Dean says success can be achieved with time management, campus resources

by BUTCH BARKER
editor

Trading in the good grades and recognizable faces for an unknown professor and average, or lower grades can take a toll on many first-year college students. 

Dr. Donnalee Cockrille, dean of student affairs, knows the ropes to college survival and success and said there are many resources available for students to make the transition to college easier. 

"We see cases where students have been successful in high school and come here and are not," Cockrille said. "That newly gained freedom and making their own choices is important, but sometimes there’s confusion in prioritizing." 

Transition problems also hit students who have been out of high school for a number of years. Cockrille offered some advice that any new student can follow. 

She said going to class and meeting all requirements listed on the syllabus, or course outline, and attending classes are the most important steps to completing a class successfully. Setting a timeline for class work and social time is also a key, she said. Establishing relationships with professors and academic advisers is important and is an easy way for students to feel comfortable in their classes and with college life. 

"That’s a skill many used in high school," Cockrille said. "They can put that to use here and that will help them find out what directions to choose." 

Academic advisers can help students understand what classes are about, their difficulty level and how other students felt about the class and professor. However, advisers are also professors which means many are busy, Cock-rille said, so tracking them can sometimes be difficult. 

If an adviser becomes impossible to locate more times than not, ask for a new one or go to the Office of Academic Affairs in the Memorial Student Center, Cockrille said. 

Cockrille said students should go beyond those relationships and find a mentor, someone who will discuss their future and someone who will be there to offer advice. 

"Having a mentor can demystify relationships with professors," Cockrille said. "Students are then less likely to be silent in class and they get a sense of power. 

"Mentoring is an ingredient to success." 

If a student passes the point of advising and is enrolled in a class that seems too much to handle, dropping the course should be a last resort, Cockrille said. 

Dropping classes can tarnish a student’s record and dropping some classes have penalties. Some classes, if dropped, require waiting a semester before a student can sign up for the class again. 

Before dropping a course, Cockrille said a student should use the tutoring services. Students can receive two hours of tutoring free per week per class. The tutoring office is located in Prichard Hall room 134. 

If the problem lies mainly with test taking, there are solutions to that as well, she said. The Office of Academic Affairs offers free test-taking seminars that teach students strategies for taking tests. 

Cockrille said much of what is taught at test-taking seminars deals with how to take college-style tests and once again, time management. 

"Students find university test taking can be different," Cockrille said. "Many are used to a lot of quizzes and (out of class) work to balance big tests. Here they may only have two big tests, nothing more." 

Cockrille said studying 30 minutes a day for a big test is ideal. Cramming at the last minute only makes things more difficult, she said. 

There are many resources at Marshall to make success possible and students should take advantage of everything, Cockrille said. 

"Plug in all the resources here," Cockrille said. "There are great resources in the Community and Technical College, enrollment management and many specialized departments. 

"College can be very manageable if you are focused. If not you run the risk of being a casualty." 
 
 

back