California State University, Stanislaus’, (Stan State), Tutoring Center keeps students and tutors organized with convenient policies.
The Tutoring Center, located on the first floor of the Vasche Library, has made acquiring or becoming a tutor faster through its online sign ups.
“It makes it more convenient if they fill out all of the information, particularly their phone number, so we can get a hold of them. They do everything online, and the tutors do too. The tutors go on and fill an online application, which helps us to know what their schedules are,” Administrative Assistant Michael Carrillo said.
According to Louisa Herrera, Director of the Tutoring Center, the policy that requires tutors and students to sign up online makes the entire process much more time-efficient.
“If you sign up and I have a tutor, instantly I can send them an email. Although sometimes we don’t always have a tutor, so that’s our job to go find a tutor for them,” Herrera said.
Once a tutor is found for the student, appointments can begin relatively quickly. However, there are certain responsibilities that the student must agree to upon signing up for their appointments.
“There’ve got to be rules,” Herrera said.
The Tutoring Center’s “Policies” webpage states that students are required to call into the Tutoring Center before 5 p.m. to cancel an appointment. Simply not showing up will not be permitted.
“We’ve always paid our tutors for showing up. It’s part of the University Union Contract that if a tutor is here for a ten o’ clock appointment and the student doesn’t show up, the tutor’s going to get paid for the full session. So, we can’t afford to have a student not show up, not show up, not show up the whole semester when we have other students that need help,” Carrillo said.
A student that fails to cancel their appointment prior to the appointment’s allotted meet time will be dropped from their tutoring appointments, according to Carrillo. He stated that tutors are paid $12.50 an hour to spend time helping their students while there are many other students waiting to be helped.
“Our heavy hitters, you know, math, chemistry, physics, there’s lots of people waiting,” Carrillo said. “We have to pay the tutor, so they’re dropped. They can go get reinstated, but that’s been our policy.”
Carrillo, who has worked for the Tutoring Center for 25 years, also stated that “late cancel” appointments, students who cancel the appointment minutes after it is supposed to begin, will also result in the student’s tutoring sessions being dropped.
According to Herrera, tutors will usually try to call their clients in order to remind them of their appointments and avoid the missed appointment’s aftereffects.
“That’s what we train our tutors to do so that they [the student] don’t miss it, so that they can get all of the tutoring that they can. It’s a win, win situation here,” Herrera said.
Carrillo said that the students can be “reinstated” if they are dropped once, but leniency will not be granted should the student miss an appointment without prior cancelation a second time.
Morgan Veenhuis (junior, Biology) tutors statistics, lower and higher level chemistry and biology. Veenhuis said the job keeps her in the “academic mindset” where she sees firsthand how the Tutoring Center provides “aha moments” to those seeking the extra help.
However, the job requires her to put in much of her time and effort so that she can help her students to the best of her ability.
“I have about six students, so I do about six hours with kids, but then I also do maybe like an hour or two a week where I go through the material because I also have to remind myself because it’s been awhile since I’ve taken the classes,” Veenhuis said.
If a student cannot meet with their tutor, the Tutoring Center has also provided students with walk-in hours for the most highly asked for subjects such as those listed for math on the Tutoring Center’s “Tutoring Services” webpage.   
“They don’t have to worry about not showing up. They come when they want,” Carrillo said. “We have a lot of hours that they can come in.”
If you are a student in need of tutoring, apply online or at the Tutoring Center to receive an appointment. If you wish to become a tutor, check the Tutoring Center’s “How to Become a Tutor” webpage to ensure that you meet all of the requirements necessary to instruct others and fill out the online application.