Exnaustion, pain complete some class syllabi
Everyone has a class like this.
I sat on my bed, between piles of laundry
and books. Staring out at the cold, wet and
dreary October day, 1 knew it was either
pass or die.
I was in an altered state, somewhere be
tween purgatory and hell. I had started to
smoke and drink more, while food intake,
sleep and bathing took a back seat.
It had nothing to do with reading 500
pages the night before a major history exam.
It had nothing to do with rote memorization
of the circulatory system for biology.
This was my life.
Forget the nine other credit hours I had
signed up for, I was obsessed with passing
my MANDATORY advanced news writing
course.
The weed-out course. The class that could
make or break my future. The class that
made me weep.
OK, OK, I had been forewarned that this
was the class from hell. But my sources had
been the unorganized few who wanted
others to revel in their misery tales. They
had to take the course twice And while my
opinion of them didn’t lower, not passing
the course in a single try had become a
personal stigma.
So, the first day of class, I decided that I
would be confident and good. I would not
only pass, but I would get an A.
Besides, we would only get our little syl
labus, introduce ourselves and be on our
way, right?
Nope. The professors began by telling us
the class’s structure. We would be graded
on a letter/point system under which each
story would be given a letter grade and a
certain number of points, accordingly.
At the end of the six weeks, if we had
acquired a set number of points we could go
on and work for the lab newspaper, The
Journalist. If not, we had to try again.
After assigning the first story, the profes
sors warned that we would have four stories
due each week du ring the trial period, so we
would have to budget our time carefully.
Walking out of the classroom, I remem
ber telling a fellow classmate that this proba
bly would be a good time to organize our
schedules so as not to get bogged down.
We went to O’Rourke’s . . .
For the next half dozen weeks I spent my
evenings and wee morning hours at the
Daily Nebraskan or at the Journalism Col
lege in Avery Hall (what we journalism
majors fondly call Slavery Hall).
The bitch switch was on and I lived for
my weekend marathon sleeps. I sobbed to
my professors, 1 alienated my friends, I hung
up the phone on my parents several times.
Nights turned into days, days turned into
nights - and my six weeks were up. As I
headed to Avery to find out the VERDICT, I
approached every garbage can with the
hope that I could somehow get rid of this
horrid feeling in my stomach. No such luck.
One of my professors was posting the list.
“You made it,” he chuckled. Kind of
corny and anticlimactic all at the same time.
He asked me if I had any doubts. I left the
room chuckling nervously.
No sweat. I went home and straight to my
room. I closed the curtain, listened to the
rain and cried myself to sleep.
Lisa Donovan is a senior news-editorial major,
the Daily Nebraskan editorial page editor and a
columnist.
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Graduate assistant Nancy Risch tutors John Tiedje at the Academic
Success Center located in Selleck Residence Hall.
Center helps students
Tutoring, workshops, study skills courses offered
By Christine Pillard
Staff Reporter
For many students, academic prob
lems in classes arise because of how
they are studying, rather than what
they’re studying.
For those students, the Academic
Success Center, housed in the base
ment of Selleck Residence Hall, has a
variety of programs to enhance study
skills and to teach students how to be
more effective learners, said Ken Kiewra,
director of the center.
Kiewra said the center offers indi
vidual tutoring, workshops and courses
in study skills.
Kiewra said the center has some
thing for students of all ages and
majors. The program is designed for
enrichment, not remediation, he said.
There are even professors and instruc
tors, he said, who could benefit from
learning how students learn.
“We can help anyone," he said.
The center has a program offering
supplemental instruction for seven
courses. A staff member from the center
attends the particular course and holds
a study session two or three nights per
week. This fall, supplementary instruc
tion is available in Biology 101, Sociol
ogy 100, Physics Hi, Math 100 and
101, Political Science 100 and History
101.
Kiewra said the center receives 60
to 75 requests per year for study skills
workshops. Requests come from so
rorities, fraternities, residence halls and
academic groups. There are about 10
different workshop topics. Some of
the topics include time management,
memory, note taking, test anxiety and
writing
Individual tutoring is available in
the same study skills areas. The center
does not tutor specific subjects, but
rather uses the course matter as a base
for learning study techniq ues, Kiewra
said.
The staff is comprised of six part
time graduate assistants who have been
trained in a study skills system that
Kiewra helped develop. Most of the
study skills consultants are students in
the Teachers College’s Educational
Psychology Department.
Next semester the center will be
offering two sections of a 100-level
study skills course worth one credit,
Kiewra said.
Kiewra said the center is free to
students, and there is no limit to the
number of appointments a student
may make during the semester. The
center is funded through Student Af
fairs, with help from Academic Affairs
and Teachers College, he said.
