New Center for Academic Excellence offers solutions

Center for Academic Excellence director Tom Waldrep, right, and Jennie Ariail, left, assistant director for the Center for Academic Excellence, work with College of Pharmacy student, Shajuana McMillan.

MUSC is celebrating the opening of its new Center for Academic Excellence, and itâs not just for students. As an ally to faculty and staff, the new center offers numerous resources to both enhance teaching skills and solve learning and writing problems in the workplace.

ãThe goal of the Center for Academic Excellence is to be the liaison between course director, tutor and students who need help in problem classes,ä said Tom Waldrep, center director.

Do you want to complement your teaching expertise and expand course materials? The Center for Academic Excellence has personal consultants for individual assistance, houses numerous learning and teaching resources, and staff members will facilitate group meetings on special-interest teaching topics. Assistant director for the center Jennie Ariail said, ãthe center envisions itself becoming a repository of resources that can assist you in enhancing your teaching strategies by providing current research or pedagogical theory.ä

Want to create the presentation that will wow your staff and colleagues? The Center for Academic Excellence has a computer lab of both Macs and PCs equipped with Power Point, Microsoft Word, Excel, and Word Perfect. Computer whiz Bryan Moten and other staff are on hand to give suggestions or assist with any problems. ãOne of the goals of the center is to promote interdisciplinary learning by introducing the humanities to the courses in different health professions,ä said Waldrep. Many of the deans of the different colleges here at MUSC are in support of and see the need for humanities in their course curriculum.

An important academic concern here at MUSC is some classes of the required curriculum for all schools have become problem courses for some students. Dr. Ray Greenberg, vice president for academic affairs and provost, has introduced centralized tutoring to ensure students the time and personal attention they deserve and provide an arena for bringing together students from the different colleges. Teachers are encouraged to refer students for improvement of skills in test taking, note taking, time management and critical thinking.

ãDr. Greenberg is forward thinking; he represents the academic side of the university, and is one of the most student-oriented doctors I have ever worked with,ä Waldrep said.

Unique to the Center for Academic Excellence is one of its components, the Writing Center, where staff are available to assist with writing projects, research papers, resumes or a curriculum vitae. The Writing Center will be offering the class ãWriting at Workä for employees Sept. 23 and 24. These two half-day seminars will help improve writing documents like business letters, memoranda and news releases through discussion and writing assignments. Employees can sign up through the Department of Human Resources.

Meet the staff at the center's open house from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 4 in rooms AA113-120 on the second floor of the Harper Student Center. Light refreshments will be served.

Appointments for the center can be made by calling 792-6390.