Frequently Asked Questions - Program Specific

Our emphasis is on equipping you with economic analysis tools and quantitative reasoning skills, so we engage in the problem-solving process with you instead of just providing answer keys.

In preparation for all our services, our tutors attend lectures, visit office hours, and meet on a weekly basis to work on class assignments together. For exam reviews, they also consult the teaching faculty and/or Head GSI to hammer out the content they believe best represent the focus of the class.

We place top priority on our tutors’ training. All tutors are required to attend weekly training seminars where we read and discuss research papers on peer pedagogy and education at large. Our goal is to equip every tutor with the skills and knowledge necessary to effectively serve their peers.

Our tutors attend lectures, visit office hours and consult teaching professors and/or Head GSIs for content preparation. We maintain an open line of communication with the department in order to best represent the courses we serve.

The SLC Economics Program currently offers 2 formats of service: drop-in tutoring and exam review sessions. Drop-in tutoring starts week 3 of the semester until the last week of instruction and exam review sessions take place during exam seasons.

At this point, our services include only drop-in tutoring and exam reviews.

At this point, we only offer services for the Fall and Spring semesters.

Drop-in tutoring takes place in the Cesar Chavez Atrium between the hours of 10AM and 2PM from Monday to Thursday. Drop by at a time that works for you to work with a peer tutor on economic materials of your choice like problem sets, lecture exercises, or concept review. Check out the course-specific schedule here. 

No prior sign-up is required! Simply come to the Cesar Chavez Atrium, sign in with your SID, and head to the table reserved for your Economics course. Just be sure to check the course-specific drop-in schedule here before coming in.

Review materials are typically a mix of concept review and practice problems, with slight variations depending on the course. Materials are designed based on class materials and in consultation with faculty and/or head GSIs.

RSVP links for upcoming review sessions are posted on our live exam review schedule, announcements, and emailed to our mailing list no earlier than a week before each session. Seats fill up quickly, so reserve a spot as soon as you can! We recommend following our Facebook page(link is external) to receive real-time notifications.

If you think your email is not on our mailing list, please contact slc-econ@berkeley.edu(link sends e-mail)

Your email address may not be on our mailing list. Please contact slc-econ@berkeley.edu(link sends e-mail). You can also check out our Announcements page and Facebook page(link is external) for review session updates.

Unfortunately, you can’t. We close RSVP forms when review rooms reach maximum capacity. In accordance with the university fire codes, we are unable to accommodate new signups.

It depends. If the RSVP form is still open, and the session you want to switch to is still listed, please email us at slc-econ@berkeley.edu(link sends e-mail) to change your RSVP. If not, that means the review rooms are at capacity and we won’t be able to switch you.

Sign in on the computer at the entrance upon your arrival and a Drop-in Ambassador will direct you to the appropriate table. If there is no Ambassador available, you may take a seat at the table with the sign designated for your courseFeel free to make yourself comfortable and a tutor will check-in with you shortly. You can identify tutors by their program name tags.

You should sign in on the computer each time that you visit drop-in, including within the same day. You should also sign in every hour that you are using drop-in services. Signing in helps us accurately track our usage, which is a way to secure funding for the program. We also use this data to schedule tutors so that we can best support your needs.

If there is no tutor on shift when you arrive, you are welcome to stay and study for your course. We also encourage you to work with fellow classmates at the table!

Although our general service hours are 10AM-4PM, Monday through Friday, the specific schedules for each course vary. To see the schedule for your course, check the weekly drop-in schedule posted by the sign-in computer or on our program website.

Tutors are encouraged to group students together to collaborate, which provides opportunities for you to connect and share ideas with both classmates and a tutor. Our services leverage the power of peer collaboration because research shows that students who work with others, discuss concepts, and share problem-solving strategies perform better in their classes and deepen their own learning.

To ensure that study groups provide an intimate learning environment where all members can actively engage, seats are limited to 25 students per session. Thus, only registered members can attend. Study group facilitators are instructed to request non-registered and waitlisted students to leave. If seats become available, waitlisted students will be notified and invited to join. While you wait for seats become available, we encourage you to utilize drop-in services regularly to help you stay on top of the course material.

Students can only be registered for one study group per course during the semester. If you wish to switch to a different session, you must first drop your current group and then sign up for the group you wish to join. If that session has no open seats, you’ll need to drop your current group and sign up for the waitlist.

Please email the SLC Science Team at slc-science@berkeley.edu(link sends e-mail). Although you will automatically be dropped if you miss two consecutive or three total meetings, we encourage you to drop your group promptly to allow students on the waitlist to join.

Our worksheets provide additional problems that aren’t covered in the session so that members can practice applying what they’ve learned in study group on their own. Doing so will help you strengthen your understanding of concepts previously covered, identify gaps in your knowledge, and further hone your problem-solving skills. We encourage you to tackle these problems and check your solutions with tutors in drop-in.

Because seats are limited, students whose seats are confirmed receive priority. Peer facilitators are instructed to ask students without seat confirmations to leave. However, you are welcome to pick up an extra copy of the review worksheet in the Science Drop-in Area during service hours.

You should have your seat confirmation email ready to show the peer facilitators upon your arrival. After the facilitators have confirmed your seat, please sign in on the computer at the entrance, pick up the review problem set, and have a seat.

Our worksheets provide additional problems that aren’t covered in the session so that you can practice applying what you’ve learned in the review on your own. Doing so will help you strengthen your understanding of the concepts, identify gaps in your knowledge, and further hone your problem-solving skills. We also encourage you to time yourself while solving these problems to simulate an exam-taking environment! Once you’ve tackled the problems, come check your solutions with peer tutors in drop-in before or after your exam.

While we do not provide solutions for review materials, students who have attended the session will receive the answer key by submitting a feedback form.. The feedback link will be announced during the review and you will receive an email reminder afterwards. After you have submitted your feedback, you can expect to receive the answer key within 24 hours. We encourage you to tackle the problems on your own and bring your questions to drop-in.

The SLC Science Program provides free academic support services to students enrolled in introductory science courses. We offer drop-in services, study groups, learning pods, and exam reviews. We endeavor to provide students with the right tools, approach, and strategies to bolster their confidence and thrive in the sciences.

We leverage the power of peer collaboration to meet students where they are and support them in mastering their science coursework. Students work with undergraduate peer tutors who have successfully completed the courses and are trained in active learning, collaborative peer pedagogy, and effective facilitation strategies specific to the sciences.

Each course that we support has a Course Liaison, a peer tutor who is responsible for attending lecture and office hours, disseminating notes to the tutor team (cluster), communicating with faculty, and having bCourses access. Clusters meet weekly with their Course Liaisons to discuss the material and deepen their own understanding of the subject matter to ensure that our services align with your pedagogy.

There are several ways you can inform your students about our services:

• Provide a link on your syllabus to the program website (www.slc.berkeley.edu/science). 
• Make an announcement about the Science Program services on your bCourses page. To request a summary of our services to include in this announcement, please email the SLC Science Team at slc-science@berkeley.edu(link sends e-mail).
• Request a class announcement. The Science Program can send tutors to share information with students prior to or following lecture. To make a request, please email slc-science@berkeley.edu(link sends e-mail).
• Inform your GSIs about the program and encourage them to make announcements in their lab and discussion sections.
• Refer your students to the program during your office hours and student appointments.

DeCals are a unique feature of the UC Berkeley campus that enable students to design and facilitate a credit bearing course on any topic of their choosing. Adding 300+ courses to our school’s curriculum each year, DeCal courses and the students that lead them further Berkeley’s dedication to intellectual discovery and knowledge production. 

The “DeCal” nickname for these courses originates from the Democratic Education at Cal (DeCal) Program(link is external), a student group whose mission is to provide support, outreach, and publicity for classes initiated and facilitated by students. The Program’s success in publicizing classes has led, over the years, to the "DeCal" program name being used as a synonym for all student-initiated and -facilitated "directed group study" classes that fall under the 98/198 (for lower and upper division, respectively) special studies courses umbrella.

To propose the creation or return of a student-initiated special studies 98/198 (DeCal) course, you must have the following: 

• Course Proposal Form (CPF)(link is external)
• Fully developed syllabus
• Unit Value Worksheet (included in CPF packet)
• Letter of Support(link is external) from the course’s faculty sponsor
• For first-time facilitators: training through one of UCFTR's facilitation and collaborative learning workshops

Please visit the website(link is external) of the Academic Senate—the faculty-led governing body that makes decisions about the rules/regulations for, and reviews the proposals of, all student-led classes—for a full explanation of each element. Sponsoring departments may also have their own additional requirements for proposing a DeCal, as well as deadlines that fall earlier than that of the Senate. You can refer to UCFTR’s Department-Specific DeCal Information sheet(link is external)

Note that some departments may ask you to turn in this proposal packet directly to them, while others may ask you to submit it to the Academic Senate (320 Stephens Hall) on the department's behalf. Once you've submitted your proposal you can choose to post your class on the DeCal website(link is external), where most students look for listings of student-initiated classes.

As of Spring 2018, the Academic Senate mandates that all first-time DeCal facilitators must complete training with the UCFTR. Training offerings can be found on our services page, under the Training Workshops tab. The deadline to fulfill this requirement is the same as the Academic Senate’s course proposal deadline (see below section).

If you have experience facilitating a 98/198 course before, check with your department to confirm if this experience fulfills your requirement, or if you would still need to complete training with UCFTR.

The Academic Senate’s deadline for proposing a DeCal and for fulfilling the first-time facilitator training requirement is always one month before the last day of instruction in the preceding semester (or summer). For specific course proposal deadline dates, click the “Deadlines” tab of the Senate’s website(link is external), or the Deadlines page of our website.

Note also that sponsoring departments may have their own additional requirements for proposing a DeCal, as well as deadlines that fall earlier than that of the Senate. You can refer to UCFTR’s Department-Specific DeCal Information sheet(link is external)

Among other things, the faculty sponsor is an “Instructor of Record” who chooses to support your course and is thus responsible for reviewing, working with you to create, and signing off on your course proposal materials. A detailed description of the sponsor’s role and responsibilities can be found underthe “Instructor of Record” section of the “Resources” tab on the Academic Senate’s website(link is external). There, you’ll find links to a Frequently Asked Questions page(link is external) and a list of responsibilities on the Faculty Checklist page of the Course Proposal Form(link is external). Note that graduate students and postdoctoral scholars cannot serve as faculty sponsors.  

A number of specific teaching titles are authorized by the Academic Senate to sponsor group-study courses, running from various types of lecturers to various types of professors. If you're seeking sponsorship from anyone other than a regular faculty member of the department, it's best to confirm with your sponsoring department that the "Instructor of Record" you'd like to sponsor your course is authorized to do so.

Additionally, faculty generally can only sponsor one 98/198 course per semester (unless they get their Dean's approval for more), so we encourage you to begin your sponsor search as soon as you can. 

More than you think! The average professor-led class is the result of years of research and fine-tuning, and it's not unusual for GSIs to spend up to a year researching and preparing a class for the first time. Most well-thought-out DeCal classes are undertakings on the scale of a major undergraduate research project: preparation should take a lot of the semester beforehand in the research process, and more time than you think the semester of its implementation.

Though the planning process for a class will vary depending on its structure, below are some recommendations to consider.

In the semester prior to launching your course:

• you should allow yourself as many weeks to plan in advance as you'll have of class meetings
• dealing with logistics can be time-consuming--and distract from the core work of polishing core class content--so start early and stay focussed
• consider your class syllabus and core course curriculum akin to a research project: you need time to season your thoughts on the subject's potential, time to find the best source material, and time to reconsider the best way in which to present it—or to draw it out from your students
  
• once you have found a potential faculty sponsor, you can solicit their feedback for the ongoing development of the class. Some may be amenable to sponsoring your course provided you fill out some underdeveloped aspects of it—something you can only do if you started the sponsor search early enough in the semester

When class is underway:

• most teachers spend at least two hours in prep time outside class for every hour spent inside class, while most teachers working with material for the first time spend three or more hours in prep per every one hour in class

Academic Senate Regulation 760 provides the following guideline: one unit equals a minimum of three hours of work per week, or at least 45 total hours over a 15-week semester. This work includes time spent in class as well as time spent doing work outside of class. This adds up to 45 hours of work each semester for each unit.

In a standard lecture or seminar class structure, that would work out to one hour of meeting time, and two hours of work outside the meeting (for readings, writing assignments, problem sets, discussion, etc.), for each unit earned. If your class starts after the beginning of the semester (e.g., 2nd or 3rd week), you can account for that in extra class time or work outside of class.

When mapping out the amount of work hours and units you want to assign your class, it’s helpful to think about your facilitation needs and semester timeline. For example, some facilitators choose to start their course several weeks into the semester, once the majority of students’ schedules have settled. This allows them to avoid the sometimes disruptive period of having multiple students adding and dropping the course. Other facilitators choose to run their class more intensely up until Thanksgiving or even spring break, but not after, leaving themselves and their students more time to spend on final work in other classes.

To help with your planning process, you can refer to the Academic Senate’s Unit Value Worksheet on page 2 of the Course Proposal Form (CPF) packet.(link is external)

You cannot enroll in the DeCal course you are facilitating in order to receive academic units. However, in some cases, student facilitators can arrange to receive units through an Independent Study (99/199) course supervised by their faculty sponsor. The details of these arrangements vary on a case by case basis depending on the discretion of the sponsoring faculty and department, so we recommend reaching out to these parties directly for more information.

Per Academic Senate policies, students must be fully matriculated at UC Berkeley in order to be eligible to create and teach a DeCal. As such, students not fully matriculated, such as UC Berkeley Extension and/or visiting students, are not eligible. 

Per the COCI Memo on SFCs and Student Groups(link is external), prerequisites should be academic in nature and attainable through high school, a community college, or UC Berkeley. 

Membership in a club or a student organization is not a permitted prerequisite.

The Academic Senate does not have an official policy regarding multiple faculty, but they recommend having only ONE faculty sponsor for the following reasons:

1. Faculty Sponsors are responsible for inputting final grades. This responsibility cannot and should not be split between faculty. 
2. The department that sponsors a DeCal is linked to the faculty sponsor (i.e. a DeCal sponsored by an Anthropology professor would be sponsored by the Anthropology department). Departments must provide approval for DeCals that they sponsor and have different protocols and requirements for the DeCal proposal process. Having multiple faculty sponsors from different departments means that facilitators must submit and be approved by multiple departments. 

A DeCal can be lead by multiple facilitators, all of whom must be listed as a facilitator on all proposal materials and complete the mandatory pedagogical training offered by UCFTR. This includes any students who may be interning or acting as a Teaching Assistant for the DeCal. 

Each department has different protocol and expectations on how many facilitators can be attached to a DeCal, so we encourage that you clarify your department sponsor’s procedures before adding facilitators to the facilitation team. 

Per the COCI Handbook, Section 2.4.1(link is external), you may list your DeCal as a variable unit course as long as you specify how the units will be assigned. In order to do so, make sure to submit multiple versions of the Unit Value Worksheet(link is external) to illustrate the varying unit values and detail how the units will be assigned on your syllabus.  

We suggest reading the ASUC Funding Page(link is external) and the LEAD Center "Funding your Student Org" Page(link is external), as well as reaching out directly to ASUC's Chief Grants Officer (grants@asuc.org(link sends e-mail))  to get guidance on acquiring funds for your DeCal. The DeCal Board (decalprogram@gmail.com(link sends e-mail)) is also a great resource for DeCal facilitators, and they may have additional insight about acquiring materials for your DeCal course. 

The best way to get started on your syllabus is by attending UCFTR’s “Three Pillars of a Student-Centered Syllabus” workshop. By attending the workshop, you will not only learn the ins and outs of crafting a syllabus, but you will also concurrently complete the mandatory pedagogical training for first-time DeCal facilitators. 

You can also utilize theMellon Faculty Institute’s “Components of a Course Syllabus(link is external)” checklist as a guide to ensure that you have all the necessary components included on your syllabus.

Yes, you may create a DeCal that is linked to an existing student organization. However, you must ensure that the DeCal is sufficiently independent from the operations of the student organization and that all students, not just members of the organization, may enroll in the DeCal course. We encourage you to read the Academic Senate’s memo on Student-Facilitated Courses (DeCals) and Student Groups before beginning your DeCal proposal process. 

We encourage you to start by asking among your friends or classmates to find fellow facilitators. You can also check in with your faculty or department sponsor, who may know other students looking to facilitate a DeCal on a similar topic.

The Academic Senate does not have a policy that limits the amount of DeCals that students can facilitate in a given semester. However, we strongly recommend that students consider their capacity to facilitate more than one DeCal. 

The Academic Senate does not have a policy regarding faculty sponsors being on sabbatical. However, individual departments may require faculty sponsors to be on campus and teaching during the semester that the DeCal is offered. We strongly encourage students to check in with the sponsoring department directly if their faculty sponsor is expected to be on sabbatical. 

Student-initiated courses have been a fixture of UC Berkeley's academic landscape since the early 1980s. Since that time, thousands of students have educated tens of thousands of their peers in subject areas ranging from dance practica to media studies to language instruction to breaking political issues.

Some classes that have first appeared as "DeCals" have gone on to become part of their departments' regular offerings (e.g. Tagalog); some have been passed on as DeCals continuously for over 15 years (e.g. Joy of Garbage); some provide departments with no other undergraduate presence an opportunity to draw undergrads into the field (e.g. West Wing and Public Policy); some have generated curriculum for the sponsoring professor's core classes and won the student facilitator the Departmental Citation (e.g. Intro to Carnivorous Plants). In short, student-initiated class topics can be as widely varied as those offered by faculty in the Freshman-Sophomore Seminar series, and they have the potential to offer the students who facilitate them, as well as their peers who take them, no less exceptional an educational experience.

Sponsoring a student-initiated class offers faculty the opportunity to provide rich research and pedagogical mentorship on a project which bears immediate fruit--an impact in the classroom, arguably the most relevant discursive space for undergraduates. Many students undertaking these projects are doing so as an opportunity to build research and teaching skills in anticipation of post-graduate work in the discipline. Most who launch such an undertaking have the kind of initiative, passion, and intellectual curiosity that characterize the best scholar-leaders; choosing to sponsor a DeCal means taking an active role in guiding and helping further develop this exciting energy!

Among other things, the faculty sponsor of a DeCal is responsible for reviewing, working with the student(s) to create, and signing off on the course proposal materials (see the “Required Documents” page of the Academic Senate website(link is external) for a list of these materials). Additionally, a detailed description of the sponsor’s role and responsibilities can be found underthe “Instructor of Record” section of the “Resources” tab on the Senate’s website. There, you’ll find links to a Frequently Asked Questions page and a list of responsibilities on the Faculty Checklist page of the Course Proposal Form(link is external)

At the outermost administrative level, the Academic Senate’s has established a deadline for course proposals and training fulfillment that always falls one month before the last day of instruction in the preceding semester (or summer). Apart from that, individual departments are at liberty to set their own additional requirements and internal deadlines at points earlier than this, to enable them to more smoothly manage their student-initiated course approval process.

We publicize information about department-specific deadlines and processes through the Department Contacts page of our website.

The campus's Risk Management Office(link is external) can advise on faculty or departmental liability for events associated with the class they sponsor. Additionally, please note that course facilitators holding any activities off-campus should obtain a signed waiver(link is external) from participating students in advance, whether the activity is voluntary or required.