Who are today's college students?
By Nancy Truesdell
Dean of students
Lawrence Today magazine, Spring 2007
This is an abridged transcript of a Lunch at Lawrence lecture presented
by Dean Truesdell in October.
Much of the research on today’s college-student population refers to
them as “the Millennial Generation,” a name that students of that
age range (18 to 22) picked for themselves in a national poll, voting four-to-one
to be called Millennials. (One of the other choices was “Generation Why?” They
also rejected “Echo Boomers.”)
What follows is an attempt to be descriptive of this generation without
being judgmental. The title of this article comes from a song from Bye,
Bye Birdie, sung by a parent, lamenting: “Why can’t they be like we were — perfect
in every way? What’s the matter with kids today?”
"They are who they are"
We should avoid falling into the trap of deciding that the ways in which today’s
students are different from those who came before them make them somehow less
intelligent or less sincere as students than in the Good Old Days (remembering
that, when people talk about the Good Old Days, they usually mean “When
I was their age”).
It works better if we try to understand who today’s students are and
why they are what they are, instead of wishing they were different — for
me, a much more positive and productive way to work with students.
Therefore, the answer to “What’s the matter with kids today?” is “Nothing.
They are who they are.”
By the numbers
First, some demographics:
Eighty-seven percent of the full-time students in the United States today are
undergraduates, and 61 percent of them are younger than age 25. Of that 61
percent, 56 percent are enrolled in bachelor’s degree programs and 54
percent are enrolled full-time.
Of undergraduates under age 25, 55 percent are female. Women are beginning
to attend college more often than men and, for some colleges nationally, the
percentages are 60 percent women/40 percent men or even higher for women. In
comparison, Lawrence’s first-year class this fall was closer to 50/50,
something that we actually strive for, but the national trends are a bit higher
on women.
Nationally, 34 percent of the undergraduates who are younger than 25 are students
of color. Of the student population, about 25 percent have parents who are
divorced, separated, or living apart. Approximately 16 percent of 18-22-year-old
undergraduates are first-generation college students.
Eighty-seven percent of entering college students reported that they performed
volunteer work in high school; 70 percent said that they volunteered on a weekly
basis. At Lawrence, about a quarter of entering students indicated that volunteering
was required in their high school, even though “required volunteering” is
something of an oxymoron.
Two out of three first-year students in 2005 reported that it is either “essential” or “very
important” to help others who are in difficulty. The Millennials have
had a very powerful reaction to the global and national disasters witnessed
in their lifetime. “Helping others in difficulty” is a very high
priority for them.
Trends
There are some common factors that define this student generation.
Distrust of government. They have grown up seeing what they have determined
to be an ineffective government. Since they have been old enough to notice,
they have witnessed an impeachment of a president, contested elections, recalls,
attack ads, and the like — all of which has resulted in distrust and
skepticism.
Political polarization. In the past 20 years, political views of college students
have become more polarized, at the expense of the middle. We have seen greater
numbers falling on the liberal side and on the conservative side and fewer
middle-of-the-roaders.
Renewed interest in all things spiritual. Students seemingly separate “spirituality” from “religion” and
are more likely to identify themselves as spiritual. They often describe a “pick-and-choose” approach
to faith; they borrow the most useful doctrines and practices from a range
of faith traditions to create their own. The percentage of first-year students
who rate themselves “above average” or in the highest 10 percent
as compared to the average person of their age range when it comes to being
religious is about 26 percent; when it comes to spirituality, it’s 35
percent
.
Reach out and touch someone — constantly. This is probably the biggest
change, and some sources say it is the defining characteristic of the Millennials.
They have a multitude of ways to stay connected: calling and texting on a cell
phone, instant messaging, e-mail, reading and posting on electronic bulletin
boards, and so forth. This year, a large percentage — well past a majority — of
Lawrence first-year students “met” their roommate on the social
networking site Facebook and got to know them through groups online, a much
different experience than in previous years.
This opportunity to stay connected is redefining interpersonal relationships,
and it has an impact on interpersonal maturity and developmental tasks that
we hope students are learning in college. Students can now cast a much-wider
net for their relationships; they can stay connected to their high school friends
in ways that past generations could not. In the past, when someone would go
away to college, they really were away from home and not still connected to
their friends and family.
E-mail also allows students to avoid the sometimes-difficult task of confronting
things face to face — for example, explaining why they missed class.
They can now just shoot off an e-mail to a faculty member and not deal with
a real-word conversation.
There are some ways in which staying connected can level the playing field
for a student. Electronic classroom discussion boards can allow an introverted
student to participate more fully in discourse. Likewise, it may help a student
who processes information differently from other students.
For Millennials, use of technology is simply a part of life.
Increased parental involvement. This is a trend that has a great impact on
students and those who work with students.
You probably have heard the term “helicopter parents,” parents
who hover over their children. These are the parents who have been involved
in their children’s lives throughout their early years, the parents who
did not just encourage their son or daughter to play sports, they drove them
to the soccer field — and stayed.
Students today come to look to their parents and other authority figures as
their advisors, supporters, protectors, and advocates. We do a survey that
asks our students who they consider to be their hero. In a past generation,
names would come up like J.F.K., F.D.R., the Pope, Margaret Thatcher — political
or historic figures whom they admired. Today, the number-one answer, by far,
is their parents. The second most-common choice: their grandparents.
More and more, students identify with family members as people they want to
emulate, people they look up to, and people they look to for advice and counsel.
Parents are sometimes filling out college applications for their students or
want to be involved in selecting courses and majors.
The Lawrence admissions office reports that, last year, there were two instances
on overnight-visit days — where, normally, the prospective student will
come with a sleeping bag and a pillow to stay with one of our current students — in
which the parent decided to stay in the college room as well.
Some students e-mail their papers home to have their parents critique them.
Some are in daily e-mail and text-messaging and phone contact with their parents,
and some parents are directly contacting professors, or administrators like
me, about grades or about problems that their students are undergoing, looking
for ways to help solve those problems for the students.
One goal of college is to help students learn to be independent, to solve their
own problems, but we have to understand that this is not the world many of
our students know. They are very used to having their parents be their advocates,
to fight their battles for them. Often I will have a parent contact me to say, “My
student is very busy studying for an exam, so I’m calling you to find
out if there is anything that can be done about this roommate problem.” The
students are busy, so the parents are taking care of business for
them — or trying to.
Traits
Certain defining characteristics are said to be common to Millennial students.
Special. Boomer-generation parents have been telling these students all their
lives that they are special, so it should not be a surprise that they feel
special.
Remember the little yellow signs on cars that said “Baby on Board”?
Those babies are now in college.
These are the kids who got trophies just for participation. They did not need
to win; just showing up was good enough, and they were rewarded for it.
Sheltered. In addition to their parents, Millennials have many other protectors
in this post-Columbine age.
They listen to authority figures, they value what they say, and they follow the
rules.
Parents have been organizing their children’s lives to give them direction:
day care, after-school programs, music lessons, dance lessons — there has
not been much unstructured free time for this population, and they have come
to rely on and trust authority to organize their lives for them.
Some of them will not have an easy time in college adjusting to a lack of structure,
and they will not know what to do with all the free time.
Confident and achieving in academic ways. These students have been encouraged
to believe in themselves, and they do. They are academically very driven, very
achievement-oriented, and they are optimistic that they will do well. They expect
themselves to do well; in fact, they put a fair amount of pressure on themselves
to do well.
Conventional. Millennials have come to accept the social rules of order. They
respect cultural differences. They are used to high schools having codes of conduct;
there has been a re-introduction of dress codes in many schools now, and students
are not rebelling. They try not to rock the boat; in many ways, they “go
along to get along.”
They are less likely to challenge others, and they may not even challenge ideas
presented in the classroom, because they think that faculty hold the key to their
ability to achieve and to succeed. They want to please them; they want to be
accommodating. They are interested in maintaining good social relationships,
and they think that, if they challenge, that will not happen. Because they are
not always willing to disagree with each other, it can be a new experience in
the classroom. Faculty members may find they have to shake things up themselves
a little more.
Team-oriented. They want to work together and get along. They like to congregate
as groups; being a member of a team takes some of the pressure off the individual.
They like to be perceived as being cooperative, and, if they encounter difficult
people in a group, they are sometimes uncomfortable and want those in authority — the
teacher, their parents, whoever — to handle it and make it right.
Pressured. This ties into their need for clarity and structure; they do feel
some pressure to perform and to achieve. They want to be sure that structure
is enforced, so that they can count on the fact that compliance will be rewarded.
They are looking for structure and sometimes in a college classroom that structure
is less obvious than it was during their high school years.
They have been pushed to be the best they can be, and their need to please is
very strong. Sometimes the result is perfectionism.
Conflicting values
Millennial students have come to expect high grades, but they may only do what
is expected of them to achieve them. They are following the structure and doing
what they are supposed to do,
but sometimes that results in a bit of a disconnect between their aspirations
and their actual effort.
High grades in high school provide validity to the feeling that they should be
confident in their academic performance, but one survey showed that more than
80 percent of college freshmen reported studying fewer than ten hours a week
in high school. When they come to Lawrence, the biggest shock is for the ones
who are used to getting good grades without needing to put in much energy or
effort. They have all this discretionary time that they aren’t used to,
they are not used to studying, and yet they expect to achieve. It is clear how
those things would come into conflict.
They value community service and volunteerism, but they are also used to, in
some way, “getting credit” for it, whether it is actual credit in
high school or something that they think will add up to getting them accepted
to a college. They are used to having volunteerism add up to something.
There is a bit of a dichotomy here. They feel it is important, as mentioned earlier,
to see that people in difficult circumstances are taken care of — they
are genuinely interested in that — but, at the same time, they are used
to being rewarded for their volunteer activities.
There also is a conflict between a respect for rules, regulations, and authority
and a strong desire and need to achieve. Ethics can sometimes get a bit blurred
in this equation; sometimes the desire to achieve can lead to “it’s
okay to do whatever I need to do to achieve as long as I don’t get caught
and get the authority figure upset with me.”
Academic dishonesty has been on the rise in colleges and universities. There
is a connection to technological advances; tech-savvy students have access to
information that can sometimes create a temptation that combines with the desire
to achieve and bumps up against personal integrity.
Perfect in every way?
Some of the characteristics I’ve talked about might be regarded as encouraging;
others might be seen as worrisome. I don’t have a lot of answers for how
you deal with the worrisome things, except to say that every past generation
has had characteristics, some of which were encouraging and some of which were
worrisome, and most of us seem to be able to make our way quite well. I have
confidence that our Millennial students will, too.
When I ask myself, “Why can’t they be like we were, perfect in every
way?” my first answer is “We weren’t,” and the second
answer is “We should not expect them to be, either.”
Nancy
Truesdell joined the Lawrence staff in 1991 as director of the Career Center.
After serving as acting dean of students during the 1996-97 academic year, she
was appointed dean in April 1997 following a national
search. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Ripon College with a master’s degree
in education from Bowling Green State University, she has served in student-affairs
positions at Sweet Briar College, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Cornell
University,
and the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater.