Ohio University students struggling academically or wanting help with a subject can turn to the Academic Achievement Center.
Some of the services hosted by the AAC include drop-in tutoring, Peer-Assisted-Learning sessions, the Writing Commons and the First-Generation Student Success support program.
Different parts of the AAC provide support to specific subjects. The Learning Commons, which is located in Alden Library, aims to support students in their humanities, social sciences and language courses, including accounting and Spanish.
The STEM Academy assists students in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields and is in Morton Hall.
“The Academic Achievement Center is here for every student,” Elizabeth Fallon, the executive director for academic achievement, said. “Our focus is supporting every student. Not just students who are struggling, but certainly struggling students are welcome to join us and use our services.”
The AAC offers services not just to OU’s main campus, but also to all of its satellites. Fallon said about 25-30% of students use AAC services. Fallon said it has also been found that students who go to PAL sessions receive a full letter grade higher than those who do not.
“I would define any student who uses the AAC as highly motivated,” Fallon said. “Whether they're struggling or not, we do have a fair number of students who are trying to get into medical school or other graduate school, so they have to have good grades. They're coming to make sure they're getting an A on average.”
According to OU, every semester, the university reviews each undergraduate student’s cumulative grade point average to see if it is below 2.0. If this is the case, OU puts the student on academic probation.
At the beginning of the Fall 2025 semester, 656 of the 17,079 undergraduate students were placed on academic probation and 70 were academically dismissed, according to an email from Alexander Semancik, a communications specialist for University Communications and Marketing.
“Most students on probation are first-year students,” Fallon said. “Usually, after a student successfully completes a couple semesters, they're fine.”
Students on academic probation have access to a success advisor and the Academic Probation Help Desk. When students are first placed on probation, they must attend a two-hour Academic Success Workshop where they learn about what it means to be on academic probation, according to OU.
Fallon said some contributing factors to why students are put on academic probation include personal situations that draw them home, sickness or dropping too many classes.
“I can't say this is why most people are (on probation), it varies widely across students and their experience,” Fallon said. “There are a lot of reasons why students get that grade, and they're probably as many unique reasons as there are students at probation.”
Fallon said no one wants to walk in her shoes because of how busy she is working for the AAC. She and the other AAC directors spend most of the summer planning to start offering all of their programs by the second week of school.
“We're looking at our data from last year, (and asking) what went well,” Fallon said. “Maybe there's some classes we offered services for that the students didn't come for, so we didn't want to repeat that again. It is just fine-tuning our plan for the academic year, and we also want to hire all of our student staff.”
The services through the AAC are typically peer-to-peer; however, if needed, faculty are always happy to step in.
Maddie Saiter, a sophomore studying marketing, found herself in need of a little help with her accounting and business calculus classes last semester, so she turned to the AAC’s tutoring and PAL sessions.
“I think the most helpful part of it was just hearing the class material from someone who isn't the professor,” Saiter said. “Just getting a second voice on a subject really helped me.”
Saiter is part of the honors program and has to maintain a 3.3 GPA to stay in it. Saiter said she knows she is not the best test taker and has to do whatever she can to pass them.
“I attended some tutoring sessions for my accounting class last year and ended with a high B,” Saiter said. “In my accounting class this year, I'm sitting at a 77 right now because I haven't attended any tutoring sessions, so I would say there's definitely a difference.”
The services offered through the AAC are free for students to use. Saiter said she would not have ever used them if they were not free.
“I'm just speaking for myself, but I don't have enough money to go out and have someone else teach me the material,” Saiter said. “I would have had to do that by myself, and that probably would have resulted in a lower grade.”
Fallon said she wishes everyone knew the AAC is available for all students.
“We know sometimes students feel a lot of stigma, like they don't want to say they need help or they're struggling, but that shouldn't be their worry,” Fallon said. “We're not going to shame anybody. We're held back here to help everyone be successful.”
Saiter said every tutoring PAL session she attended, she never felt embarrassed. Saiter said the PAL session instructors and people at the AAC are extremely welcoming.
“I probably have a couple more difficult business math classes coming up, and math is not my strongest subject,” Saiter said. “I could definitely see myself going back just because my experience has been so positive so far.”
