Kevin Berkopes, new director of the IUPUI Math Assistance Center, gets it. Math is hard for many college students. Some people are “scared of math like they are scared of spiders,” he said.

The key thing to remember is that math doesn’t have to be looked at as if it’s a deadly illness or something to fear, he said. New initiatives at the Math Assistance Center (MAC), which employs students who understand the anxiety connected to the subject, are intended to make math more accessible, enjoyable and achievable for the 1,000 students across the IUPUI campus who visit each week.