Since June 2013, I have been on close to a dozen campuses. When I am on campus for whatever reason, I always talk with students. Sometimes the students are invited by the deans and other times, I just wander and talk with students as I see them on campuses or in offices. I expected to hear a lot of dissatisfaction because of all the media about the high-costs of college and fears about an adequate return on the investment in higher education. I ask students questions about their future plans and whether or not their expectations were are being met at their chosen college or university. Students were more upbeat than I expected and out of all of these campuses and the number of students I spoke with, only one student said “they don’t care about us” when I asked if the college was supportive of students. When I asked why a student might think the college does not care about students, the student said that the college cares about students in regard to how well they do because it makes the college look good. The student also said that the college seemed more like a corporation interested only in the bottom line—dollars.
I think we need to ask ourselves—“What are we doing that might cause a student to think this way about any college?
Gwen Dungy 