ESCC opens Boll Weevil Central
Justin Blowers jblowers@southeastsun.com
Feb 6, 2019
http://www.southeastsun.com/home/article_7f1dbf00-2a1b-11e9-8325-8fad2502036a.html
Enterprise State Community College announced that free tutoring and advising sessions are being offered in the library.
“We’re expanding our mission to provide services to students, who, in the past, were not able to receive these types of services in the form of tutoring and advising, which are critical,” ESCC President Matt Rodgers said. “I think it’s critical that we serve our students but also provide the support they need to be successful.”
The decision to provide these services and space for them was made in November of 2018 and the services are already available for students to use in the library.
Rodgers said that the amount of work everyone put in to have Boll Weevil Central ready has been gratifying.
“It’s the right thing to do for our students, but from my perspective to see 15 or 20 of our faculty and students come together to move furniture and move books in a short amount of time is really rewarding; it shows that we’re working as a team and putting our students first,” Rodgers said.
The space, called Boll Weevil Central in the library, will eventually be renovated to include new study rooms as well as more chairs and tables.
ESCC English Instructor DaNean Pound is heading the tutoring portion of the Boll Weevil Circle and said she’s excited to see this dream of hers finally come true.
“I’ve been a huge advocate for this for many years and just to see it come to fruition and to see how excited students are makes my heart warm,” Pound said.
Boll Weevil Central currently has three professional tutors and four peer tutors, which can help students in subjects such as math, English, music, chemistry, etc., according to Pound.
ESCC Director of Counselling and Student Success Dr. Felisha Ford heads up the advising portion of Boll Weevil Central, which also includes transfer and career assistance. She said that the program is a long-time coming.
“I am elated,” Ford said. “This is a program that we have desired—as an institution—to provide for our students for quite some time. I am excited to see it take shape.”
The school has hired two part-time success coaches to help students.
“They (the success coaches) are going to be assigned certain groups who we want to make sure are armed with the best information to help them decide whether they want to transfer to a four-year institution before completing their degree or complete their degree here,” Ford said.
She made sure to stress that the advising is not just for students who are looking to transfer.
“Our success advisors are also going to target students who may be at academic risk—those who have declining GPAs, run into financial aid problems, those sort of things—and use the proactive advising model,” Ford said. “We’re going to identify the individual needs of those students and create a success plan for them and help them to work that plan until they graduate or transfer.”
Any student wishing to use any of these services just needs to go to the library, where they will be directed to Boll Weevil Central.
Although there isn’t a set date for the final renovations to be done, work has already started with the final goal of making Boll Weevil Circle a one-stop shop for student needs.