1996 - 2026 Timeline
1996 – The Academic Skills Centre is founded. From the beginning, the focus is on academic skills development, partnership building, and a shift away from one-on-one transactional tutoring.
1996 - 1998 – Throughout the late 1990s, the ASC experiments with:
- Early faculty support in the form of curriculum audits
- Writing support embedded across disciplines
- The Summer Institute: a seminar-based writing and math preparatory program for 30 – 40 students
1999 – The Summer Institute evolves into Head Start: a large-scale, free transition program that features sample lectures, student-led note-taking demos, writing activities, and problem-solving sessions. Head Start quickly becomes a collaborative effort across the campus.
2000 - 2003 – Head Start expands significantly with strong faculty buy-in. ASC also becomes known for:
- Writing and research skill-building
- Math and numeracy support and combatting math anxiety
- Academic integrity education
- Advocacy for improved teaching and learning practices
2004 – Robert Gillespie and GE Canada jointly invest in the ASC.
2005 – The ASC is officially renamed the Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre (RGASC) The Facilitated Study Groups (FSG) program is also created.
2006 – Funding is secured for dedicated writing and STEM support. This marks the beginning of expanded STEM-focused services, and increased writing services with a second writing faculty position. The RGASC moves from Davis Building to the third floor of the UTM Library, gaining more visibility and space. At this stage, the RGASC remains small with only 3 full-time staff, 1 part-time, and contracted specialists.
2007 - 2009 – The Writing Development Initiative (WDI) continues to grow, increasing departmental partnerships and shifting the campus culture around writing.
2010 – Full-time staff for STEM is brought on to expand science and mathematics academic support, helps establish the RGASC as a dual-strength centre.
2011 - 2014 – Support and offerings continue to expand guided by original pedagogical values of academic skills development, including programming for English language learning and academic culture.
2015 – The PASS (Promoting Academic Skills for Success) program launches.
PASS later becomes one of RGASC’s most impactful initiatives, especially for academically-at-risk students. This period also sees the hiring of more student Program Assistants and increased structure in student-staff programming.
2016 – First Educational Developer position is created, providing support to faculty, as well as programming for graduate students at the time.
2017 – The Learning Strategist team grows, contributing to substantial growth in PASS, Facilitated Study Groups (FSG), and student staff training.
2018 – The RGASC relocates from the UTM Library to the new Maanjiwe nendamowinan building. This move provided more space and a redesigned environment for academic support. A graduate support specialist is also hired.
2020 – The Institute for the Study of University Pedagogy (ISUP) is formed.
Many RGASC faculty members transition into academic roles within this new unit. Simultaneously, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic requires a full redesign of the centre's service delivery.
2021 - 2022 – Programs continue to grow and be iterated upon, including Writing Studio Drop-Ins, the beginning of Study Skills Drop-Ins, and more.
2023 - 2024 – The RGASC unveils a new, cohesive branding identity for all programming. More developments include:
- PASS, FSG, Professional English Language Skills (PELS), Caribbean & Black Writing Collective (CBWC), Game Café, etc. continue to grow post-pandemic.
- Program Assistant and Work-Study roles grow in size and diversity.
- Community-building initiatives, such as the Game Café strengthen student belonging.