The Indiana University East Supplemental Instruction Program will receive the Award for Outstanding Supplemental Instruction Program at the Fifth International Conference on SI in Orlando, Florida, May 28-30, 2008. The award will be presented by the International Center for Supplemental Instruction with headquarters at the University of Missouri in Kansas City.

Glen Jacobs, Executive Director for the Center for Academic Development at the International Center for SI, notified IU East in late December that the program would receive the award.

“This recognition acknowledges the exceptional job you and your colleagues have done to build a highly successful, world-class SI program. Your application portfolio was selected from a very competitive pool of nominations,” Jacobs said in his letter to the program.

The SI program was developed 15 years ago on the IU East campus. The Supplemental Instruction Program is a part of Tutorial Services and offers free academic assistance to students enrolled in challenging entry-level courses. SI sessions are led by student SI Leaders.

Tutorial Services director, Mary Mahank, and Supplemental Instruction coordinator, Jerri Libert, will give a presentation about the IU East SI Program during the conference. Four students have also been invited to present at the conference. Ann Fost, Zak Zurwell, and Brian Duff of Richmond, and Dorothy Campbell of Liberty will present to conference attendees the strategies and study skills they use to help their peers learn outside of the classroom.

Mahank said the goal of Supplemental Instruction is to help students succeed academically. “Our SI program is successful because we are not afraid to take risks in order to offer a diverse program of Supplemental Instruction for both students and faculty. Despite the fact that IU East is a small commuter campus, a high percentage of students participate in SI,” Mahank continued.

Of the total enrollment in targeted classes, over 64 percent of students voluntarily attend SI sessions. During the 2006-2007 academic year, 641 students attended SI Sessions in 54 sections and earned a GPA of 3.0.