Academic Services incorporates many essential services vital to the academic success of our students. These services include the Library, Educational Media Center, the Learning Resource Center, the Writing Center, the Testing Center, the Innovation Center for Teaching and Learning, KI (Students With Disabilities Services) and the Theater.

The 2012/2013 academic year is a year highlighted by many beginnings for the Academic Services area; new personnel, remodeled facilities, new technology, new themes in Academic Support with the Learning Commons concept and ongoing great continued Academic Service and support. We look forward to another year together providing the services needed for our students to achieve their goals and our faculty and staff to provide state of the art service and instruction.

LEEWARD COMMUNITY COLLEGE THEATRE

In March of 2011, the theatre kicked off a facilities naming campaign in conjunction with its planned renovation with a reception. Former OCWED dean and business professor Richard Aadland stepped forward to have the Green Room named after him. Long time friend of the theatre, Joett Colgan was inspired to arrange for the Lighting Booth named in memory of her husband Michael. UH Foundation officer KC Collins is discussing additional opportunities with interested parties. While the events the theatre stages always prove to be engaging and intriguing, a fund raising partnership with UH-Outreach College last January saw a performance of the incomparable Ben Vereen who related stories from his career and demonstrated why he remains a Broadway legend.  Assistant Theatre Manager Lehua Simon initiated a Student Media Art Collective to get students involved in helping promote events.

LEARNING COMMONS

In the fall of 2011, a vision to incorporate many of the academic services into one location began to take physical shape with the renovation of the first and second floors of the Library building, turning it into a true Learning Commons. This Learning Commons is designed to be an active, student-centered learning space offering a variety of academic support services in a comfortable, technology-rich setting that encourages collaboration. Services include the campus Testing Center, Student Disability Services, Writing and Content Tutoring, common study and technology areas, Library collections, services and resources and exterior patio areas. Some highlights include:

The Library  has successfully relocated its Circulation services and offices to the 2nd floor of the Learning Commons building in time for the new 2012 academic year.  Along with books and media, the Library will lend laptop computers and iPads from this location.  Other operations, such as reference, instruction, and access to the 70,000-volume (and growing!) book collection, will remain available from the 3rd floor.  The Information Literacy initiative is also growing, thanks to partnerships with Language Arts and other academic divisions on the Pearl City and Waianae campuses, as students and other members of the Leeward community become more skilled in the ways of research in this electronic age. The Library is eager to work closely with its Learning Commons collaborators and provide exceptional service to all our patrons, new and returning.  Please visit us, early and often, and help us help you. 

The Learning Resource Center - Writing consultants continued to provide one-on-one support in the LRC and offered in-class workshops for such diverse classes as writing, history, and culinary arts.  The COMPASS prep program, piloted last summer, really took off this year, with at least 48 students using writing consultant and software support to brush up their writing and reading knowledge. Final figures aren’t in, but the “time on task” paid off for many students whose scores increased significantly. The Writing Center website added a Faculty Spotlight video; more new videos are under development. Content tutors continued to provide one-on-one and group support to students in the LRC, and “embedded” tutors also worked with students in science study areas. The language conversation group program is growing: students participating in this voluntary program doubled from fall to spring (60 -> 118 students), with six languages involved: Chinese, English (ELI), Hawaiian, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish. The groups’ success is due to terrific native speaker peer leaders and very supportive language faculty. The LRC again offered content tutor-led success strategies workshops for science, accounting, and psychology. Many workshops were well-attended; again, tutor dedication and faculty support were key factors. Additionally, the Kako’o ‘Ike (KI) Program has also relocated to the second floor of the Learning Commons building and is accessible from the Mauka side of the building.  Our purpose is dual, offering support and services to students with documented disabilities as well as increase awareness among members of the college community and offering support so that our students with disabilities are able to perform at a level limited only by their abilities, not their disabilities.