Many students at Ball State aren't attending college for the first time.
While graduate programs allow students to extend their studies, there are also nontraditional students such as Laura and Wayne Taylor.
Laura and Wayne both started at Ball State the first time in fall 1997. Then Laura became pregnant. Neither of them withdrew correctly in the spring semester, so they received zeros in their classes and they dropped out.
"We always said we were going to go back, but then life happened," Laura said.
Now, years later, they're two years into earning a degree that will help them achieve a better life for themselves and their three kids.
"We're below poverty," Laura said. "But that's OK. We'll do better. That's why we're going to college."
HOW IT WORKS
Among Ball State's more than 18,000 students, 10 of them are taking a second chance, earning a degree through the academic clemency program. Laura and Wayne Taylor are two of these students.
Academic clemency means forgiveness for past academic course work.
The academic clemency policy, which began in 1995, allows students to come back to Ball State for a fresh start after a five-year gap. Students keep the grades in which they earned a C or better, but they forfeit all their course work for which they earned below a C.
"It's designed to clean the slate," Nancy Cronk, registrar and director of registration and academic progress, said. "We hope the first new semester would be a better reflection of what the student can do."
When students retake a course, it replaces the initial grade. Any subsequent retakes will show up on the student's transcript.
A five-year gap might sound like a long time, but Cronk said that's the norm among universities. Cronk said there were 27 students enrolled in the program in the 2009-2010 school year and 18 students the year before. When a student returns, they are placed on academic probation their first two semesters back. They have to earn a 2.0 GPA during the first semester and a 2.1 the second semester.
MAKING IT WORK
Balancing school and work is enough challenge for most college students. Try adding on the responsibility of parenting three children.
Laura and Wayne make it work by arranging their class schedules so one parent is watching the children at the library while the other is in class. Wayne's mother also helps babysit.
Laura teaches their three children — Dayton, 12, Ayla, 9 and Dakota, 7 — using the Abecca Christian homeschooling program, and while she and Wayne are studying at home their children have free time to watch television and play video games.
"My husband is more of a procrastinator," Laura said. "When he's worrying about a test, Ayla says, ‘You should've studied.'"
MAKING ADJUSTMENTS
Laura works part time as an administrative assistant at Sherry Laboratories in Daleville, and Wayne works as a custodian at a local McDonald's. They're both first-generation college students, and they both go to school full time.
When Laura decided to go back to college, she wanted to know that Wayne supported her, and she wanted him to finish a degree too.
"Everything was so hard," Laura said. "But this is my plan. I said, ‘You can go with me or not.' He jumped on. He said, ‘You drive, and I'll read the map for you.'"
A DYNAMIC FAMILY
Everybody in the Taylor family has different dreams. While Laura and Wayne have their eye on a better financial future, their children have their own goals.
"They're all so different," Laura said.
Her oldest son, Dayton, is good with numbers, just like Wayne. They have a pipe dream of working together in a family-owned accounting business, Laura said.
Ayla is the overachiever. She's good at ballet and she was on the all-star baseball team last summer.
Dakota is the most carefree. He likes to build with Legos, and Laura suspects he'll grow up to be an architect someday.
For Wayne, going back to school means gaining a career, something more than his full-time job as a janitor and the other small jobs he's done to help pay the bills over the years.
Going back to school also means spending more time with his wife and his family.
"It's actually better," he said, "I missed most of the kids' live as it was, and I didn't have anything to show for it."
Timeline
Spring 1995 - Wayne and Laura graduate from Pendleton High School
1996 - Wayne and Laura get married after knowing each other since sixth grade
Fall 1997 - They start college for the first time
Fall 2008 - Laura starts college the second time
Fall 2009 - Wayne starts college the second time
Fall 2011 - Laura will join the Criminal Justice Department honors program
Summer 2012 - Laura is expected to graduate with a degree in criminal justice and a minor in forensics
Spring 2015 - Wayne is expected to graduate with degrees in business and accounting
Academic clemency breakdown
What - A program that allows students who have failed to come back to college after a five-year gap in course work. Grades of C- and below are forfeited and replaced.
Started at Ball State in 1995
10 students are using the program this year
27 students used the program in 2009-2010
18 students used the program in 2008-2009
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