New WU staff member updates tutoring process

Waynesburg University’s newest faculty member, Alexa Baily, joins the effort for student support this year as the new Academic Events and Support Specialist. Her responsibilities include managing tutoring and helping plan academic events with academic affairs. 

As the acting position, Baily said she looks to improve the tutoring services offered to students. 

“I definitely want tutoring services to be analyzed more, so we can assess what’s working and what’s not working,” Baily said. “My ultimate goal is for students to receive the help that they need.”

Baily wants to make tutoring more accessible and make sure tutors are constantly available for students who may need them. If a tutoring style does not fit a student’s learning style, she wants to be aware of that and provide that student with what they need to succeed.

To accomplish this, a new online scheduling system will be accessible to students. Before, scheduling was done all on paper, and then tutors were paired via email. Baily utilized the online software, along with the director of the writing center, Jill Sunday, to create a more efficient system. Baily expects this online system to bring some clean-up to the way students schedule tutoring appointments.

“Sometimes, there’s not a tutor available in a course when a student requests tutoring,” Baily said. “So, I kind of have to go down this ‘rabbit hole’ where I reach out to faculty and try to locate a student who’s interested [and get them enrolled].”

Baily graduated from Ohio State University with a degree in history and political science. She immediately started working for the state legislature in Ohio and helped shape and craft policy. In college, Baily volunteer-led Young Life, as well as, ministry for high school and college students. She then traveled to Washington to interview for the area director position of Young Life.

Working with Young Life, overseeing both Washington County and Greene County, led Baily to local volunteers, mostly from Waynesburg University. Through this she was able to discover where she truly wanted to be.

“Through some turn of events and shifts in my heart, I realized that that’s not exactly what I want to be doing, but I love this fear of higher ed,” Baily said. “My favorite part was working with the volunteer leaders, which were all college students here at Waynesburg.”

Soon, Baily interviewed for her current position, and got to where she is now. She is very excited to work with the university and is passionate about what she’s doing here.

Originally from suburban Ohio, Baily now lives in the town of Waynesburg just outside of campus. In addition to her faculty position, she attends Waynesburg’s graduate school in hope of achieving her Master of Arts in mental health counseling. Since Baily’s husband is a 2003 graduate of Waynesburg University, she found out through family research that she is the ninth “Baily” to matriculate here at Waynesburg.

“[Waynesburg] is vastly different from the suburb which I grew up, I love the small-town charm,” Baily said. “Waynesburg University specifically, I love its mission … I think loving students in a way that shows Christ’s love is very important, and I think that we [the university] strive to do that well.”