In a move aimed at improving the learning climate at Cornell, two separate units have merged to create the new Center for Learning and Teaching.

The merger, which united the Learning Skills Center and the Office of Instructional Support, resulted from a year of discussion and self-evaluation and from a two-and-a-half-day vision conference Feb. 14 through 16 of this year with staff from the two units.

David Way, director of the Office of Instructional Support (OIS), said the vision conference and the idea of creating the new center grew out of the understanding that, he said, "Moving into the next millennium, there will be new challenges to the university and its students, and we need to collaborate to improve the learning environment in ways that we haven't in the past."

That vision echoes one of the five priorities President Hunter Rawlings set for the university a year and a half ago, "to improve the living and learning environment on campus."

Saundra McGuire, acting director and senior lecturer in chemistry for the Learning Skills Center (LSC), said the new center will be a valuable resource for both students and faculty.

"We are committed to improving the instructional climate at Cornell at all levels, from both the student perspective and the faculty perspective," she said. "We believe that both units can benefit from a more collaborative approach and that our respective stakeholders will benefit from the interaction as well."

The new center will be located on the fourth floor of the Computing and Communications Center, where the Learning Skills Center and the Office of Instructional Support now are located.

The LSC is an academic support unit that provides students with supplemental instruction, tutorial help and workshops designed to promote effective learning. Its goal is to help students develop learning strategies, skills and insights that will help them achieve academic success.

The LSC serves all students but specifically targets underrepresented minority students. In 1996-97, the LSC served 1,155 students as enrolled participants in introductory biology, chemistry, economics, math and physics courses, and an additional 850 students attended at least one supplemental course session.

The OIS provides faculty members and teaching assistants with a variety of services to support the practice of teaching on an individual, course, departmental, college and universitywide level. Among these are a series of workshops on instructional development for all graduate TAs throughout the university, confidential consultation on how to improve the classroom climate, course design and revision, in-class videotaping and review, customized course and instructor-specific midterm student evaluations of teaching, and a special program for screening and assisting international graduate TAs in their language and classroom skills.

Cal Walker, assistant director of LSC, said the two units still need to establish new ways of operating, communicating and planning and that it is not clear yet exactly how the merger will manifest itself in programming. But, he said, "It's clear that by understanding the learning issues critical to students in the LSC, faculty members and teaching assistants in OIS will gain invaluable insight into how they can better address those issues."

The conversations about goals and strategies for the new center are just beginning, and the idea of forming an advisory board, made up of faculty and students, is being discussed. He added that while there is increasing focus on the higher education learning environment nationwide, a model based on collaboration between an instructional unit and a learning unit is relatively unique.

The real work of developing the new center is just beginning, Way said, and it's an exciting prospect. "But," he added, "I think we need to hear more; we need to listen more before we begin to make plans for new programming."

Way and McGuire emphasized that the merger will not in any way decrease the current services offered by each unit. By combining efforts, they said, the units plan to increase the impact they will have on Cornell's learning environment.