One of many Bainbridge College resources created to assist students to achieve their educational goals, the high-use Academic Resource Center (ARC) enjoys expanded facilities this semester in the Oak Center on Main Campus near the Administration Building and Nature Trail.

Its move out of the Student Center made way for the new Academic Advising Center and First Year Program, which are funded by Board of Regents Strategic Initiative Funds.

The refurbished Oak Center provides ARC a larger main computer room, a study room for small groups and individual study, and a separate resource area with a variety of materials, including classic and popular literature. The ARC itself has assisted professionals from other colleges who have visited the campus to learn more about ARC as a model for their institutions.

The move, made possible by the extra efforts by Plant Operations and Technology Support staff during the winter break, came just before Spring Semester, which brought college enrollment to an all-time high.

Among the resources ARC offers on Main Campus and the Early County Site is free tutoring. The center’s peer tutors assist with various subjects, including English, math, technical math, accounting, bookkeeping, biology, business, chemistry, history, computer classes (including word processing, other fundamentals and PowerPoint) and many other subjects.

Available to all BC students, tutoring is free and available on a walk-in basis or by appointment.

Students can use the facility’s computers for Internet research for course papers and use its resource library for additional information for classes.

ARC provides periodic workshops, such as listening skills, academic etiquette, time management and a spring term academic success seminar that included those topics and more. Presenting the seminar at two different times to a room full of participants, ARC Director Lori Kuhn-Hancock also taught skills for note taking, studying and test taking.

Many of those attending were among the non-traditional students who have come to BC this year because of job cuts as businesses closed. In response to the closing of American Fibers and Yarn, which brought a number of former employees to BC, ARC created an in-class tutoring system to help allay anxiety for those who had not been in school for 20 or 30 years, and especially for those who had never been to college.

For the displaced workers, both ARC locations offer computer-use sessions each Friday at noon and at 1 p.m., Kuhn-Hancock said.

Students may contact ARC for more information. Call Main Campus ARC at (229) 248-3989. E-mail arc@bainbridge.edu. Or call the Early County Site ARC in Room 154, (229) 724-2146.

Current hours on Main Campus are 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, Friday 7:30 a.m. to noon and Saturday by appointment.

Early County hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Hours will change May 11 to July 31 when the college adjusts its summer hours to 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Offices will be closed on Fridays.