University offers academic services to help students

The transition from high school to college can be both fun and difficult. Perhaps the biggest difference between the two is the amount of free time students will have. Although loads of free time might sound refreshing, it can lead students to fall behind with schoolwork.

“A typical semester’s worth of classes requires students to be in class only about 15 hours a week,” University Division Academic Advisor Jay Showalter said. “You can’t believe how much potentially productive time during the daylight hours leaks through the cracks of most students’ days.”

Dean of Students Dick McKaig said the biggest challenge for incoming students is time management. Students are responsible for their own behaviors; they don’t have parents structuring their days anymore. He suggested that students find a time and place that is most conducive to studying, noting that trying to mix social life and study life usually isn’t effective.

“A party isn’t very fun with a chemistry book in front of you and a chemistry book doesn’t get much in your mind when there’s a party going on,” he said.

But Associate Journalism Professor Claude Cookman suggested that one way to inspire studying is to study in groups.

“We are social animals, we learn best in groups,” he said. “The best way to master a subject is to teach it to somebody else.”

He suggested that students look for opportunities to help students who are having trouble.

The first way students fall behind is by not going to class, McKaig said.

“They get in this habit of nothing-is-due-tomorrow mentality and attendance-might-not-be-taken world to have the presumption that they don’t really need to go to class,” he said.

McKaig said student should also plan out assignments, papers and tests.

Cookman said the most effective way to keep up with schoolwork, be motivated to attend class and learn material is to “learn for the sake of learning, for the pleasure of using your intellect, for the satisfaction of mastering new fields of knowledge and complex ways of thinking.” To him, grades, diplomas and even jobs are extrinsic rewards and students should pursue such intrinsic rewards that will help them now and in the future.

But if a student does begin to fall behind, there are an unlimited number of resources on campus. Attending professors’ office hours is the best way to create a relationship with a professor, but most students only come when they are already having academic problems, Cookman said. Showalter suggested that students should initially go to office hours and talk to the professor about what they enjoy or find confusing about class because then it’ll be easier to come with academic concerns. And some departments with traditionally hard classes, such as math or foreign language, usually have lists of potential tutors, McKaig said.

Jo Ann Vogt, director of Writing Tutorial Services, said the Student Academic Center, Academic Support Centers, Writing Tutorial Services and Counseling and Psychological Services are good resources to turn to when students need help. Writing Tutorial Services, a service on campus to help students with writing assignments, has tutors to assist students with everything from brainstorming topics to preparing the final draft of a paper. But this service shouldn’t only be used when a student is struggling, Vogt said. Most students who use this resource are already strong students and good writers, she said.

For Donna Lane, Academic Support Center adviser at Briscoe Quad, said the most important resource on campus for incoming students is their freshman academic advisers. Lane said advisers can assist in choosing a degree path, point students to academic services and help with planning schedules.

“Your adviser is your contact person to the rest of the University and his or her office is located right in or near the dorm in which you are living,” she said.