The University of Texas at El Paso offers over seventy learning communities to first-year students from extremely diverse socioeconomic and educational backgrounds. Ninety percent are Hispanic, 54 percent are first-generation college students, and 59 percent must participate in developmental classes before moving forward with college-level courses. The following article offers a descriptive snapshot of the successes and foibles of developmental reading learning communities at an urban commuter university with a nontraditional student body.