Student Success Center

Welcome to the Student Success Center at Huber Hall

“Right now we’ve got an education system that works like a funnel when we need it to work like a pipeline. We have to make the same commitment to getting folks across the graduation stage that we did to getting them into the registrar’s office.”
—Vice President Joe Biden (March 22, 2011)

Completion of a college degree is essential not just for the individual student and for Medaille College, but also for the economic well-being of the Buffalo, the Western New York region and the nation as a whole. Medaille College’s Student Success Center embodies the College’s mission of balancing the highest possible standards of achievement with “support for every individual student and a concern that each one succeed.”

In November 2010, Medaille began a major expansion on its Buffalo Campus with the renovation of Huber Hall to house a new Student Success Center. The 20,000-square-foot structure nearly doubles the size of Huber Hall. In addition to offices for student support services, the Center includes two technology-equipped learning labs, a student technology lounge, four state-of-the-art classrooms, and a faculty/staff technology training room. Most important, the Student Success Center is a friendly, flexible learning environment where students can work in small groups, get help from a tutor, find access to the latest technology or connect one-on-one with other students to study and socialize.

Student Resources in the SSC

Academic Support Center
Offering placement testing; peer and professional tutoring; reading, writing and math specialists; computer access; and academic success plans.

Career Planning
Serving as a link between students, alumni and the employment community.

Advisement Center
Providing guidance for academic schedules, assistance with declaring a major, and support for setting academic goals.

Disability Services
Answering the needs of students with disabilities.

TRiO/Student Support Services Program
Helping eligible participants graduate with the grades and skills necessary for success at Medaille and beyond.

The Student Success Center and "High-Impact Educational Practices"

"High-impact practices such as first-year seminars, collaborative assignments, and community-based learning can demonstrably enhance student engagement, knowledge, and retention."
—AAC&U (March 2010)

The Center serves to further Medaille’s commitment to what the American Association of Colleges and Universities has promoted as “high-impact educational practices.” These are learner-centered strategies that educational research suggests increase student engagement and therefore improve student persistence to graduation, especially among underachieving students.

Project EQUIP

Among these “high-impact” practices is community-based learning, which is at the heart of Medaille’s Project EQUIP, a four-year learning sequence for all students that involves field-based experiential learning with community partners.

The Student Success Center supports Project EQUIP through its Center for Community-Based Learning, whose director works with faculty, staff, and students to promote learning that links the classroom to the community in order to enhance students’ real-world problem solving skills and to fulfill the College’s vision of “preparing students for successful careers and a lifelong contribution to a civic and sustainable future in Buffalo, the region, and the world.”

Features of the Student Success Center

Housed in the newly-renovated and expanded Huber Hall, the Center brings together student support services in a state-of-the-art facility, designed as a one-stop-shop to promote academic success.

Here students will find the Academic Advisement Center, the Academic Support Center, the TRiO/Student Support Services program, the Office of Disability Services, and the Career Planning Center.

Collaboration with the Buffalo Campus Library

"It is not the finding of a thing, but the making of something out of it after it is found that is of consequence.”
—E. O. Wilson, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (1998)

The new Center adjoins the Buffalo Campus Library, where faculty librarians and staff work in close collaboration with other student services to provide a supportive learning environment for students. Among the features of the Student Success Center is the Library’s new “Collabratorium,” where information literacy is taught and where students can work in groups and individually with resources that include not only library personnel but also 27 computers, a printer and a Smart Board.

Federal and Foundation Support

Since February 2010, Medaille has secured approximately $4 million in federal and private foundation funds to enhance undergraduate education, including programs housed in the Student Success Center. These awards include a $400,000 grant from The John R. Oishei Foundation in support of Project EQUIP, and two grants from the U.S. Department of Education totaling $3.5 million over five years.

The College’s Title IV TRiO/Student Support Services grant from the Department of Education has been renewed for five years. This nearly $1.5 million award supports services to 200 low-income, first-generation students and students with disabilities to help them persist to graduation.

Medaille’s Title III “Strengthening Institutions” grant represents $2 million over five years to improve student retention and graduation rates on the Buffalo Campus. The grant supports technology for student learning throughout the Student Success Center as well as four full-time student support positions: Math Specialist, Reading/Writing Specialist, Technology Support Specialist, and Academic Achievement Specialist.