Fall 2008
Getting Past the Back-to-School Bumps
Rusty computer skills, high anxiety, and a fulltime job — the odds were against card dealer Don Barlow when he headed back to college at age 50.
He worried about being the"old man" in the classroom. And he soon discovered that his technology skills lagged well behind his 20-something-year-old classmates. Word processing was one thing, but computer-aided research methods?
"I'll be honest — it was scary," he says. "I wish I would have known how big my skills gap was."
At the new Academic Success Center, returning students like Barlow will now find easy access to UNLV's many resources. Its programs are targeting specific populations on campus. In addition to reentering students, first-year and transfer students will find programs to help with the college transition.
"More than anything, the center is solving one of the biggest hurdles for students: knowing whom to ask for help," says Ann McDonough, the newly appointed dean of the ASC.
The center's services are key to improving UNLV's retention and graduation rates, McDonough says. It will support students with skills-gap testing, tutoring, advising, and guidance on how to accomplish processes on campus. The class concierge program, for example, will help students who face delays in graduating because they can't get into a required course.
Barlow is grateful he found tutoring resources to get him past his computer phobia. He graduated last year with a bachelor's degree in interdisciplinary studies.
"Once I got the tutoring, I was able to focus on what my professors were teaching me," he says. And they inspired his choice for a second career." I loved school so much this time around that I'm now getting a master's in education."
