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).
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.
2007 – 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.