Eric Dash: Penn tutoring needs extra help

When it comes to getting help for class at Penn, there are two things that I have come to realize as an upperclassman.

First, most Penn professors do show up for office hours and are generally willing to go beyond the call of duty to explain material -- especially if your visit doesn't take place in the hours before an exam, when their office looks like a 1950s phone booth packing exhibition. (Most students, on the other hand, don't bother showing up unless there is a test.)

And second, if a student needs help at times that don't conform to the hours specified on the syllabus, good luck finding a peer tutor.

Penn's official tutoring system, sponsored by the Department of Academic Support Programs, is in dire need of remediation. No, make that resuscitation. Although tutors helped out more than 1500 students last year, what's more striking is the number they could not.

With more than 10 students for every tutor, there are simply not enough of them to go around. The situation only gets worse in core classes, in which students -- unfamiliar with the new and challenging material -- need help the most.

Take, for instance, quant-heavy Wharton courses such as introductory statistics. The probability of actually getting linked up with a tutor is just slightly higher than hitting the jackpot on the Atlantic City slots.

Although over 550 students are enrolled in the classes, "there just never seem to be enough" tutors, according to one administrator. The same can be said about other introductory courses in accounting, economics, finance, OPIM, physics and far too many basic electives to even count.

Even more frustrating, though, is the impact that the tutor labor shortage has on the process -- which, I swear, is something akin to waiting in a Soviet bread line.

Unless you sign up before the first day of school, you'll likely be going at it alone at least until after the first midterm. (And that's not counting the time it takes to process all the paperwork.) Find out that you need a tutor later in the semester, when your exam score reads like the Quakers' point tally on the Franklin Field scoreboard? Well, the tutoring center will see what they can do. (Likely, not much before Thanksgiving.)

Already aware of the problem, undergraduate administrators have started brainstorming. But so far, their proposals smack of recycled old ploys in different packaging, rather than innovative, new solutions.

So how can Academic Support offer more of it? For starters, the University must devote more resources -- that's admino-speak for money -- to hiring more well-qualified tutors. The fact is that Penn is losing plenty of excellent candidates because, in most cases, tutors are grossly underpaid.

Consider the OPIM tutor's dilemma: make 10 bucks reviewing Web design skills with a Wharton student, or rake in nearly double that amount helping a Philadelphia-area business go online. It doesn't take a labor economist -- or a labor economics tutor, for that matter -- to predict the rational decision.

Still, throwing cash at the problem is only part of the solution. Academic Support must more effectively coordinate with the individual schools and departments to find ways that better meet their needs.

One such model, the Penn Mentoring Program, is already in place at Ware College House. Each week, more than 121 computer engineering students meet in small study groups -- led by upperclassmen mentors -- that Ware helps coordinate. Signing up is simple; the mentors are in place; the results are effective.

That's because, Ware Dean Katherine Lowe says, "What most students need isn't tutoring." Rather, it's the skills to learn efficiently in groups and the comfort of knowing their classmates are struggling with the material too.

Although plans are in place to expand the Ware program to other engineering and science subjects, there are potentially other creative ways to improve the current situation.

Recent Penn history demonstrates just that. It was just a few years ago that the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education and the Undergraduate Assembly recognized the need to overhaul the New Student Orientation. Working with College Dean Richard Beeman and other top Penn administrators, they quickly pressed to implement changes including a new freshmen dean position as well as increased academic advising and support during the first year.

Now that those students are college veterans, perhaps it's time for a similar committee to examine improving academic support for the duration of their Penn careers.

Eric Dash is a senior Management and American History major from Pittsburgh, Pa.

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