With final exams looming, Carleton students who risk failing a course now have new options to help them succeed.

The Student Academic Success Centre (SASC) has implemented a number of new programs to help students cope with the stress of university.

Kathleen Semanyk, the manager at SASC, said they have always had a number of support programs but they needed to make them more accessible.

SASC created software on Carleton Central called mySuccess, where students can sign up for workshops, book study rooms and make appointments for advising or help with assignments.

They also now offer a walk-in program that allows students to come into the SASC office and get an appointment within half an hour, Semanyk said.

“Students that are stressed can make split-second decisions,” said Semanyk. “We don’t want that [decision] to be walking away.”

The response, she said, has been astounding.

“Within 48 hours we had hundreds of hits [on Carleton Central], quadrupling our services,” Semanyk said.

According to the statistics put together by SASC in the week of Sept. 7, 2009, they served 106 students, but turned away 501.

In the same week in 2010, SASC helped 353 students who came for in-person appointments and answered 82 emails, helping 435 students in total.

SASC also has a program where they call students who are in immediate danger of failing. Semanyk said many students don’t know that when you fail a course, you get a discredit. Too many discredits can affect your ability to remain enrolled at the university.

“We run audits for students who are getting discredits,” Semanyk said. “We have never had a student say anything but ‘thank you’ for calling.”
Melanie Moller, a first-year journalism student, said she is happy there are these services available to her and her fellow students.

“It makes me feel like I have options if I run into trouble,” Moller said.

Semanyk explained SASC is always continuing to make their services more efficient and accessible to students.

SASC plans on further improving their services by adding a student support advisor at the reception desk to answer small questions that students may have that don’t need the 15 minutes allotted for an appointment, Semanyk said.

The service should be available by January, she added.