Serving Glendale Community College for over 30 years.

The Learning Center was started in 1971 by Mr. Theodore Connett, an English professor who was responding to the growing number of students who needed help with their English classes. It was built in what once was the old library for the college.

The inside was gutted and painted and "state of the art" controlled readers, SRA kits, filmstrip and slide projectors were installed. Basic skills Reading and Writing classes were conducted in the Center for students sent there by counselors and other teachers. Funding was spotty at best. Professor Connett produced this small film to convince administrators that funding of the Learning Center was needed. It shows how the original Learning Center looked and some of the staff and equipment.

Professor Connett retired in 1978 and was replaced by Dr.Benice Lindo (below, left with administrative assistant Pauleen Borzage, right and another aide).



Dr. Lindo pulled together many of the learning resources that were scattered throughout the campus into the Learning Center site in the administration building. The first full-time Tutoring program was started at this time with Betty Myers as the coordinator; it flourished as a separate program and later became part of the Learning Center. Dr.Lindo left after a year to work in private industry and was replaced by Dr. Cora de Rowe in 1979.



Cora was responsible for building our much needed ESL program. She also hired Dennis Doyle, a reading specialist, to work with students with reading problems. Additional developmental classes in basic reading and writing were held in the Center. Mini-courses in Grammar, Speed Reading and Vocabulary were started. Cora brought the first simple Apple II computers into the Center and some instructors immediately started to use them with their classes. A very successful Writing Lab, developed by Professor Denis Van Dam and staffed by English faculty and student aides, was established in the Center at this time.

Professor Doyle in the south room. Note the cool mural "Communications".

Cora de Rowe and Denis Van Dam - L C Staff, early 80's: (L-R) Betty Myers, Rita Nigg, Marcia Trujillo, Ann Wu, and Cora de Rowe


In late 1984 Cora was diagnosed with terminal cancer and passed away in February of 1985. In the interim, the Center was managed directly by the Dean of College Services, Dr. Patricia Leinhard. It became evident, however, that on-site management was needed to handle the day-to-day issues.

Longtime English professor, Dr.Denis Van Dam was selected to direct the Center. Dr.Van Dam had already founded the very successful Writing Lab, (later to become the Writing Center), which was housed in the Center and had an excellent trackrecord for student success. The Director job at first was a part-time job. With faculty support, it was upgraded to an Assistant Dean position; however, the new dean's responsibilities came to include Assessment as well as the Writing Center, Learning Resources, and the Tutoring program. Under his leadership, the Center went through a period of many changes. Starting from scratch, Dr. Van Dam founded the Assessment Center and pioneered the use of computerized placement for the English and Mathematics classes. A comprehensive software curriculum in Reading, Writing, Math and Science, financed by federal grants was introduced. The Center began administering the written challenge exam to the college placement test. Regular scheduled classes which had been assigned in the Center were moved out to make more room for tutoring and learning resources. Taped copies of the GCC television courses were available for loan or use in the Center.

For about a year, the Center had to be temporarily moved into a section of the library while a major renovation of the administration building was taking place. Dr.Van Dam managed to keep most Center services going even though computer use was tight and it was necessary to have the tutoring program spread out in odd corners of the library grounds, even outside on benches. After a year, he brought the program back into the newly renovated space which remains the current site for the Center. By 1996, however, another reorganization of the administration lead to changes in the job of Learning Center director resulting in Dr. Van Dam's leaving the position and return to full-time teaching. Assessment became the responsibility of the Dean of Admissions and Records; the Learning Center itself came under the direct control of the new Dean of the Library and Learning Resources, a part of College Services. A pattern of governance was set, that, while the Learning Center was part of College Services, the director would be part of Instruction Services, a certificated faculty member in the content area. The position of on-site Director of the Learning Center became a 60% release-time faculty position.


(L-R) Nancy Knight, Dean of College Services, Ken Trupp, Agnes Rudnick

Ken Trupp , an English professor in the Language Arts division became the new director in the Fall of 1996. With his many years experience working with developmental students, the key theme of his directorship was student service. During this time, with the support of the head librarian and new Library and Learning Resources Dean, Jan Naumer, a new separate Computer Assisted Instruction lab (CAI) was developed in nearby room AD 221. Although the Assessment and Learning Center functions had been separated on paper and were under different deans and budgets, the staffs shared the same space and often had overlapping duties. Despite this unwieldy administrative structure, services and student usage continued to grow. Reading and Writing students in most of the developmental classes used and continue to use the CAI PassKey materials. Thousands of students took advantage of the Tutoring Center; the Writing Center doubled its staff and the number of clients.


Professor Trupp retired in the Spring of 1998 and was replaced by the current director, Dennis Doyle. Professor Doyle was originally hired by Cora De Rowe in 1980 and had since coordinated most of the Reading classes on campus and was the coordinator of the popular English Lab, also sharing space in the administration building. His career has been characterized by an interest in using technology to support instruction. Dennis improved the collection of student statistics so that an accurate count could be made of who used the services. The processes by which students are accepted for tutoring were streamlined at this time. He also worked to move the Assessment services out of the Center and bring together all the parts of the Center into one contiguous space. This finally was accomplished in the Fall of 2000. Mr.Doyle was an early adopter of the Internet and, with the late Dr.Gary Parker, helped create Glendale College's first web pages. From the beginning of availability of network access on campus, Mr.Doyle provided supplemental materials online for all his classes and the other Reading classes. He also reintroduced one-unit mini courses in Grammar and Vocabulary in the Center.

Currently the Center continues to be a vital part of the Glendale College community. Last year, 12,000 individual students made over 68,000 visits to the Learning Center, up from about 10,000 the previous year. See our statistics. The Center enjoys high visibility among students and faculty, and students report a high rate of satisfaction with the service. Much more than a place for remedial education, the Center assists faculty and staff, and university-bound students, as well as developmental students. Recently, we received a small grant from Von's Markets. Apparently we were nominated by a satisfied student. Many students come back to us to visit after they have moved on to the big university or on with life. We're happy to serve and to help students reach their goals.