University Daily Kansan, August 19.1982 Page 15
Nontraditional students experience challenges when returning to school
By KATE DUFFY Staff Reporter
Nobody knows just how many are at the University of Kansas, but administrators do know there are more non-graduate students on campus now than in previous years.
Trying to define nontraditional students is as difficult as trying to estimate their number. KU has no access to its admission application for them.
Lois Gerstenlauer, assistant director of the Student Assistance Center, said the nontraditional student, usually older than 21, could be a veteran and was often married or divorced with children.
There are others, often retirees, who enroll simply to study subjects they are interested in and have no plans to return to work, she said.
The results of a 1981 student profile prepared by the office of the vice chancellor for student affairs showed an increase since 1979 in the number of students between 21 and 70 years old and a decrease in the number of students 15 to 20.
"There are as many different reasons to return to school as there are people who don't."
Some of the reasons may be that nontraditional students often experience job dissatisfaction or want degrees that are better suited to their jobs, Gernatian lawaner, said.
Gerstenlauer said that many of the nontraditional students who came to her office for advice were experiencing culture shock.
"They probably gave up a whole different lifestyle to contaminate school," she
To help students through the shock, the Student Assistance Center helps sponsor an orientation in the fall and counsels on a one-to-one basis. Ceremonies are held at the center is meeting individuals' needs and helping to make their lives easier."
Gerstenlaurens is also an adviser to the Non-Traditional Student Organization, an informal support group that started in 1978.
Carlen Jupe, NTSO 1981-82 vice president, said he watched the organization's role on campus as mostly social. He said that often older students felt isolated and out of place and needed to "be with people on their own wave lengths."
Besides the organization's social aspects which include weekly luncheons and seminar sessions, we have seminars and points to helpl agencies and people to its members.
Jupe said he thought he had gotten
"It was easier getting there, knowing other nontraditional students had crossed the bridge before me." Jude said. "She was nice knowing I wan't the only one."
more out of his education as an older student than he did during his previous academic experience 10 years ago. He also said he thought NTSO had helped.
Molly Van Hee, a Lawrence junior studying nutrition, agreed with Jude, saying she thought she appreciated her advice and that she was ready when she first attended classes in 1969.
"I feel good about being an older student," she said. "I'm in charge of my own education. I'm motivated now, and I have goals."
Van Hee said her reasons for returning to school last January were practical ones; she wanted better job flexibility and wanted to know more about a subject she had been studying on her own for the past 10 years.
"I've always wanted to study nutrition," Van Hee said. "And since I've been working at the food cooperative, we have decided to eat it. So I decided to do it for a living."
To attend school full time, Van Hee, a divorced mother of two young children, said she had to structure her time carefully.
Besides working 25 hours a week as a manager of the Community Mercantile Co-op, she had to schedule time for family, family and other necessary chores.
but she said she thought her managerial experience made return to him.
"I'm accustomed to organizing my time, making day-care arrangements for my kids and planning for the store," she said.
But her first semester back in school was not easy, Van Hee said. After working 25 hours a week and doing class work, she gave little time left for her study on shn shn.
"It seemed that all I did was work, go to school and study." Vane Hee said.
"To make more time, I stopped goofing off, discontinued some of my hobbies and saw my kids only in the mornings and evenings."
Van Hee's experience is not unusual. Jupe said many NTSO members were divorced or widowed to get the kind of skills that would help them to get better jobs later.
Although Gerstenhaler agreed that child care was a problem for many nontraditional students, she said she needed each student's needs were unique.
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