This semester Tutorial Services has cut back on hours and services due to lack of financial support.
Tutors are available less hours and there are also fewer tutors available. Last semester there were 40 tutors and now there is about half that, said Tamara Caponetto, the supervisor in Tutorial Services located in the Student Services building.
Without receiving adequate funds, Tutorial Services has to make do with limited tutors, limited space and limited services. According to Calvin Tu, a tutor in the center, students on campus can get three hours per week per subject. However, Joel Rodriguez, also a tutor and clerk in Tutorial Services, said that there are “not enough tutors so there’re less hours to get tutoring.”
Tutorial Services also has to make do with limited space. According to Caponetto, the rooms designed for tutoring are not spacious and therefore cannot hold as many people. She said the tables are too large for the room and therefore less tutors can be in there to provide tutoring. The tables make the whiteboards unusable, which makes it impossible to tutor some subjects such as math that require a whiteboard.
Last semester, the rooms used for tutoring were larger and therefore better for studying, said Rodriguez.
Caponetto said that the center is trying to maintain the three hours of services per student.
“It may change due to lack of financial support,” Caponetto said.
She added that this situation has definitely gotten worse and that it is “due to the economy and the state not giving schools enough money.” Caponetto said she did not know exactly how much money was cut from the center’s budget.
Out of Norco, Riverside and Moreno Valley colleges, Caponetto also said, Norco gets the lowest allocation of money. She said that there is no clear reason for this and said that there is really nothing she or the Tutorial Services can do about it.
Tutorial Services has also had to get rid of its online tutoring service called Smart Thinking.
Caponetto said that she is the only full-time employee in the center and that they rely a lot on student workers who are part time and paid. There are also volunteers who are not paid. She said she would prefer to have around 40 tutors but can’t because of the financial cutbacks. She also said that of the 20 to 30 tutors available many of them are volunteers because school cannot afford to pay them. Of the 20 to 30 student tutors about 20 get paid. Last semester, about 35 tutors got paid.
“We try to do as many subjects as possible with an emphasis on math and science,” Caponetto said.
Caponetto said that there are more than 500 students every semester who come in for tutoring and added, “It seems bigger this semester.”
Caponetto said that in spite of the financial difficulties that the tutorial services are facing, she tries to make it fun.
“We’re a family,” Caponetto said. “If you’re not enjoying what you’re doing don’t do it.”
