Recent SUNY budget cuts have forced the College-in-the-Woods Library to cut back library hours, as well as the number of hours that students can receive free tutoring sessions on an appointment basis.
Free tutoring is offered through the Discovery Program’s Center of Academic Excellence (CAE).
However, CAE isn’t the only department on campus affected.
“We recognize that this is a challenging time for New York state and for Binghamton University,” Binghamton University’s Acting Vice President for Administration Michael McGoff said. “We’re working hard to ensure that we continue to provide the kind of high-quality education New Yorkers have come to expect from Binghamton University.”
Due to New York state’s fiscal issues, all state agencies, including the SUNY system, were asked to reduce their hiring and spending, McGoff said.
“Binghamton University took a permanent reduction to its annual operating budget earlier in the summer and we’re presently facing another cut but we have not been given the amount of that reduction at this time,” he added.
According to Elizabeth Carter, the director of the Discovery Program, changes to the Discovery Center took effect in the last week of September.
“Because it serves students, a reduction has a palpable impact on the tutoring services and resources we are able to provide to students,” she said.
According to Carter, however, it is anticipated that the reduction will impact less than 5 percent of the students requesting tutoring.
Steve Duarte, learning specialist for the Center for Academic Excellence and the Discovery Program, said that they tried to ensure that the impact was as minimal as possible.
“We have scaled back on the maximum number of hours students can receive by-appointment tutoring,” he said. “Reaction has been minimal.”
Travel, supplies and refreshments have also been cut back or put on hold, he said.
“I haven’t felt much of a hit and I don’t think any of the other tutors have either,” Alex Lapegna, a senior financial economics major, said.
Although the budget cut has resulted in a reduction of hours, there is a positive side to the issue.
With the reduction in hours, group tutoring is being constantly promoted and encouraged at the CAE, according to Lapegna.
Group tutoring gives students the chance to experience a more diverse session that allows them to hear and understand different ways of understanding the topic at hand, he said. At the same time, however, time efficiency will increase.
“The reduction has changed the dynamics of tutoring,” Lapegna said.
Nevertheless, for students who are not comfortable with group sessions, one-on-one tutoring is still available in spite of reduced hours.