dLog: What I'm reading: My freshman year

From Rebekah Nathan*'s My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student:

An undercover professor reports on her experiences as a college student. Some of her findings:

Community and diversity are central to the college experience, yet it is difficult to build community on college campuses and in residence halls due to the widely varying student schedules and interests: "It is hard to create community when the sheer number of options in college life generate a system in which no one is in the same place at the same time," (p. 38).
Very few students utilize residence hall lounges, opting to watch the super bowl individually in their own rooms instead of the floor lounge with food provided by the RA.
Not only do all of the black kids sit together in the cafeteria, but for the most part men are least likely to eat with men of a different race (they sometimes ate with women of a different race), while women more often ate with other women of any race.
Each professor had vary different course policies and expectations, and it was difficult to keep them straight. Many office hours, departmental events and activities conflicted with others.
The university is becoming more market-driven, especially as state support dwindles. Lack of financial support is leading more students to affordable community colleges. Most instruction is now done by non-tenure track instructors.

This was a very interesting read to see how college life is now perceived, and some of the perceptions serve as a warning to keep close tabs on the state of higher education in america. Small believes that:

"we are ultimately the guardians of the university's very special functions in society. There are serious questions about how universities can maintain their 'liminal' transformative qualities when the world is so much with them. Although we may want universities to address the needs of our states and our businesses, we cannot rely on either the politics of government or the profits of corporations to guide the educational mission. In the long run, we would not want a university to become so immersed in the wold as it it that it can neither critique that world nor proffer an ideal vision of how else it might be. These are purposes of universities that none of us should surrender." (pp. 152 & 153)

*Pseudonym for Professor Cathy Small, Northern Arizona University

Mood: