UC Irvine’s Learning and Academic Resource Center (LARC) is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
Although the center is entering its 51st year, LARC hosted an open house earlier in October and plans to host other events throughout the year, such as alumni gatherings, in celebration of the milestone.
Established in the mid 1970s as the Learning Skills Center (LSC) under the leadership of Dr. Barbara Tomlinson and, later, Helen Rivera, LARC has helped countless students through tutoring and peer education by offering a collaborative environment accessible across all majors. Over the past 50 years, it has continually evolved to meet the changing needs of students.
“At one point in time, it was actually two different services that were merged together. It’s been in different locations. It’s used different formats, and, of course, it’s had different staff,” LARC Director Trace Yulie, told New University. “So a lot of things have changed at LARC over the years. I think the big change was toward group learning. So it used to be a lot more appointment based and now we still have things like that, but we also have group sessions and other ways for students to learn.”
In 1996, James Danziger, former dean of the Division of Undergraduate Education, announced the renaming of the LSC to LARC. LARC combined services and staff from the Tutorial Assistance Program, which offers weekly problem-solving sessions for large classes held by peers. Over the years, LARC changed locations from Rowland Hall to temporary buildings and then to its more permanent location on the third floor of the Anteater Learning Pavilion.
“I would say LARC really gave me that extra explanation that I needed that I wasn’t getting from lectures. especially through all the worksheets, and then the review sessions, because I did LARC for M1C, all of o-chem and biochem, and I really just needed that extra question to pass all those classes,” fourth-year biological sciences student Alexa Carys Schmelzinger told New University.
Today, LARC features a wide range of services and academic assistance programs to students, ranging from group tutorials, one-on-one sessions and “After Dark” drop-in tutoring — a program started in 2018 that offers open study and peer support services. LARC also provides workshops and leadership development services such as time management workshops, mentoring, educational techniques and effective study strategies.
“We help students in all kinds of different majors who might have those requirements,” Yulie said. “So we might be offering a lot of biology, but maybe those students, those same students, are also taking chemistry courses or math courses, statistics classes, a lot of concept[s] … and what we call quantitative learning. We help students through group tutorials through one-on-one tutoring, and especially by helping them develop their academic skills.”
Student involvement and teamwork have always been core principles of LARC’s mission. While the center doesn’t accept volunteers, it offers paid opportunities for students to work in various roles as tutors and group leaders.
“I am a firm believer that if students are doing something that looks like a job, they should get paid for that,” Yulie said. “So there’s lots of different things that students can do at work, but I always try to find a way to make some kind of compensated employment or experience. So we have had interns in the past, but we gave them a stipend for their work and we tried to make it a learning experience while they were doing that.”
LARC plans to continue collaborating with different UCI departments and providing further assistance with their tutoring programs, enhancing student life and success in return. Students interested in contributing to LARC or needing academic support can visit LARC’s official website to learn more about its programs and opportunities.
“I just say that it’s a really useful tool, and I hope that, you know, more people know about it so that they have that, if they want it or need it. and utilize it,” Schmelzinger said.
Konstantin Diatlov is a Features Intern for the fall 2025 quarter. He can be reached at kdiatlov@uci.edu.
Edited by Aditya Biswas, Alyssa Villagonzalo and Kailee Kim
