The Center for Academic Success and Advising (CASA)
Director: Elisa M. Giordano, PhD
Glenn Hubert Learning Center Manager: Olena Drozd, PhD
Administrative Specialist: Daryn Jaggernauth, BA
Garner Hall, 113
(305) 899‑3687
CASA@barry.edu
The Barry University Center for Academic Success and Advising (CASA), located In Garner Hall 113, seeks to support student success by delivering an extensive array of customized services, including first-year advising, undergraduate academic coaching, tutoring, and academic support services, designed to meet the diverse needs of Barry students. CASA strives to foster the academic skills and mindset needed for students to achieve their fullest potential and realize their academic successes and aims to empower all Barry University students to be independent and confident learners.
Also CASA houses the Glenn Hubert Learning Center (GHLC) staffed by two full-time staff members and 20 professional part-time tutors. GHLC is comprised of the Mathematics Laboratory, the Reading Center, and the Writing Center. GHLC provides face-to-face and remote academic support services to all undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students who need assistance with mathematics, reading, and writing. Additionally, the Supplemental Instruction in Reading SI 010 Active Reading and Learning course is delivered through GHLC. The activities provided by GHLC support the Mission of the University by ensuring that each student has an opportunity to achieve her or his academic potential.
The Mathematics Laboratory provides academic support to undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students who need assistance in gaining confidence, math skills, and knowledge necessary to reach their personal and academic potential in the study of mathematics. In addition to walk-in tutorial sessions, customized Directed Tutorials and other services, such as test preparation for education majors, tutoring for business and nursing students, and assistance with statistical analyses, physics, and chemistry math are provided. The Math Lab collaborates with faculty, develops, and facilitates a variety of workshops designed to address the most important math- and computer-related skills students need to be successful in their discipline-specific courses.
The Writing Center assists undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students with all areas of their writing. Services focus on the connection between writing and knowledge. Tutoring sessions do not intend to produce impeccable papers; rather, the goal is to teach students to become writers who are more capable and more independent so that they can use what they have learned in future papers. Tutorial services include walk in sessions, customized one-to-one Directed Tutorials, and assistance with writing lab reports, research papers, literature reviews, resumes, personal statements, portfolios, and other types of writing assignments. The Writing Center facilitates a variety of workshops on avoiding plagiarism, grammar, and APA documentation style. The Online Writing Lab (OWL) provides students with an accessible forum in which they can improve their papers and writing skills by collaborating through the Internet with writing consultants. The OWL is a service available to students on the main campus as well as students taking courses at off-campus sites. The Writing Center collaborates with faculty from the content-area disciplines to foster student academic success.
The Reading Center works with students to develop the reading comprehension skills, vocabulary, and reading fluency required for college-level reading. Through tutor modeling and individualized instruction, students learn a variety of active reading strategies and study techniques. The Reading Center also provides customized tutorials on a variety of topics salient to student academic success. These topics include but not limited to test-taking skills, study skills, vocabulary development skills, and the tutorial designed for students who speak English as a second language.
The University Testing Center is responsible for placement testing of incoming students in English, reading, French, mathematics, Spanish, and chemistry.