The idea
A lot of what trips up a first-generation student isn't academic — it's the unwritten stuff: office hours are for everyone, you can change your major, financial aid has a person you can call. A mentor who's been through it names those things before they become problems.
Beyond the match
The center runs a peer group, keeps a lounge with a printer and a coffee maker, and holds a small fund for the costs that catch first-gen students off guard — a graphing calculator, a lab fee, a deposit.
In and around Porter Falls
Support at Porter is deliberately clustered on the first two levels of Halvorsen Library so a student can move from one kind of help to another without leaving the building or re-explaining the situation. Walk-in hours run late Monday through Thursday during the semester, and everything can also be booked through MyPorter.
The practical details
Run by: The First-Generation Student Center, Halvorsen Library Level 1. Match: In the first weeks of fall; monthly contact through the year. Also offers: A first-gen student lounge, a peer group, and a small equipment-and-fees fund. Anything time-sensitive — an accommodation, a booking, a deadline — is worth confirming directly before you rely on it, because the specifics here can change from term to term.
If you have a question
The office behind this is Student Success Center (Halvorsen Library, Level 1). Call (715) 555–0170 or email success@uwporterfalls.edu during the fall and spring terms, or sign in to MyPorter to send a message or book a time. If it turns out another office owns the question, they will route it rather than send you back to the start.
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. Every office, person, building, phone number and statistic on this page is invented; nothing here describes a real institution or a service you can actually contact.