IMP Center to close Mondays due to budget cuts, hoping to use time to help students with math placement exams

Students enrolled in the Individualized Mathematics Program will

be somewhat out of luck on Mondays this semester.

Due to recent budget cuts, the IMP center will close Monday

during the day. It will be open briefly in the evening from 6:30 to

9 p.m.

Both the beginning of the week and the spring semester bring a

lighter flow of students to the IMP center, said Lois Samer,

co-director of the IMP.

“We have 700 to 800 fewer students than in the fall,” Samer

said. “That automatically translates into quite a bit less

traffic.”

Most deadlines at the IMP center land on Fridays, causing

students to delay their work until the end of the week, said Simon

Tavener, chair of the math department.

“Monday historically has the lightest traffic,” Tavener said.

“It is the best day to shut.”

Alisa Tonozzi, a freshman life sciences open option student, was

involved in IMP during the fall semester and again this spring. She

isn’t so sure cutting Monday hours is a good idea.

“If you’re taking a lot (of classes) you really do need that

extra time,” Tonozzi said. “It will really affect people.”

The IMP simply doesn’t have enough money to stay open. Last

semester, it opened an hour later, at 10 a.m. five days a week.

Now, it will open at 9 a.m. but will cut Mondays.

“For this spring, instead of being closed seven hours to what

had been standard, we just changed the distribution of when that

occurred,” Samer said. “The closures are motivated by funding

situations.”

The IMP center is still trying to help students succeed in math

while its doors are closed. Its employees are trying out a special

tutoring program on Mondays for students who still need to pass

their math placement exam.

“There are still close to 400 people who need to pass a

placement exam,” Samer said. “We’re trying to use this time

productively to help them.”

Samer is not sure of the exact times and specifications of the

tutoring sessions, but she hopes to hold them a couple of Mondays a

month for students who need special help in mathematics.

“We want to be open roughly every other Monday specifically to

work with students on placement exams,” Samer said. “Yesterday was

kind of our first trial run at it.”

Students can find out the latest news about these tutoring

sessions through Student FYIs sent to their e-mail accounts.