**Saginaw Chippewa Tribal College**

**Title III - Part A Strengthening American Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities**

**“Strengthening SCTC's Student Academic Support for the Future”**

The Saginaw Chippewa Tribal College (SCTC) is maintaining the mathematics and English Academic Specialists as part of our Strengthening SCTC's Student Academic Support for the Future initiative. These positions are instrumental in supporting the college’s ability to strengthen its capacity in serving the Native American community. 

The Title III A funds will have an impact on SCTC by helping to build the infrastructure needed to strengthen student academic support. With the college’s open door policy, graduation and retention of students has been more of a challenge than enrollment. The Mathematics and English Academic Specialists provide support and direction for “at risk” students by preparing them with skills and curriculum that they need to enter the college level courses. They also assist in bridging the gap between faculty and administration. These specialist provide insight regarding student success strategies by presenting new ideas to the student services department that faculty and administration might not otherwise consider. 

 	SCTC also employs tutors that are part of the academic support system needed for students that may be struggling and need a little guidance. These tutors have been an asset to our student success initiatives. With the approval of the institutions program officer, SCTC recently revised the pay scale for the tutors in order to provide a more qualified staff. In the past, the college paid ten tutors to work ten hours per week at ten dollars per hour. The revised pay scale is as follows: 

· Two  peer level math tutors (students who have excelled in QuantWay Math and StatWay Math – recommended by Math instructors) *$10 per hour for 10 hours per week 

· Two peer level English tutors (students who have excelled in ENG 101 and 102 – recommended by English instructors) $10 per hour for 10 hours per week 

· Two Associate of Arts or Associate of Science level tutors – 10 hours per week at $12 per hour 

· Four Bachelors of Science, Bachelors of Arts, Masters of Science, or Masters of Arts level tutors – 10 hours per week at $15 per hour

These competitive new wages have brought the college a more competent and dedicated tutoring staff in the areas that students struggle the most in. SCTC has a tutor available for almost every hour and every day of the week (minus the weekends). Many of these tutors are cross trained in English, mathematics, and science and are able to assist any student that sits at their table. The institution has also provided private tutoring rooms in order to allow for a quiet space for students that are being tutored or for students that just need some time to themselves. These tutors are required per the institutions policy, to hold workshops at least once a month. These workshops have been beneficial in providing pertinent information to students that they can use in and out of the classroom. SCTC has what administration calls “college hours” there are very few classes that are taught between the hours of noon and 1:30 PM. This allows for student participation in the workshops without having to miss class or miss the workshop because of class. Some examples of workshops that were held during the reporting year were: APA formatting and general information, how to use a graphing calculator, research writing, plagiarism, and resume writing. All of these workshops were well attended and the tutors will continue to provide more of these beneficial topics in the future.