SU's Porter Honored with Outstanding SI Support Award

SALISBURY, MD---The International Center for Supplemental Instruction recently honored Heather Porter, assistant director of Salisbury University’s Center for Student Achievement (CSA), with its Outstanding Supplemental Instruction (SI) Support by a Campus Administrator Award.

According to Heather Holmes, SU CSA director, Porter’s impact on Salisbury’s program has included helping it grow from 47 SI sections serving over 1,700 students in fall 2012 to 107 sections serving nearly 4,200 students just five years later. Currently, Porter also oversees some 77 student SI leaders, who provide assistance for their peers.

“The success of the program can be attributed to [Porter’s] expertise in recruiting, hiring and training SI leaders, and developing relationships with faculty, student and academic affairs staff, and administrators across campus,” Holmes said.

Porter also has introduced new initiatives into SU’s CSA, such as an evaluation process including SI observations, marketing campaigns and the “Cup of Joe” program, which offers vouchers to encourage students to take faculty out to coffee to get to know them outside the classroom. In addition, she assisted with implementing the center’s TutorTrac software to track SI visits and use of the facility.

On the budget side, Porter served as co-principal investigator on an initiative examining the financial impact of SI on institutional effectiveness, determining that by supporting students’ retention and degree progression, SU’s program saved the University approximately $500,000 in its first three years of implementation by helping students maintain and increase their grades.

According to Holmes, students who attend at least one SI session increase their grade point average by some 18 percentage points, while those who attend five or more see an average growth of 38 percentage points. The center also has helped lower SU’s dropped-classes and retention rates—much of which can be attributed to Porter, Holmes said.

Porter “always thinks and acts on two questions: What would be best for the student, and how can I help them learn?” she said.

For more information call 410-543-6030 or visit the SU website at www.salisbury.edu.