Not what I was expecting

Life in the Dorms


As I geared up to read Chapter 2 last night, I suppose I was expecting to find some funny stories about dorm life, more of a fiction story.  But, as I finished the first few pages I remembered, "Aww yes, this is through the eyes of an anthropologist doing a study".  Here are a few things she noted...

Many college students jam pack their rooms with all of the comforts of home.  Many rooms even have duplicate microwaves, tv's, etc.  (An obvious lack of communication between roommates.)  There's definitely more stuff in these rooms than they were designed to hold.

Another thing noted about dorm rooms are the door decorations and bulletin boards lining the halls.  Many of the common things/images found on the door decorations consist of nudity, sexuality, drinking, craziness.  She notes that the underlying values of these images are that of fun, expressiveness, individuality, freedom, and spontaneity (p. 24).  '"Friendly fun" as Michael Moffatt found at Rutgers University, was "the bread and butter of college life"' (p.23).
As for the bulletin boards, she found that throughout the year, only 1 in 5 concerned academics.  The remainder of them offered holiday themes, diversity, sexually transmitted diseases, body image, comic relief and other health issues (p. 22).

Now onto what I found quite interesting...
The first week of dorm life (usually before classes starts) is filled with fun, games, community projects, chitter chatter, and many other activities.  But, once classes began, the aura was much different.  Everyone started to fulfill their role as "student" and began their busy lives.  She noted in her daily journal:

Had to return to the bookstore four times (!) because professors subtracted or added books!

Bought my day planner but no time to fill it in

Went to three different buildings before I found my freshman seminar class

I must say, that made me chuckle a bit.  While she may not be one of those professors, I still found myself saying, "HA!  Now you know how it feels to be a student in this crazy world!"

Daily Life

As part of her research, she had 21 students keep diaries for her.  In her findings she found that on average students spent 2 hours/day for class preparation (studying, reading, research, writing papers, watching videos, and meeting w/groups).  Students spent a median of 2.88 hours/day socializing or relaxing, which is down from Moffatt's observations in the 70s & 80s.  So, if students are studying less and socializing less, what are they doing??

Many are working jobs, in and outside of the university.  Moffatt's sample 30-40 years ago showed that 1/8 of his students had job, nearly 50% of Rebekah Nathan's were working from 6-25 hours per week.  The NSSE (National Survey of Student Engagement) found in 2008 that 31% of of freshmen and 56% of seniors held some kind of off-campus job.  

A Cry for Community

"It is hard to create a 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).  Nathan states that we have and "over-optioned" public university system.  There are too many majors to choose from (and switching is easy), organizations to choose from, often different meal plans to choose, and living arrangements are easily changeable.  No wonder why students rarely cross paths.  Of her sample, the students had at least two different majors, and switched from 1 to 7 times.  Most had also joined and left at least one organization or club.  

In her close statement, she says that "...paths are ever-shifting...community is a lofty ideal but with few common activities, rituals, or even symbols to bind together its diverse inhabitants...what little one might share with another is always in flux..."  

My concluding thoughts:

No wonder why I feel so alone sometimes, and have a tough time trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.  While the university wants us all to be well-rounded, and make sure there is room for individuality and plenty of options, this may not be true for the human being.  Humans are social in nature and typically like a sense of community, so why are we not achieving this at the university?  Allowing so much flux/options does not seem to teach responsibility or commitment, rather just the opposite.  

So the journey begins...

Welcome to AnyU!

Rebekah, a professor of Anthropology at AnyU decides that during her sabbatical year, she is going to enroll as a student at her own university.   This decision is sparked during a few classes that she had chosen to audit.  Because she went to class regularly, took notes, read the readings and raised her hand to ask questions, many of the students assumed she was a student herself.  These students began sharing opinions and gossip with her that she would have never heard as a professor.  As a professor over the years, she started noticing how students were changing.  She began wondering why students never came in for office hours, unwilling to do research outside of the classroom, and how good manners seemed to be checked at the door.  Rebekah had been a professor for 14 years, and was in her 50s when she decided to take on this ethnography project.  Going "undercover" wasn't the easiest task.  

During her first few weeks as a freshman, she had to overcome a few boundaries.  First, even though she was around college students daily, her language was much different.  She struggled with making friends, because she didn't understand their lingo, and they spoke so quickly, she wasn't always able to understand them.  She quickly related these barriers to those she faced when she studied in a foreign village. Something interesting I found was that another anthropologist, Connie Eble found that in a "seven-year span (1980-87), only 10% of a college slang lexicon remained in use, and over fifteen years (1972-87), only four out of two hundred words stayed the same". (pp. 13).  

Another boundary was that she felt like a foreigner on her own campus.  Where she thought she knew the layout of campus and where everything was, as a student, the campus was much different.  She was accustomed to parking in the faculty parking lots, and entering the building on the 'street-side' as opposed to the 'walking mall' side.  She was now forced to park only in the lot near her dorm and had to walk or take campus transportation to her classes.  

The first chapter has made me begin to wonder a few things...Are college students of their own culture, and how do college professors teach through this cultural barrier?  How have students changed over the years, and why are we do disconnected from our professors, who are our direct link to information in the classroom?  

My Freshman Year

I have chosen to read My Freshman Year by Rebekah Nathan.  It is about a college professor who decided to become a student herself and what she learned by doing so.  I'm looking forward to beginning this book tonight.