University Budget Proposes a Student Success Center

By Jenna Simsen

In a recent budget proposal from William Staples, the University of Houston-Clear Lake president announced his top priorities regarding the usage of funds for fiscal year 2010. One item on the list was the proposal for an on-campus Student Success Center.
Darlene Biggers, associate vice president for student services, originally proposed the student success center in March to Carl Stockton, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. The idea was taken to Staples who then publicly presented his goals to the university community.
With information gathered from the pilot program developed in the spring of 2008, the university was able to gauge the amount of student interest and desire to expand the success program in to a success center. The pilot program involved 100 students who participated in a tutoring program and 150 students who participated in an academic support referral program. The pilot suggested that students found the program to be truly beneficial to their academic standing with the university.  More than 50 percent chose to remain in the program upon completion of the pilot program.   
The Student Success Center would assist students of all age groups and college education levels with several different needs. It would include, but not be limited to: students who have never attended higher-level education, students with gaps in their education, and students who have never attended the university. The center will also implement emphasis on first-year experience programs and transition programs for students new to the university.
Aside from the tutoring already in place, the center will also offer assistance for more specific courses that the general tutorials do not currently cover. Tutorials for particular courses would include one-on-one help with difficult classes such as managerial accounting.
“Everyone wants to do the best that he or she possibly can,” Biggers said. “That’s our goal, to help the students be the best that they can be.”
Although it was not at the top of the university’s priority list, Anthony Jenkins, dean of students, has great intentions for the center and high hopes that it will become of the upmost importance to the university.  
“If UHCL is ready to be considered one of the major universities in this area, we have to have the components of a major university,” Jenkins said. “We should be doing everything to make sure students have in place all of the mechanisms to be successful.”  
Jenkins summarized that a center dedicated to the success of students is necessary if the university wants to be considered one of the major universities in the area. He believes the center will contribute to the overall improvement of the citizenry of the university.
If created, the center will be housed on the third floor of the Student Services Building, where the tutoring center currently resides. He noted that the area would expand and be designated as the official location for the Student Success Center.
The next step in the proposal will involve the idea being reviewed by the planning and budgeting committee, which will meet in June.
Biggers explained that if the funding was provided for the center, it could be established for the fall semester. The center would focus on the current tutoring services and the academic referral support programs in hopes of building on these programs with additional funding as it is provided. The center would also hope to grow in strength and size with the university as it enters the opening stages of downward expansion.
“Students asked for it, students wanted it, students love it,” Jenkins said. “This needs to be in place to make sure our students have the type of support that they not only deserve, but that they are paying for, and that every institution in the surrounding area has.”