The Professor John Score II Learning Commons, located in SLC 103A, is the collective name for the area of the A. Frank Smith Jr. Library Center, where the Debby Ellis Writing Center (DEWC), Tutoring Center, and Classroom 115 are located. The Learning Commons is focused on providing an academic space with a variety of services and resources in one location, dedicated to helping students flourish in their academic, personal, and professional goals. The Learning Commons provides focused, individualized support for students so that they may learn valuable skills to take with them during and beyond college.

The Tutoring Center is the latest addition to the Learning Commons. Once a storage space, this spacious part of the Smith Library has been transformed into a hub for all tutoring needs, complete with two cozy sofas, many desks and seating arrangements, and two large TVs on opposite sides of each other, adorned with warm fairy lights and always streaming soft relaxing study music such as lo-fi or light jazz. The space is brightly lit, with spacious light blue and soft white walls with dark teal sofas with blankets too, that way you can get warm and cozy while working on your next due assignment. It is complete with a coffee station and a variety of options to brew your coffee, as well as a suggestion box on the coffee station counter for suggestions on how to improve the space. There are fidget toys found throughout the tutoring center as well as the DEWC, four large whiteboards, alongside a student resources rolling cart in one section of the room, which contains sticky notes, pencils, portable whiteboards, erasers, flashcards and highlighters, sanitation products, and even a first aid kit.

The Tutoring Center offers a variety of services to students. It also provides a space to meet other peers working on similar or different projects, providing opportunities to build an academic safety net and build community. The Tutoring Center can explain concepts in different ways than how a professor may explain concepts, help with practicing topics and testing your knowledge in your studies, and even develop study strategies and study routines. All tutors in the tutoring center are fellow Southwestern students who excel in their classes and are top-grade. Drop-ins are available for both the DEWC and the Tutoring Center. 

I spoke with Eliana Solis ‘26, second-year biology student, consultant of the DEWC, and Intro to Statistics tutor, to give me a little insight into the Tutoring Center of the Learning Commons. The Tutoring Center was first introduced last semester, with many changes occurring over the summer of 2024. From changing over to a different manager for tutoring, as well as construction over the summer, the clearance of the previous storage space and transforming that space into what is now the Tutoring Center was one of SU’s many summertime objectives. Alongside this, Director of the Professor John Score II Learning Commons Maurice Wilson’s office has been relocated, and his previous office has now been reserved as an accommodations space for students who would like a dark, quiet space to study or self-regulate. Lastly, the future of the Learning Commons can anticipate a new mural located within the tutoring center, where there is a QR code on the entrance door that opens a Google form, seeking input on which artistic rendering of the mural should be considered, which was opened Monday, January 27th at 8:00 a.m and closed a week later, February 3rd at 11:59 p.m. Solis, in an email added that posters were put up with a QR code in the Library, FJS, and other locations on campus.  Solis stated the form received a total of 71 responses and that the form “was opened for a week to give one of the artists proper  time to shade in the final color palette the SU study body voted for.”

The Professor John Score II Learning Commons and the new addition of the Tutoring Center is a hub dedicated to helping students thrive in their academics and teach lifelong skills that will help students succeed during and beyond college. The Tutoring Center and Debby Ellis Writing Center are studious and cozy spaces, perfect for honing your skills or for simply providing a lounge to chill out and study with Animal Crossing lo-fi videos in the background.