Last of four stories
By Rick Vacek | February 20, 2025
The Student Success Center has become a commanding presence, and not just at The University of Texas at Dallas.
Its future promises to help it stand out even more.
SSC Director Michael Saenz estimates that he is contacted at least once a month by a representative of another university who wants to meet virtually or in person to talk about his unit’s peer-tutoring efforts. The visits multiply after a conference of educators includes examples of the UT Dallas programs.
“You always feel like you’re doing a good job, and then you hear someone else say, ‘Hey, my boss told me about you, and my boss said I need to come visit and see what y’all are doing,’” Saenz said.
What is UT Dallas doing differently? It starts with centralization, which leads to innovation.
The University doesn’t have tutoring units spread all around the campus, with different budgets and goals. The SSC, located in the McDermott Library, was established in 2012 to serve all students, and it reports to the Office of Undergraduate Education and, in turn, the Office of the Provost.
“At many other universities, everything is so siloed,” Saenz said. “The writing center is in the English department, the math lab is in the math department, the communications lab is in the speech department.
“Everything gets isolated from a resource standpoint. The English department might not have the funds to hire 20 tutors, or the math department might not have the resources to hire 70 tutors.”
An abundance of resources inspires more creativity.
“The thing I like best about my job,” Saenz said, “is how innovative we are and the freedom and flexibility my boss and my boss’ boss and the Provost allow us to have. ‘You want to try this new program? Let’s do it.’ I think it helps us stay in the forefront of being one of the leading Student Success Centers in the country.”
Buy-in makes it easier to sell change, but it starts with connecting to the SSC’s customers – those students – in other ways.
For the first time since COVID-19 forced the campus to be shut down nearly five years ago, the SSC is bringing its services back into residence halls.
“The thing I’m proudest of is how we really do outreach and connect other parts of campus to us,” said Dr. Julie Murphy, SSC’s Senior Director. “Right now we’re doing a big Res Life push, and they’re excited to bring us back.”
New last fall was the Pancake Power Hour. Res Life Peer Advisors asked SSC Peer Leaders to collaborate with them to make pancakes, then go over chemistry questions and review materials for the exam.
“It’s like a sleepover vibe,” Saenz said. “You’re not in the Peer Tutoring lab. You’re out in a res hall space and having fun with friends.”
The SSC’s relationships with faculty, on the other hand, are well established.
“A lot of these programs would be nothing without the faculty relationships we have,” Saenz said. “The one thing we’ve seen in all our research and all our experience with peer education programs is that you can have the best program manager, you can have the best Peer Leaders, but if you don’t have the communication and interaction and support from the faculty members, you’re spinning your wheels.
“They’re the ones who know the final piece that’s really going to give you the input of the content that they’re doing and can tell you where the students are struggling and where to put our resources. They also become a big mouthpiece in the classroom. There’s nothing more supportive than a professor saying, ‘You want to get better? Go to the Student Success Center.’”
First-year students can get a preview of the UT Dallas and SSC experiences before classes even start by attending one of the Summer Success Camps, which feature two free, all-day workshops in mid-August.
The 115 attendees last summer were greeted by a fun icebreaker at breakfast – building whatever they wanted with Legos – and then took part in a format that gave them content choices within three breakout sessions plus lunch and a Q&A with the Peer Leaders.
The first two sessions, an hour and a half apiece, featured opportunities to review content in two of four areas: math, chemistry, writing and communication. The final 45-minute workshop provided options to receive Academic Success Coaching in time management, understanding a syllabus, or study skills.
The camps were reimagined for last summer by Mallory Matyk, an SSC Assistant Director, and Charles Spring, Academic Success Coaching Program Manager. Their idea was to have the sessions be led by the Peer Leaders and styled after the conferences the SSC staff members regularly attend.
“What we really wanted to focus on was: Do the students know what the SSC is? Do they know what their resources are? Do they feel supported? Did they talk with a peer?” Matyk said.
Those questions were asked in the survey afterward. The answers were almost 100% positive.
The invitations to learn more about the SSC extend into Success Week, in the second week of each semester. Again, the Peer Leaders conduct workshops – on subjects they find meaningful, such as avoiding burnout and tips for STEM students.
One popular Success Week event was Pick Your Planner. Students could choose a free academic planner and receive time-management tips from Peer Leaders.
“Sometimes students are nervous to walk into Peer Tutoring for the first time because it’s intimidating,” Matyk said.
Not if they can see for themselves that the atmosphere is so warm – and not just in the summer.
What also might impress visitors is the SSC’s commitment to regularly evaluating its services and looking for ways to improve them.
Its newest program, launched in 2017, is the Institute for Peer Education (IPE), which provides a certified training program through the College Reading & Learning Association (CRLA) to peer educators and tutors across campus, not just in the Student Success Center.
Through a series of interactive workshops, Peer Leaders are able to hone their skills to become a better leader for their mentees and tutees. Peer Leaders can earn advanced level certifications (Levels 1-3) that look great to prospective employers on resumes.
The institute has a board that meets periodically to talk about the challenges the SSC has encountered and to suggest solutions.
“We could just sit here, and the same students would come,” Murphy said. “But we want to be creative and innovative to find out why students aren’t coming and what the barriers are so we can make sure we’re adjusting our timelines.”
The SSC’s most exciting new development is on the horizon. What seemed so far away a year ago now is coming into view.
Murphy is on the committee that conceived and is managing the construction of the Student Success Center/Student Union, scheduled to open in late 2026 after nearly three years of planning and construction.
The 360,000-square-foot facility will house just about everything students need … including, of course the SSC, which will be in the same space with the Office of Undergraduate Education for the first time.
“Part of me still can’t believe it’s happening,” Murphy said.
Saenz usually parks in a nearby garage and sneaks a peek at the construction progress every time he walks by.
“It felt so far away last summer,” he said, “and now we’re doing tests for the chairs.”
They can only imagine what it will feel like just to sit in that spacious new environment, and it’s even more fun to anticipate what visitors from other universities will think. Minds are sure to be blown.
But for now, the SSC’s leaders have the satisfaction of knowing that when they attend a conference, their practices usually are the best practices.
“We’re not just doing the old tutoring thing that was stuck in the 1980s,” Saenz said. “We’re innovating with peer education, and we’ve been on the forefront of that for a while.”
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Previous stories in this series:
Peer Leaders Help Make Student Success Center a Go-To Place