By: Matthew Balsinger

Tutorial services, located in the basement of Bierce Library, offers a vast array of student experts ready and willing to help students with any problems they might face in their classes, free of charge.

Tutorial Services employs 60 part-time student tutors who are able to give help in classes ranging from Biology, Chemistry and Calculus to Spanish, Sign Language and Physics. Each tutor is a current University of Akron student who has gone through several tutor training courses as well as taken the courses that they tutor.

“A good attribute of the tutorial services is that you get to sit one-on-one with another student on your level who has gone through the class you need help with,” said senior tutor Victoria Kucek. “It’s much less nerve racking than seeking help from your professors.”

Despite the many benefits tutoring may yield to students in trouble, the center is often empty of students seeking help.  One of the greatest challenges students face is conquering the fear of getting help and admitting that they do, in fact, need help.

“One of the reasons we tutor is because we want to help students,”said junior Math tutor Courtney Spoerndle. “There is this stigma that people who go to a tutor are stupid, but that’s not the case at all.  It’s actually the smart people, who know they need help, that come to tutoring.”

The Tutorial center is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday.  Appointments can be made at the desk in the basement.  Walk-in tutoring sessions are welcome, though appointments guarantee students a time slot with tutors.