91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳

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Podcast: S9 Ep. 16
Date: June 09, 2026
Title: LU Moment: STAR Services relaunches as Center for Academic Success | S9 Ep. 16
Host: John Rollins

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JOHN ROLLINS: Welcome to the LU Moment, where we showcase all the great things happening with 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ faculty, staff, students, and alumni. I'm John Rollins, Associate Director of Community Relations and Public Affairs here at LU, and I want to welcome you all to this week's show. If you've ever heard of STAR Services here on 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳'s campus, that is now the Center for Academic Success, and today we've got the Center Director, Dr. Hilda Billups, here to tell us all about the new changes taking place. Dr. Billups, welcome to the show, and thanks for joining me on the podcast today.

DR. HILDA BILLUPS: Thanks for having me.

JOHN: So, I know we had Ashley and Marla, probably about a year ago, kind of talking about STAR Services, but now you're here to give us a little more about new changes that are taking place, and the direction y'all are headed now with the Center for Academic Success. So, let's start with that, but give us kind of your elevator pitch about the Center, and we'll go into a little more specifics later on in the chat.

DR. BILLUPS: Absolutely, so those of you on campus probably know us best for tutoring, and tutoring is a very important part of what we do, but we do so much more, and so we hope this new name reflects all of the other things that we do, all the other programming we do, such as academic coaching, supplemental instruction, transition programs, recovery programs for students who have been on academic probation, as well as workshops.

JOHN: Y'all really do cover a pretty broad spectrum of services, and I like to use the word resources. Y'all are a huge student resource.

DR. BILLUPS: Correct. Our mission is we help students at 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ succeed, and so we do want to provide students with whatever supports and resources they need to be successful here.

JOHN: Yeah, and I think y'all do an amazing job at that. And we're going to hear a little bit more about that in a little bit, but you told me you've been at Lamar for two years now, so congratulations this month, right?

DR. BILLUPS: Correct, correct.

JOHN: Congratulations on your two-year anniversary.

DR. BILLUPS: Thank you.

JOHN: We're glad to have you here. But let's hear more about you.

DR. BILLUPS: So, prior to joining 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳, I spent about 14 years building and leading dual credit programs in Virginia at Reynolds Community College, and here in Texas at Lamar State College, Port Arthur, just down the road.

JOHN: Okay, wow.

DR. BILLUPS: Out of that work, I really had the opportunity to see how students can come into a program and have all the desire, have all of the aspirations, but not necessarily have all the tools they need to be successful, and so in that work I did spend a lot of time trying to be the connector for students and their parents, because we were talking about high school students in this role, I get to focus more on that connector work, more on making sure we are the hub of campus, we are the place where students know they can go and get the help they need.

JOHN: Yeah, and I think y'all do a really good job of that with the constant communication, letting students know, meeting them where they are, pretty much letting them know that these things are available. But I want to go back to you really quick. So, what is your education background like? You mentioned the word connector. I'm kind of interested to see what your background is.

DR. BILLUPS: So, I earned my bachelor's degree at Duke University in psychology and religion.

JOHN: Awesome.

DR. BILLUPS: And from there I then went on to, at the time Kaplan University, now it's Purdue Global, and I earned a master's in higher education, and that program really opened my eyes to how we help students actually get through. Often times we spend a lot of money and resources on helping students get through the door of higher education, and the program really helped me to see what are the things that we should be doing as institutions, as employees of institutions, as community members to help students actually complete and get all the way through. So then, after earning that master's, I then spent a number of years in the dual credit world, as I say, in 2023 I earned a Doctorate of Social Work, and in that program I focused on how do we help students who have foster care experience actually complete college, and so that was a great opportunity for me to really marry several different interests and blend lots of different things together, and so my heart for the community and my heart for students who might come from disadvantaged backgrounds blended with what I knew about navigating higher education systems. How can I help make this pathway straight for students?

JOHN: And see, that makes a lot of sense now. Social work, higher education, it all works together, right? It sounds like you're in a really good spot here at 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳, especially working with first-year students, and I think retention is a word we maybe don't focus on enough. We can get them here, but are we getting them through? We want them to walk across that stage, correct?

DR. BILLUPS: Correct, that is the ultimate goal. You know, none of our students who decide to choose 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳, are coming here to drop out, right? They're all coming here because they do wish to have the moment on the stage where they get to shake the president's hand. And so, what are the things that we can do every day to help get them closer to those moments?

JOHN: Yeah, well, I think that's a beautiful segue into talking about the Center for Academic Success. So, let's go ahead and hear more about some of the programs y'all offer, some of the specifics, and how do y'all work to help our students here on campus? I know there's a lot involved, for sure. So, let's hear about it.

DR. HILLUPS: Absolutely. So, as I said before, tutoring is probably the most recognized program we offer. So, we offer tutoring for every 1000 level and 2000 level course here offered at the university, and if a student desires tutoring for a course we do not currently offer tutoring for, all they need to do is find four friends who also want tutoring in that course, submit a request, and we will recruit tutors for those areas. We offer tutoring in our tutoring lab by appointment, and we also offer tutoring in other labs across the campus, and those labs are drop-in. So, we have ASL tutoring drop-in lab in Galloway, we have physics tutoring drop-in lab, we also have Chem-Center drop-in lab, and so we also have some drop-in options for students as well. So, if you're stuck and you don't have time to make an appointment, you can just go to those locations and get help from tutors right there. In addition to our tutoring, we also offer supplemental instructions. So, supplemental instruction is a little bit different from tutoring in that our supplemental instructors have done well in the course, just as our tutors have, but then they decide to retake the course or audit the course again, so they experience it with the students, serve as a model student in the section, and then they offer these additional study sessions outside of the class time to help those students in a group setting prepare for exams and assessments. In addition to our tutoring, supplemental instruction, we also offer academic coaching, so students can meet with a successful peer academic coach. So, student who's been successful here at 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳, who has been trained by us to be able to help their peers, students can meet with them weekly, biweekly, monthly, whatever their preference is to work on what are the other things that are going on. So, content in a course might be one challenge. It also could be that there are other things around course taking a student might need help with, and so an academic coach can help with that. So, if a student needs help managing their time, an academic coach could help them with managing their time, or if a student needs help organizing their notes or learning how to take notes, an academic coach could help them with learning those skills. The other thing we do with academic coaching is, before students ever have their first appointment, we offer them a learning assessment, and so then the student comes into their coaching appointment with an assessment telling them or detailing for them exactly what areas they may have challenges in, and then the academic coach can take the same assessment with them and help them design goals specific just to them, so it really is an individualized walkthrough. These are things you can do to be successful. So we get away from the generalities. Well, you need to go to class, you need to take notes, you need to read the textbook, and we really say, okay, you're struggling in these domains. If you could learn these new skills, you wouldn't struggle in this domain, or you wouldn't struggle in this domain as much, and then you'll see better outcomes in your course taking, so then in addition to our tutoring and our academic coaching and our supplemental instruction, we are other side of the house are our transition programs, and so people are probably very familiar with Cardinal Communities, so we have a new name for our first year transition program. We're just calling it First Year Success. Why name it something that then people have to decode when we can just call it what it is? And so in our First Year Success program, we group students based on their meta majors, and then we pair student workers with them who are also in those same meta majors. They meet weekly the first eight weeks of the semester, and each week has a different topic that we know first year students often have difficulty with in a small digestible form with a group of peers, so that students can be successful in those areas. That's our first-year transition program. This year we're very excited to offer some additional transition programming for transfer students, so we've recognized there is quite a large transfer population here at 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳, and they come every semester, and so we're expecting this fall to launch some new programming just for transfer students to help them make the transition from whatever institution they were coming from to 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳, so they can ultimately be successful and graduate. And then, in addition to all of those programming, we also offer workshops, so we offer both in-person workshops on Thursday afternoons during each of the long semesters, as well as we offer on demand workshops, and so students can just go to our website and use their 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ email address to get access and have access to those on demand workshops at any time, even during intersessions. So, in the summer when we're not in session, or in the winter when we're not in session, they can access those on-demand workshops as well.

JOHN: I mean, this is all fantastic, and I'm glad we're giving you an opportunity to share all of this in one place, because hopefully, even if five or 10 students hear this podcast, they'll know that they have a support system here at Lamar, and I like that y'all look at their individual learning styles. I love the model you have set up, where it's student mentors working alongside and with the meta majors, with what you call it, not Cardinal Communities anymore, First Year Success. Yes, I think it's amazing, and you know, last year I taught a Cardinal Communities class, and I can speak to the need for that. These incoming freshmen didn't know a lot of what we taught them week by week, you know, and it was just small things. Did you know Lamar has 17 athletics teams, you know? Did you know about STAR Services (at the time), or now Center for Academic Success? It's just introducing them to these, the Career and Professional Development Center, which does a lot as well, just learning what the resources are introducing them to that and making sure they're aware, you know, if they're going to be here for four plus years, we want them to know what's available,

DR. BILLUPS: Correct.

JOHN: So, let's go ahead. You mentioned some new programs, kind of in the pipeline. Do you want to touch on one or two of those before we wrap up?

DR. BILLUPS: Sure. So, in addition to our new transition programs we're bringing aboard, we're also really excited to be able to expand our recovery initiatives for students who have had cumulative GPAs fall below a 2.0 So, in the fall, students who have a GPA below 2.0 can volunteer to participate in our Achieve Plus program, and as a part of that program, they'll meet weekly with a group of other students who are also experiencing those same challenges, as well as have individualized academic coaching with a peer academic coach, and they'll be invited to participate in our in-person workshop series, and so our goal really is to help those students identify what were the things that were obstacles or hurdles to their success that they can turn around and change for themselves and get back on their correct pathways, and then succeed, and actually graduate.

JOHN: That sounds like a fantastic program. I mean, you’ve got to think, too, students could be juggling work, school, they may have a family at home, you just never know what's  going on beyond the campus walls, right? So, I love that y'all are working to provide that support, for sure. So, let's go ahead and talk about, I know, with the new name change and everything, I imagine all your social media has changed, right?

DR. BILLUPS: Correct. So, our website has changed, so now you can find us at lamar.edu/cas. Our email addresses have also changed, so our email address is now cas@lamar.edu. Our website is completely redesigned, so I encourage our listeners to go ahead and take a look at our website.

JOHN: And it's probably got all those programs and services listed on there, yeah, one stop shop, love it. Okay, so I’ve got to bring this up before we finish the episode, but you told me that a fun fact about yourself, you are a children's book author, so I would love to hear more about that!

DR. BILLUPS: Oh, thank you for asking. So, as a child, I was very much encouraged to read, and I do believe that lots of my successes I've experienced in life are the result of that love of reading being nurtured in me, and so I wanted my grandnephew to also have that love of reading, and so I started something similar to this, a small podcast where I would read books to him and then send the videos to him and his parents.

JOHN: How cool.

And it was really, really cool. They loved it. He loved it. And one day I said to myself, well, I want him to be in the book. And so I had to write a book so he could be in the book. And so that's what I did. So I wrote a book called “Cairo's Fruittastic Alphabet Book.” He's the main character in the book, and in the book he gets to explore a fruit for every letter of the alphabet, with his parents, and so I get to encourage him both to be an adventurous eater as well as a great reader. There, and so I'm really excited that I was able to do that project for him, and now he has it as a lasting legacy.

JOHN: Yeah, and that's something he'll never forget. Yeah, I love that. What a unique way to kind of promote literacy, too.

DR. BILLUPS: Correct.

JOHN: Because like you said, that's that's the foundation for so much.

DR. BILLUPS: Correct.

JOHN: Well, that's fantastic. Y'all go look up her book, that's pretty cool. So, Dr. Billups, thanks again for coming on the show. Our university wouldn't be the same without the center, so we appreciate all of y'all's efforts to keep our students, you know, on the right path.

DR. BILLUPS: Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

JOHN: To catch the LU stories, just like Dr. Billups, be sure to search LU Moment wherever you get your podcasts to keep up with the events, activities, programs, and people right here at 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳. This is John Rollins, your host. Thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.