Weber State’s Student Affairs Division hosted the Student Services Expo on Sept. 20, an event geared towards introducing and inviting students to tutorship programs, services and other resources available to them.

Associate VP of Student Affairs Marzzieh Larsen believes that with enough exposure, students will be able to take advantage of all the resources that they may need or otherwise benefit from.

“There are so many resources that we have to offer our students, and many that may not be known,” Larsen said.

The Expo is a grant funded program that provides tutorship programs and academic support to first-generation and low-income students. Greg Christiansen, an advisor for the Student Support Services, believes the Expo is beneficial to the program because not many other people may know about them aside from word of mouth and signs posted throughout the campus.

The Student Support Services is otherwise only able to directly contact freshmen and first-generation students who attended the orientation by email.

During an interview, freshman student Lexus Hernandez said she attended orientation but was never contacted by any of Weber State’s programs. “I believe if I was contacted by tutorship programs, especially math, then it would definitely benefit me,” Hernandez said.

She also said she was unable to attend the Student Services Expo because her course schedule did not allow her time to.

When asked if she felt Weber State could do more to reach out the students, she said that signs are everywhere but not everyone reads them. Also, many online students are not on campus to know about them.

“As with the one day expo, maybe it could be more than just one day. In my case, I was unable to go because I was in class so I’m sure there were other students who were also unable to attend who wanted to,” Hernandez said.

Last week, Associate Provost Eric Amsel spoke with students about the need to better serve students who need resources to succeed. According to Amsel, many students who drop out during the first 3 weeks during the semester are often low-income and/or first-generation students.

“Weber State has a ton of resources, and a much smaller percentage of students who use them,” said Amsel. “I think that is a failure on the institution’s part in making students feel comfortable using them… We are not making it easy for the students who need the most help.”

Students who missed the event and are interested in these programs may find them listed here: http://www.weber.edu/StudentAffairs/expo.html

Students eligible for the Student Support Services program may call them at 801-626-7009 or visit them online at http://www.weber.edu/SSS/.