or the professors only touch briefly on the subject,” says Mitchell. “The tutors at the center seem to be able to explain things more on my level.”

The center is located in room 104 of the Faculty Office Building. Tutoring is available Monday through Friday. The hours for drop-in composition tutoring range from morning to mid-afternoon. The center’s hours of operation and listing of available tutors are listed on neon pink flyers posted around campus.

Maggie Samole, a junior communications major, is in her fourth semester as a tutor at UPG. Samole tutors for drop-in composition, preparation for business calculus and business calculus.

“It seems that we aren’t that busy for drop-in tutoring early in the semester,” says Samole, “It’s when finals week starts creeping around that more students seem to come for help.”

One of the most important things Sears wants people to know is that the tutors aren’t there to do the work for sutdents; they are there to help students learn and get actively involved in the work.

“Tutoring is just as important for the tutors as it is for the students in need of help,” says Sears. “After all, I hope we are all here to learn something and the Learning Resources Center exists to try to make that happen.”