While students were away this summer, Point Park laid off nearly two dozen employees – some were professors, others heads of various offices on campus, others tutors, even building managers.
Others left on their own accord, bringing the total to 32 full and part-time staff departing.
According to the University, the cuts were made to make room for a burgeoning online curriculum. Point Park will add 22 online course offerings, keeping with a nationwide trend among four-year universities.
Robin Sowards, the adjunct faculty union representative from the United Steelworkers said, “As for the effects on adjuncts of the administration’s plan to grow the online programs, it’s hard to say before they’ve implemented a plan.”
The layoffs and departures are spread around campus but some important programs were disassembled, leaving other staff members to occupy the positions.
Amidst the cuts was the Program for Academic Success (PAS). Formerly, PAS provided disability services for students in need of such, along with free tutoring – either from professionals or experienced peers – and the SmartStart Program – a program that starts incoming students a few weeks early to get them academically prepared for college.
Upon hearing the news, a number of students were frustrated and disappointed in the University’s actions – they were shocked to find that the University cut the program that offers free tutoring and disability services to students.
However, all of those services are still available to students, but are now consolidated into the Center for Student Success (CSS).
Just settling into its new office on the fifth floor of West Penn Hall, CSS is a comprehensive student advising center under the direction of Molly McClelland.
“We really want [students] to understand that it is our full intent to make sure that the same services that were provided by the Program for Academic Success will continue to be provided by our offices,” McClelland said in an interview Friday.
Before PAS was cut, CSS offered students support in the realm of handling student registration, academic and time management balancing, along with other student issues and concerns.
“We actually collaborated quite a bit with the Program for Academic Success for the years that we’ve been open,” McClelland said. “We understand the way that they operated and what they provided for students. This [consolidation] just allows us a really unique opportunity – we no longer have to refer them to a different office to provide the service.”
McClelland said disability services will continue to operate through CSS the same way they did through PAS – students identify their needs and a trained team makes recommendations/accommodations and notifies faculty.
Furthermore, students who want to take advantage of free tutoring can still do so – one-on-one and small group tutoring is available by appointment, which can be made either by emailing [email protected] or walk-in.
McClelland is excited about the opportunity, however, to reevaluate tutoring to determine students’ needs and how tutoring should operate at Point Park.
“I think within the next year we’ll really be looking at how things are structured,” McClelland said. “So, we’re potentially looking at Skype or chat options for students who can’t make it to campus – just rethinking what tutoring could look like at Point Park based on what students are saying they need.”
Traditional tutoring services will always be available to students who can make it to campus and appreciate face-to-face learning, but other options are being considered to meet the needs of Point Park’s diverse student body.
“We look at our students as all non-traditional. Everybody is very unique and their needs need to be met in very particular ways,” McClelland said.
