The Steely Library is packed this week, with nearly every table taken, as students do last minute study sessions in preparation for mid-term exams. Students right now need all the help they can get. PLUS Tutoring offers help for students when they are stumped on practice exam questions or lecture reviews. A resource that is there for students when they need help should be packed like the library — but it is not.
PLUS Tutoring has been having difficulty bringing in more students for tutoring and tutors since COVID-19 hit, when the entire world was forced to work online.
“In a week or so, half of our tutors quit. So we went from 60 PLUS tutors in a course of a week or two to having 30 or fewer,” said PLUS Tutoring Coordinator Robin Theobald. “We were all online, and not as many students were scheduling appointments. So that was kind of the start.”
The amount of money tutors make, $10 an hour, is another reason for the decrease in number of tutors.
“They can make a couple of raises so they can go to $10.75, and then $11.50, but I would definitely like to pay them more and I am working on that,” said Theobald.
The number of students attending tutoring sessions has also gone down tremendously. According to Theobald in fall 2019, there were 634 students served, but as of fall 2025, only 351 students attended tutoring.
“We’ve been making a little bit of progress on it, but I think since the pandemic, there are more online classes,” said Theobald. “There’s fewer students on campus, just fewer students around.”
The subjects affected the most have been math and science classes such as statistics, chemistry, biology and physics. Tutor Tyler Egloff, who mainly tutors computer science and mathematics courses, has been deeply affected by this.
“For this semester, so far, I have only had about four tutoring appointments,” said Egloff.
Math tutor Arron Pitrucha, who helps students in Math 141, an algebra class, and Stats 205, has also been greatly affected.
“If I’m lucky, I get two people a week,” said Pitrucha.
Now the question is, why are students not attending tutoring? Pitrucha remembers that in high school, people thought going to tutoring meant you weren’t doing it right, or “thought somebody was going to look down on you or something.”
“So, there was a stigma and caused anxiety, and people were unsure, especially trying to talk to somebody that you have no idea who the heck you are. So that brings in some issues,” said Pitrucha.
Another reason is the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). Egloff thinks students are getting used to using AI for their schoolwork and studying.
“As students get better and better at using it properly, I think they are finding it’s their new tutor, and maybe they don’t really want to go in person and meet with someone now,” said Egloff.
How can this shortage of tutors and students attending tutoring be fixed? According to Theobald, professors can encourage tutoring during their classes. It could be especially helpful for the higher level classes like math and science.
“If students would try it out and see it’s not so scary. Yes, the first time you come, your tutor may be someone that you don’t know yet, but it’s a fellow student. So, you’ve already got something in common,” said Theobald.
Pitrucha also agrees that the word should get out about PLUS Tutoring and the resources it brings to students.
“The bulk of us who tutor, we just want to help. We want people to be able to succeed, to be able to understand the material. We’re not here because we’re superior by any stretch of the imagination,” said Pitrucha.
Egloff thinks there should be more marketing push for the tutoring hub.
“For example, like short-form videos where tutors are sitting around and talking. I think the more that we push the human, personal contact side of it, hopefully people would see that and come and try and connect with a person, instead of just going straight to the generative AI. All we can do now is sell them on the human to human connection,” said Egloff
Theobald knows that the world is different since COVID and PLUS Tutoring will never get back to where they were before COVID. But, even with this change, she hopes this shortage is short-term.
“I hope it will move in the right direction. We might not get back to 600 plus students a semester, but we could get to 400 students a semester, that would be awesome,” said Theobald.
If you or someone you know needs help with a class, PLUS Tutoring is open Monday-Friday 8:15 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in UC 170. To book an appointment, you can go to their website.