Academic Commons

Fairfield’s Academic Commons is the hub of intellectual life for students and faculty of all disciplines. Located in the center of campus at the DiMenna-Nyselius Library, the Academic Commons is a technology-rich space that fosters study and reflection as well as engagement, innovation, creativity, exploration, and collaboration, and supports comprehensive and holistic student and faculty success. The Academic Commons integrates the Library’s collections, research, teaching, and digital scholarship with mentoring and advising, tutoring, support for technology use, and experiential learning that ensures equal access while empowering journeys of self-discovery and lifelong learning.

The Office of Academic Support & Retention supports a strong faculty advising model with supplemental resources aimed at elevating the importance of student mentoring and academic advising. Services are provided for first-year students transitioning to Fairfield University, undergraduate students who are undeclared, changing majors and/or schools and students seeking additional guidance as they develop their academic and professional goals. The Office supports and monitors students’ academic progress through academic advising, tutorial programs and learning support resources, and coordinates with faculty advisors, deans’ offices, and campus resources to assist students in achieving academic success. Using a holistic advising model, the staff assist students meet their academic, personal, and professional goals through comprehensive and integrated academic support services and resources.

The Office provides a full range of academic support services including:

• Academic Success Workshop Series
• Peer Tutoring Program
• Strategies to improve study skills, time-management and test taking
• Academic advising and counseling
• Explanation of registration procedures

Contact Us

Academic Support and Retention
asr@fairfield.edu
Fairfield University
1073 North Benson Road, DiMenna-Nyselius Library
Fairfield, CT 06824
203-254-4000, ext. 2222

In accordance with state and federal law, Fairfield University is committed to providing accommodations to eligible students and visitors with disabilities in order to ensure accessibility and equal opportunities to its programs, services, and activities. Accessibility facilitates reasonable accommodations for students who disclose a disability, meet the eligibility requirement and request accommodations through Accessibility.

The Center for Academic Excellence (CAE) supports innovation and scholarship in teaching and learning across Fairfield University. Our vision of education assumes that all of the diverse members of our University community serve as both teachers and learners who engage the world.

Drawing on the principles of Ignatian pedagogy, we encourage teaching that uses reflection on experience, action in the world, honest evaluation of results, and awareness of context. Through learning communities, workshops, events, and consultations with individuals and groups, we support faculty members and professional staff as they experiment with innovations in professional practice throughout their careers. We also work with leaders, departments and other campus constituencies to promote organizational development.

The DiMenna-Nyselius Library fuels creative intellectual curiosity at Fairfield by fostering intellectual potential through teaching and learning, and by curating resources to expand knowledge and understanding through research and scholarship. The Library offers: access to one million books/ebooks and over 200 databases of academic articles and streaming media; one-on-one research consultation with a librarian in-person, by email, or by phone and 24/7 help via chat; online research and citation guides; a student donated textbook collection and course reserves; spaces that can be reserved to conduct group work; a virtual reality room; designated graduate student study space; tech equipment such as computers, laptops, chargers, printers, and scanners; Interlibrary Loan; 24/7 study space in the Café and Fredrickson Family Innovation Lab.

Established through the generosity of Fairfield alumni Scott and Susan Fredrickson ’82, the Fredrickson Family Innovation Lab provides College of Arts and Sciences students and faculty with a physical and digital gathering space for interdisciplinary research, instruction, and cross-pollination. Equipped with mobile workstations, HDTV screens, specialized computer software, and two sizable seminar rooms, the state-of-the-art facility offers ample space for hosting interdisciplinary workshops and classes, highlighting faculty and student digital research, and facilitating the exploration of digital solutions to global issues whether qualitative, quantitative, scientific, creative, or at the intersection of diverse fields.

Our mission is to provide integrative thinkers with competitive, reliable, innovative, and sustainable technology to support teaching, learning, research, collaboration, and service. We envision a future in which Fairfield University's dynamic living and learning communities have limitless access to individualized information, unfettered by reliability issues, distance, and choice of device.

The Mathematics Center is now located in the Academic Commons on the main floor of the DiMenna-Nyselius Library. Here, students can get free tutoring for their core math classes.