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By Jon Marcus
Many colleges won’t accept transfer credits that date back years. And the proportion offering on-campus childcare has declined, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research reports, to fewer than half of four-year universities and 44 percent of community colleges.
That’s to say nothing of administrative offices that are open only on weekdays during business hours when many adult students are at work, or tutoring that’s not available at night or on weekends.
Older students often “don’t feel like they’re a part of or belong to the institution that they go to,” said Antonio Quarterman, director of the McCarl Center for Nontraditional Student Success at the University of Pittsburgh, one of the few campuses with an office just for older-than-traditional-age students. The center, named for a trustee who went to school when he was older, stays open late and this fall will begin offering 24-hour tutoring online.