Higher education is a lot like football, or so thinks the Boise State Dean of Students Christian Wuthrich.
Wuthrich and Tony Roark, dean of the college of Arts and Sciences, gave a joint presentation on succeeding in higher education at the Parent and Family Weekend on Friday.
Wuthrich and Roark chose to base their presentation regarding academic success and how to deal with road blocks such as stress and anxiety by comparing higher education to a football game. Four quarters, halftime, overtime and coaches were compared to graduate in four, adjusting from lower division to upper division classes, professors and advisers.
Wuthrich stressed the importance of avoiding “overtime” aka—not graduating in four years. Wuthrich said not graduating in four years is costly to students and
administration.
“We always want to make room for new students,” Wuthrich said, implying students who exceed the four years may make it more difficult for them to do so.
Roark delivered the first half of the presentation which pertained largely to academic studies and Wuthrich covered the second half of the presentation highlighting how important he believes it is for students to be involved.
Roark said he felt the most common challenge faced by first year students is time management; Wuthrich said he felt the most common challenge freshmen face is making choices.
A lot of things are changing Wuthrich said and this gives students the opportunity to make choices about new things. Whether that be to decide to skip class, substance abuse, and many others
can cause stress.
Wuthrich said the most important thing for first year students is, “Getting well adjusted to their course work and understanding what has to take place in order for them to be successful.”
