BCC Offers Free Tutoring to All Students

08:08AM / Monday, April 04, 2022Print Story | Email Story

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — With pandemic restrictions being largely lifted, tutoring services at Berkshire Community College (BCC) have returned.

"The Tutoring Center is a friendly and dynamic environment," said Learning Services Coordinator Justine Fitzgerald. "We are busy building back our services after the pandemic pushed everything off campus."

BCC Tutoring Center staff recently held a tutor training session with a focus on improving accessibility to tutoring services. Fitzgerald said the session was a productive one in which new and longtime tutors and staff shared ideas and learned about recent changes to the tutoring programs at BCC.

"We have made significant headway revising systems to make both in-person and online tutoring more accessible," she said.

Those revisions include changing policies to allow more flexibility in scheduling for both tutors and students, as well as enabling single sign-on access to Smarthinking, an online tutoring service used by students across the country.

Tutoring services, housed in the Learning Commons of The Johnathan Edwards Library, are free to all students. Tutoring options include in-person sessions, available by appointment, and virtual tutoring via Smarthinking, which provides 24-hour, on-demand support using whiteboard interface technology to connect students and tutors.

Students can access Smarthinking through their Moodle accounts (the learning management system used at BCC) or can request a tutor by visiting www.berkshirecc.edu/tutor.

Students who request an in-person tutoring session are matched with peer or community tutors. Peer tutors are current BCC students recommended by their professors to tutor in a certain course or subject, while community tutors are local people from a variety of backgrounds and expertise who offer a practical application of many fields of study.

Tutors are trained to help students organize materials, understand course content, develop study skills and prepare for tests, improve writing skills and more.

For more information on scheduling a tutoring session or becoming a tutor, email tutorial@berkshirecc.edu or call (413) 236-1650.

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Pittsfield Considers Repairing East Part Cemetery

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
06:57AM / Friday, October 02, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Historical Commission will consider grant opportunities for repairs to East Part Cemetery.

A resident reached out to the city with concerns about degradation in the half-acre burial ground at the top of Williams Street. East Part Cemetery was established in the early 1800s and has about 300 interments.

“It's a nice old cemetery, and basically, (the resident) had had concerns that the stone wall had taken some damage, the gravestones have taken some damage, and was wondering if there's anything that could be done to repair the gravestones and the wall," City Planner Kevin Rayner told the commission on Monday.

In cooperation with cemetery leadership and residents, the Historical Commission will consider applying for Community Preservation Act funds to support repairs. West Part Cemetery, on the other side of Pittsfield, has previously used CPA funds for revitalization work.

The 1080 Williams St. property is owned by the city and managed by the Pittsfield Cemetery Commission. Rayner presented photos of broken and overgrown gravestones, parts of the stone wall collapsing, and knocked-over obelisks.

Some aspects could use general maintenance and restoration, he observed.

According to the Pittsfield Cemetery and Crematory's website, East Part Cemetery was established around 1808 on land owned by Nathan Webb, who permitted and authorized its use as a public burying ground.

In 1842, Nathan Webb's son, also named Nathan Webb, deeded the property to the Methodist Episcopal Society of Pittsfield as a public burying ground, and in 1893 the Trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Society transferred their control of the cemetery to the Proprietors of the Pittsfield Cemetery. Their action was confirmed by the Berkshire Probate Court.