About Us

The Tutoring and Academic Support Center (TASC) is a university-wide tutoring center that supports the academic success of all San Francisco State students by providing free peer-to-peer tutoring for all SF State students. 

At TASC, our tutors care about our students and about what and how they learn. Our peer tutors assist students in completing specific assignments as they strengthen their overall academic skills. Tutors are available to work with students in one-on-one appointments, in drop-in tutoring, and in small group study sessions. Our tutors are here to support students in their goal of succeeding at the university.

The tutoring staff is supported by TASC faculty, all of whom are currently teaching and/or have taught at San Francisco State and other universities. New tutors attend a semester-long training to learn tutoring best practices while returning tutors meet weekly to share experiences and improve their strategies. TASC works closely with instructors to support composition and GWAR courses in the form of Embedded Tutors and the Fellowship program respectively. 

TASC offers tutoring support for most subjects. Our sessions are tailored to unique student needs and learning styles. 

Meet Our Peer Staff

• Reading/Writing/FYE Tutors
• Math/Business/Science Tutors
• Front Desk Student Assistants

See Unit 11 location/schedule information here.

Our beliefs about learning

At TASC, we are a diverse community of educators at different points in our careers. We’re all learning, and we’re always working to get better at what we do. We believe that tutoring is for everyone. All students can benefit from the one-on-one attention and support that tutoring provides. 

We believe that learning happens…

• when students feel welcome, encouraged, supported, and connected. In tutoring, students can develop one-on-one connections that might not happen in their classes or on campus.
• through collaboration and conversation. In tutoring, both students and tutors ask questions, exchange dialogue, and collaboratively explore possible solutions. 
• when students develop strategies for approaching complicated problems and assignments with increasing autonomy, as well as self-efficacy skills for seeking out support when they need it. Through tutoring, students build transferable skills for college and beyond. 
• when students are reflective, developing metacognitive awareness of their own processes. By talking with a tutor, students become more conscious of their processes and strategies. They are then able to apply these strategies more effectively in the future, building agency and autonomy.
• when academic conventions are demystified. College has many unspoken rules that can be confusing and stressful for students, especially first-generation, international, or immigrant students. Tutors can explain these rules, making college work more accessible and equitable for everyone.
• when learning is contextualized. People learn best when course content is relevant to their lives and they actively participate in constructing meaning and knowledge. Tutors meet students where they are, personalizing sessions to students’ needs, interests, and experiences.
• throughout our lives. Learning happens when we approach the unfamiliar with curiosity and humility, admitting what we don’t know and asking questions. Tutors don’t have all the answers, but they can help students figure out what questions to ask.

We aim to…

• make students feel seen and heard, recognizing and valuing the unique knowledge, experience, and social identities that each student brings.
• create a space that welcomes and accommodates all people equitably and with integrity, embracing their abilities, ethnicities, races, class backgrounds, citizenship status, language backgrounds, gender identities, political views, religious beliefs, and/or sexual orientations.
• communicate clearly and promptly with students, tutors, and instructors, so that everyone gets the information that they need to move forward.
• create a community of support for tutors, students, faculty, and staff, so that they feel motivated and appreciated. We especially strive to support BIPOC and LGBTQ+ community members and to create spaces where everyone feels safe, respected, and comfortable.
• facilitate a rigorous, pedagogically-relevant tutor education program so that tutors are equipped with a range of tools for supporting diverse students academically, socially, and emotionally.
• engage in ongoing meaningful conversations about anti-racist and post-colonial pedagogies and their implications to our work. We embrace multilingualism and language diversity, affirm students’ agency and identities as they navigate academic expectations and develop their unique voices as writers, thinkers, and contributors to academic discourse.
• collaborate with departments and programs across campus to coordinate services in order to best meet students’ needs and foster a vibrant, interconnected campus community.

If you had an experience when you did not feel supported at TASC, please let us know. We are not perfect but want to understand, engage, and improve. 

Mission/Vision

The mission and vision of the Tutoring and Academic Support Center at San Francisco State University are to support student success in a collaborative and inclusive environment. Our peer tutors, supported by TASC faculty and staff, work to help students become more independent and confident learners in their academic journeys. Tutors work with students on strengthening their understanding of course material and concepts, on developing their reading and writing skills and processes, and on improving their overall academic skills. We aim to empower students as they develop successful habits that will help them in their education and beyond.

The primary goal of the Tutoring Advisory Board is to provide strategic input and guidance to the Executive Director of the Tutoring and Academic Support Center (TASC). Board members also serve as liaisons for the center, assisting in increasing its visibility to students and the campus community and sharing information about campus initiatives, opportunities, and changes that may affect the center.

The board is comprised of broad representation from key campus partners including members from Associated Students, the Division of Undergraduate Education and Academic Planning, the Division of Career Planning and Graduate Studies, Student Affairs, the colleges, Faculty Affairs, and the Library. As needed, the board will consult with other campus units and divisions.

Overarching Goals for the Tutoring Advisory Board

Outreach, Coordination, Communication

• Learn about the tutoring and academic support services at SF State (including TASC) in order to serve as an ambassador and advocate.
• Provide a connection to and ongoing exchange of information between TASC and other areas of campus. This may include outreach and consultation with students, faculty, and staff in order to gather broad-based input.
• Develop a communication plan from orientation to graduation, both for communication across the various tutoring units and outreach to students, faculty, and staff. The goal is to make clear where students can go for their tutoring and academic support needs and how faculty and staff can make referrals.
• Assist with marketing and promoting campus academic support services, programs, and events.
• If serving on the board as a representative from another academic support/tutoring unit, assist in advertising and recruiting tutors to attend and participate in campus-wide tutor trainings.

Program Development and Assessment

• Work with the Executive Director to ensure that TASC is delivering services and programs that are responsive to student needs, current, and based in best-practice research.
• Provide recommendations for training topics to be offered to students working as tutors across all campus tutoring locations.
• As per the recommendations of the Operational Review of Tutoring, conduct ongoing review of the roles and responsibilities of all campus tutoring locations and their relationship to each other and the university-wide center (TASC).
• Provide feedback to the Executive Director to assist in the development of new programs and services.
• Ensure adherence to SF State’s guiding principles, mission, and vision for tutoring and academic support.
• Assess the centralized tutoring website and make recommendations to advance and improving the use of Navigator/EAB, as the campus’ online tutoring appointment scheduling tool.
• In collaboration with the Office of Institutional Research, develop protocol and practices for data collection, analysis, and reporting across all tutoring units on campus.

Advisory Board Membership

Advisory Board members are recruited each year and may serve multi-year terms. Members include the following:

• TASC Executive Director, chair
• A representative from the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP Director or designee)
• SOAR TRIO (SOAR TRIO Director or designee)
• Metro (Metro Student Services Lead)
• Supplemental Instruction (Program Director, Supplemental Instruction Program-COSE)
• Division of Equity and Community Inclusion (Designee from Associate Vice President, Division of Equity & Community Inclusion)
• Division of Graduate Studies (Designee from Dean of Graduate Studies)
• Faculty Representatives from Business, English,Science, and Math
• Student Representatives (one from ASI and one student-at-large [repeat tutee])
• Advising Representative (DUEAP Advising MPP or designee)
• Disability Programs and Resource CenterRepresentative (DPRC Director or designee)
• FYE Faculty Director
• Library Representative (Designee from University Librarian)
• Center for Equity and Excellence in Teaching and Learning Representative (Faculty Director or designee)

Meetings/Time Commitment

• Attend board meetings twice a semester
• Over the course of the year, participate in at least one academic support/tutoring event
• Attend subcommittee meetings, as necessary
• Assist in the identification and recruitment of new board members (if needed)
• Total anticipated time commitment per semester: 6-8 hours