Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 30, 1990 TAG: 9004300090
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
"The idyllic vision so routinely portrayed in college promotional materials often masks disturbing realities of student life," concluded "Campus Life: In Search of Community."
The 148-page study was a joint project of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, in Princeton, N.J., and the American Council on Education, a Washington, D.C.-based higher education lobbying group.
The findings were based on visits to 18 campuses, interviews with teachers, students and administrators across the nation, and national surveys of 382 college and university presidents and 355 chief student affairs officers conducted in 1989.
Among the survey findings:
52 percent of the college presidents said the quality of campus life was a greater concern than a few years ago.
Two-thirds of the presidents considered alcohol abuse a "moderate" or "major" problem.
43 percent said campus crime had increased over the past five years.
One out of four presidents said racial tensions were problems on their campuses.
62 percent of presidents at research-oriented universities said sexual harassment was a "moderate" or "major" problem, and 48 percent said the same of racial harassment.
60 percent of student affairs officers said their campus had a written policy on bigotry, and an additional 11 percent said they were working on one.
"Since the '60s, the notion of universities having parental authority has greatly diminished," said Ernest L. Boyer, president of the Carnegie Foundation, in an interview.
"But we haven't found new ways to think about the social and civic dimensions of campus life," he said. "Universities don't know how to exercise authority even when they see incivility."
Presidents surveyed said they didn't yearn for the days when colleges had strict rules on behavior. But many are confused about how to cope with social ills - how, for example, to combat bigotry without becoming censors.
Too many have "sought to sidestep rather than confront the issue," the report concluded.
"We carry a stigma," said one Hispanic student interviewed. "When I first came here as a freshman, a white undergraduate said to me, `You're here, but my friend who is better qualified is not.' "
At another campus, a black candidate for student government said a white student asked him, "Is the other candidate on your ticket a nigger, too?"
Sexism pervades many campuses as well, according to the report.
One student at an elite Northeastern university said: "My professor told me not to bother to apply to business school because they never take women."
Blacks, Hispanics and other ethnic groups have increasingly banded together into exclusive clubs or unions. One campus even had a white student union. But such groups, while understandable, may heighten campus tensions.
Classrooms should be a starting point for rebuilding a sense of community, said the report. Students, for example, should be given opportunities to work together, not just compete. And the curriculum should have a sense of shared intellectual purpose, not be merely a smorgasbord of courses.
The report urged colleges not to fight bigotry with restrictive speech codes, such as the one passed several years ago by the racially troubled University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Instead, they should affirm freedom of expression while condemning campus bigotry in no uncertain terms.
"The goal is not to have a list of unenforceable commandments. Rather, it is to assure that all parts of college life are governed by high standards," the report said.
The report "confirms what American higher education leaders have long suspected: that changes in governance, demographics, societal expectations, and the legal framework which our institutions operate have caused a serious decline in the sense of common purpose and mutual responsibility that is necessary to the success of a learning community," said Robert H. Atwell, president of the education council.
The central recommendation of the report urged colleges to adopt a "campus compact," reaffirming themselves as "caring communities." Students must be encouraged to look beyond personal goals to their responsibilities to the school community and to society at large, it stressed. School officials, in turn, need to show genuine concern about student needs, it said.
Schools that haven't done so already should, for example, establish longer office hours, counseling services and day-care centers to accommodate commuting students, the report said.
Copies of "Campus Life: In Search of Community" are available for $8 each from Princeton University Press, 3175 Princeton Pike, Lawrenceville, N.J. 08648.
by CNB