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Show February 23, 1SC3 Forum 3 c mews i -- - (Presidential) Coalition Encourages Student Envolvesnent Carry the message of civic responsibility to campuses. Advise existing student organizations -to get students involved in communities More how than D.C. (CPS) WASHINGTON, 100 college presidents met in Washington outside campuses. Ask governments and schools to provide last week to exhort students to become less more service-relate- d and get involved in their cominternships, possibly munities. making community service a requirement for financial aid. The coalition of presidents suggested makStudents need to hear, repeatedly and ing civic responsibility a graduation reaid student from even and many sources, you have a duty to pay replacing quirement, service for dues, with explains Frank Newman, head community your grants programs of the Education Commission of the States work. of the Coalition of College Presand Some observers, including students, preCivic for idents Responsibility. to dict collegians are in fact too administraof "Students to the today, as compared to students spectacle respond even tors who historically fret student activism in the 1960s, are more self focused and cynig and cal. They see problems as big, complex and might inhibit campus g efforts encouraging politi- beyond their ability to do anything about cal involvement. them, he says. Newman authored a report last spring that Other educators worry a lack of funding wreck will students for being criticized students over of and leverage the presidents hopes for more student acti- and materialistic. vism. The report, in turn, led Newman and some Its one thing to change graduation requi- colleagues to form the coalition to find ways to divert students from their materialism. rements (to force students to become involved), says Leonard Gordon, an Arizona State Newman would like to convince students sociologist who studies trends in student attiin their own best interest to get involved, its tudes. "Students will respond to that. But if whether it be stumping for a favorite candithey have to depend on voluntary response, date, ladling soup at a local shelter or countthey just dont have the leverage. ing ballots in a school election. Dr. Richard Rosser, president of DePauw The presidential coalition, meeting in in Indiana, concurs. to: University Washington last week, pledged by Jessica Snyder self-obsesse- self-involv- ed fund-raisin- image-buildin- self-obsess- ed --- - ! f "Community service probably ought to be a requirement on every campus in this country, he says. "We have a responsibility to prepare people to accept their civic responsibility. To get them to accept it, Newman suggests replacing existing loan programs with grants work. for public-servic- e Students who are piling up loans are less willing to view obligations to society, concedes Newman. They say, you talked me into borrowing $15,000 (to pay for college). Ive got to get out and make that big money But Robert Atwell, president of the American Council on Education, last week told the coalition such grant programs would have little chance of funding, given the budget strictures of the Act Students are more enmired and enmeshed these days in their own problems of getting through college and working part time, ASUs Gordon adds, If presidents want response, they'll have to address issues such as housing for married students, child care and cooperative housing. Presidents, moreover, risk polarizing their own campuses by subsidizing with credit or grants community work thay may be too liberal for campus conservatives, or too conservative for campus liberals. "Any president supporting activism had better be very careful that he doesnt offend one group by supporting another, Gordon cautions. Some students also are skeptical. teering is going to be the first thing on students lists after work and classes. Already therere tons of organizations for students to join, says Taylor, who works in MSUs Student Activities office. But I dont think many people know about them. flyers advertising the volunteer activities and generally lie piled in groups the corner of the office, Taylor says. Yeah, that would be great, DePauw junior Vickie Wilson says of her presidents plans for greater student involvement But it wont work because people here dont get ly involved. President Rosser disagrees, noting group have involved as much as half DePauws students. When the campus chaplain last year visited every Depauw resident hall and greek house g to encourage charity work, Ill admit they didnt jump at the idea, Rosser recalls. "But we used their competitive spirit, saying the guys at Delta House are doing something; youve got to keep up. We played on their sense of public image, Rosser says. Gordon also cites increasing student activism, but gives credit to the students rather than administrators. Faculty and administrators can influence students only when theyre ready to be influenced, he contends. People got tired af-ter the intense protests of the 60s. Increasingly, (administrators) will see responsiveness: But not because theyre exhortWhen Im not at work, Im usually doing ing students, but because students are ready. my homework, says Lesley Taylor, a freshTheyve caught their breath and are ready to man at Michigan State. I dont think volun- - become activists again. Gramm-Rudman-IIollin- fund-raise- rs gs bread-and-butt- fund-raisin- er Women More Intellectual5 i I PALO ALTO, CA. (CPS) Are women on campus more intellectual than men? Yup, says a random sample of Stanford students. According to the survey, females classified as intellectuals outnumber males classed as intellectuals by a margin. "Its obviously not a representative sample. However, I dont think they (Stanford students) are different than students at other major research institutions, explains Kerant Katchadourian, who conducted the study along with colleague John Boli. Stanford students were asked to fill out a questionnaire on their course plans and their attitudes about what they are studying. Depending on their answers, students were classified as intellectual, careerist, "striv-er- s or unconnected. While careerist men tended to ignore liberal arts courses, intellectual women often took a substantial number of liberal art3 courses, and maintained an interest in careers. I I am not surprised by the Stanford findings, says Barbara Hetrick, dean of Academic i Affairs at Hood College in Maryland. I would expect more women to have humanistic values and to be more likely to seek knowledge for knowledges sake, she says. Hetrick herself recently finished a study of how Hoods predominantly female student body changed its political and social views after going through four years of the schools liberal arts curriculum. r Hetrick found seniors were considerably less Professors Susan Cottier and Kay Kuzminski will lead the May Term Greece trip. According to materialistic than they had been as freshmen, both, there is still room for all interested parties to join them on the educational excursion. that they were more concerned about commun- two-to-o- i . ne ity welfare and developing a general philo- sophy of life. She found out by administering to Hood students the same survey given by the American Council on Education to some 200,000 fresh- men nationwide. On a national scale, the ACE survey created by UCLA and released in January found beginning college freshmen are more materialistic than their predecessors. The Stanford survey defined strivers as strongly motivated toward careers and intellectual pursuits. They tend to come from lower economic backgrounds than other students. "Unconnected students generally come either from very high or low social status families. Intellectuals usually come from families of high socioeconomic status, and their fathers often hold advanced degrees. Careerists are from a wide array of backgrounds, but often have parents who emphasize career success. While Stanford students changed categories throughout the four-yeperiod they were observed, radical changes were rare, Katchadourian explains. While a striver might become an "intellectual, or a careerist could become a striver, rarely would an intellectual become a "careerist or vice versa. Moreover, it was uncommon for strivers to become unconnected, Katchadourian says. While Hood students changed their attitudes, Hetrick speculates they might be predisposed toward more humanistic values than students at large state universities. ar |