Parents

Dear parents of prospective students,
Congratulations to your child for their achievements! We know this is an exciting and difficult time as SIR deadlines approach.

On March 10, the Division of Undergraduate Education announced that all free student learning services in math, science, and writing under Academics in the Commons are being eliminated starting June 2011. We currently serve over 8,000 students annually in introductory classes.
Starting this coming year, there is no peer tutoring service open to all students at UCLA. UCLA will be the only UC without this type of program.

The administration has in response to student protests made promises to make “new centers” using “existing departmental funding,” but there no official timeline for such a process. The Vice Chancellor of Undergraduate Education, Dean Judith Smith, has said that establishing any learning service in the sciences is of lower priority and will not be in place next fall for the class of 2015, which is especially relevant for students in the sciences or pre-health fields. The College is placing the burden of funding these ‘new centers’ largely onto the individual departments, and is eliminating all peer or collaborative learning models for the near future. If these services are replaced in these new centers in a year or two, it will be first with ‘office hours’ style drop-in services added to TA’s existing duties. This is a long fall compared to the weekly free course- and instructor-specific tutoring sessions students currently receive from fellow students who are passionate about the subjects. At a large state school, existing departmental funding for student learning simply doesn’t exist, and the timeline for any proposed new center is likely at least a year in the making, at best.

If your child is considering attending UCLA, we would like to emphasize that UCLA is and remains a wonderful school. But we believe you and your child deserve to make the choice to attend UCLA fully informed. As parents of prospective students, you hold special power in that administrators may listen to you. You can make a difference by emailing Chancellor Block before the SIR deadline or emailing Dean Judi Smith (the woman responsible for this decision) asking about Covel and asking why higher priority hasn’t been placed on ensuring peer tutoring for students.
Their email addresses are chancellor@ucla.edu andjudis@college.ucla.edu .

Thank you for your time!