E-mail this pageLearning Center Information for Our Faculty and Staff
Our partnership with SUNY College at Plattsburgh faculty is essential to our department's success and growth. Faculty members refer students to our services, recommend students to become tutors, participate in the Distinguished Faculty Fellows program, and provide essential feedback regarding our academic support services by contacting our office.
Each month we also offer Learning Center tours for faculty interested in learning more about our services. Please contact Karin Killough, the Learning Center Director, at karin.killough@plattsburgh.edu to sign up for one of these informal meetings.
Referring a Student to Our Services
We appreciate your recommendation of our services to your students. There are many ways to recommend the Learning Center to your students. Some professors include our contact information in their syllabi. Others invite us into the class to present an introduction to our services. And many find referring individual students to the Learning Center equally valuable.
Students can come to the Learning Center at any point in the semester to request help in a particular course. We will do our best to meet their request and always suggest that students work with their professor in addition to seeking tutoring.
Regardless of how a student learns of our services, he/she will be treated with the same courtesy and attention to his/her concerns as a college-level learner. All students who would like to make an appointment to use our services need to stop at the LC Front Desk (it's on your right as you enter the center). The Head Tutor on duty will help the student through the appointment and/or request process including filling out the Tutoring Contract and advising the student on what he/she can do to prepare for his/her tutoring session.
We do respect the privacy of the students who use our services. If they have granted us the right to share their information with others, we will be able to report to you a brief summary of the number of times they have been tutored for your course and the concepts covered in the session(s) they attended.
Recommending Students to Become Tutors
As content-area experts, you have an astute sense of the knowledge-base of the students enrolled in your courses. You also may have an opportunity to gain insight into their character and see their ability to work with others through in-class observations and faculty conferences. If you think one of your former students would be a good tutor, please discuss the possibility with the student and if he or she is willing, please refer them to our office for more information.
Faculty Tutor Recommendation Form
Note: This file require the latest version of Acrobat Reader, which is available as a free download.
- Faculty Tutor Recommendation Form (PDf file size 11.2kb). Download, complete and forward this form to the Learning Center office.
We do ask that all of our tutors receive faculty recommendation for all courses they would like to tutor. Some tutors may approach you to request that you fill out the Faculty Tutor Recommendation Form. We hope that you see this as the honor it is intended to be.
Requesting a Class Visit by an Experienced Staff Member
We recognize that your class time is a precious commodity, but inviting a representative from the Learning Center may be an excellent means of informing your students about campus resources.
At any time during the course of the semester, you can contact the Learning Center professional staff to arrange a class visit that provides your students with a variety of study skills information. Working with you, we can create a content specific workshop that addresses note-taking strategies, developing study habits, test-taking strategies, and/or writing formal assignments for your course.
Our experienced peer tutors are also excellent resources for your students. If students are not using our services as much as you would like, please contact us to invite one of our tutors to come to the class and share our services with the students. Our peer tutors are comfortable discussing the do's and don'ts of a tutoring session and promoting our services to your students.
In addition, you could refer your students to the Learning to Learn Workshop Series or meeting with an Academic Personal Trainer.
Frequently Asked Faculty Questions Involving Extended Time Testing for International Students
Am I required to send my students to the Learning Center if they request extended time testing for my exams?
According to Faculty Senate Action #501, students who are non-native speakers of English and who request assistance are entitled to extended time testing and/or supplemental notes, provided they satisfy the criteria outlined in the above-referenced policy. Faculty should send students who request assistance to the Claude J. Clark Learning Center to determine their eligibility for extended time testing and supplemental notes. Students will be asked to complete preliminary paperwork and will be notified of their eligibility for this service within 48 hours.
Please note that students with learning and physical disabilities should be referred to Student Support Services, 110 Angell College Center. For additional information on services provided by SSS, please call 564-2810.
What if I think that a student in my class needs extended time testing but he is told by the Learning Center that he does not meet the eligibility requirements?
You are encouraged to bring your questions and concerns to the attention of Karin Killough, Learning Center Director. The current policy was developed and approved in an effort to provide Plattsburgh State faculty with a guideline based on the established criteria. Exceptions to the policy will need to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
What if a student has not taken the TOEFL exam or the SAT exam?
International students who have not completed the TOEFL exam or the SAT exam will be required to complete an institutional TOEFL exam within one semester of requesting extended time testing services through the Learning Center. The institutional TOEFL will be administered at a pre-determined date at a cost of $20.00. Students will be ineligible for the extended time testing service if they do not complete TOEFL exam within the stated time frame.
How much time will the student(s) be allowed for each exam?
Instructors may request that the student be allowed a specific amount of time- from fifteen minutes to double the normal time. Students are allowed no more than double the amount of time to take the exam. For example, if the class is given one hour, the student would be allowed a maximum of two hours.
What other types of accommodations are the student allowed?
Each student is required to complete the "Request for Extended Time Testing" form and meet with their professor in order to identify the exam dates and the appropriate resources. The professor is given the final authority in determining what the student is allowed to bring into the exam such as an electronic dictionary, foreign language/English dictionary, calculator, notebook, textbook or hand-held spell checker. The Learning Center has certain foreign language/English dictionaries available but the students will need to provide the other items listed.
How does the Learning Center secure and proctor the exams?
The Learning Center requires that students notify our office a minimum of four days in advance of the exam. Once we have been notified of the test date and time, we contact the professor and request the required number of exams, scantron forms, blue books, etc. The professor either drops off the exam directly or a member of our student employee staff picks up the exam. It is then placed in a locked file until the exam is administered.
Students completing exams in the Learning Center must arrive on time and they are allowed to bring only the approved items into the exam. Students who arrive more than fifteen minutes late or who have not made arrangements in advance with the instructor are not allowed to take the exam in the Learning Center.
Before the exam begins, a brief review of the approved items takes place. Dictionaries and notebooks are scanned to ensure that additional information is not brought into the exam. The exams are proctored by Learning Center student employees. The proctors complete training and are aware that they need to report any unusual or suspicious behavior, such as talking during the exam, passing notes, looking on another exam, or leaving the room without permission, to the Director of the Learning Center who reports any such incidents to the instructor.
If it is determined through normal college regulations (Campus Handbook, Section VIII) that a student has engaged in some form of academic dishonesty, the Learning Center reserves the right to identify a student as ineligible for this service.