As Loyola’s Vice President for Academic Affairs, Timothy Law Snyder considers helping students succeed in class to be among his primary responsibilities. And, with nearly three decades as a professor under his belt, he figured he had more than a few good ideas about how to do just that. But, he wasn’t quite sure how to share them—until he noticed hundreds of students strolling to class one Monday, mp3-player earbuds firmly in place. That’s the day LCAST: Loyola College Academic Success Tips was born.

Every other Monday, Snyder releases a new installment of his podcast, which students can download from iTunes or from LCAST’s own site at www.loyola.edu/lcast. Launched in January, LCAST’s first edition focused on Snyder’s Number 1 tip for academic success: being 100 percent prepared for each and every class you take. Subsequent installments have covered topics ranging from “What to Do When You Get Stuck,” to “Today’s Students: Their 3 Greatest Strengths . . . and 3 Greatest Challenges.”

Snyder, a mathematician who plays guitar in his spare time, produces the podcasts entirely by himself, carefully shaping topics, writing and mixing the background music, responding to listener comments and taking suggestions for later installments via polls on the Web site.

"My efforts in reaching students through the casts are based on two related principles," says Snyder. "First, one person can more easily relearn how modern students acquire information—that is, one can relearn how to teach—than all students can relearn how to learn. Second, the podcasts allow me to reach out and meet students not only through their preferred channels, but they allow me to meet students where the students are. These principles are consistent with how Ignatius of Loyola and the Jesuits meet others in others’ time and place. I also seek to help our faculty by helping students navigate topics that are more general—the kinds of topics that faculty know about but do not have a chance to cover during a typical course or class. I have some fifty semesters’ worth of experience that I can share with them, and the podcasts ultimately deliver that experience directly to our students."

New installments of LCAST will continue to air on alternating Mondays throughout the spring semester.