Millennial Resources

Scott, This list is always a treat, and like the Letterman Top Ten List, Beloit has established a welcome glimpse into reality. What perhaps goes unnoticed is that Beloit’s VP for Student Development, Bill Flanagan, is rather well respected nationally for his work. Also, there are numerous resources out that help with this generation ranging from the provocative My Freshman Year to Strauss and Howe’s various works. My favorite is still Millennials Go to College (Registrar’s Association), though the sequel is very helpful, Millennials and the Pop Culture. Tracy Skipper’s little Student Development in the First College Year: A Primer for College Educators (USC) gives a helpful summary of related research. Also, J. Bradley Garner’s new Brief Guide to Teaching Millennials (Triangle Publishing) is rather handy. My forthcoming book on motivating millennials might be of use, along with Why I Teach (both with McGraw Hill (publisher – Linda_schreiber@mcgrawhill.com). John Gardner et al will release a book this winter on sophomores that will have considerable material related to dealing with millennials (Helping Sophomores Succeed, Jossey-Bass). One central theme gets to the core of millennial needs – understanding their life purpose. Barbara Tobolowski and I wrote the introduction on this subject with help from the other authors. You’ll also find helpful work on this score via Bill Millard’s new book with Kendall Hunt and the robust program he directs, The Center for Life Calling and Leadership (see: http://clcl.indwes.edu/). Tobolowski and Bradley Cox also have a monograph on sophomores releasing next month via The National Resource Center (USC) that discusses the latest data on how colleges are dealing with students during the crucial second year (the ultimate time of searching for millennials). I think I’d be remiss not to add books like The Long Tail, Love is the Killer App, and The World Is Flat. These all give great insights into the minds and decisions of this generation of students. Love is the Killer App is probably the most helpful on this account as the Yahoo guru (Tim Sanders) gives a brilliant summary of the three intangibles that drives millennials in the business world. It’s a must read. My review might help: http://www.indwes.edu/jp/AfterBuckCreek/article3.pdf, though various others exist. Also, The National Resource Center has a series of national conferences forthcoming that will prove helpful (research based, and helpful for practioners): http://www.sc.edu/fye/. A few of the folks mentioned above will likely be presenting at the Nov-4-6 conference in Cincy. Also, PaperClips has several rather inexpensive national audio conferences targeting student development personnel, with the one on September 19th addressing above issues. Raj Bellani (Colgate) will be joining me as host— http://www.paper-clip.com/audioconference/ac.asp?acID=140 ). Yes, “Beloit,” you’ve managed to establish a delightful tradition (which is really generated from two individuals with a stiff pot of coffee, likely reminiscent of Wittenberg Door layout sessions). However, like classic books—it’s a tradition because it resonates with our perception of reality. Thanks for making me realize I’m “old as dust,” and that my students likely don’t know the idiom. Appreciate you two, and your colleagues like Bill.

jerry pattengale, AVP for Scholarhship and Grants at Indiana Wesleyan University, at 7:16 am EDT on August 21, 2007

new faculty make me feel older

I wish someone (more creative and humorous than I) would come up with a yearly list of what our new faculty are like. I have a son who is nearly college age, so I kind of understand that generation. But these 28-30 year olds are mystifying to me!

anon, at 8:00 am EDT on August 21, 2007

Maurice or is it Clarice?

Perhaps I am showing MY age...the liver accompanied by fava beans and a nice chianti is human liver. A main course for Hannibal Lechter in that recently released film “Silence of the Lambs.” Perhaps it further generationally marks me, if I add that I read the book, too.

E. Ponimus, at 8:55 am EDT on August 21, 2007

It’s a multi-generational world!

My colleague forwarded this recent article of yours in which you list some of the environmental/cultural issues that form today’s freshmen life views. I felt an immediate desire to reach out to you.

I became very interested in this subject matter (multiple generations interacting in schools, workplaces, etc.) while I was getting my MBA in Human Resources Management. From a paper I wrote for one of my courses, sprang an opportunity to co-author the article “Leveraging Generational Differences for Productivity Gains” with colleagues Deborah and Ted Schwartz. Our article was selected as the cover story in The Journal of American Academy of Business, Cambridge, Vol. 11, Num. 2, September, 2007 and we were selected to present the article in San Francisco last January at the annual International Business and Economics Conference (IBEC). (If interested, a copy will be forwarded.)

Our prescriptive approach to the matter takes the current research and information one step further to provide both managers and employees with hands-on tools to leverage differences for reduced conflict and increased productivity. The feedback on the article has been very positive.

In an effort to gage the level of interest in the subject matter and perceived need for prescriptive material such as ours, I wonder if you could share with me some information regarding the other folks that got in touch with you as a result of the article, i.e. how many people, from what backgrounds?

Regardless of profession, stage of life, etc. we all interact on some level with each of the generational cohorts. For example, I am a Baby Boomer who is one of eight daughters, raised by a WWII veteran (Traditionalist). The top 5 in my family are Baby Boomers, followed by 3 Gen X’ers, I have a 20-year old son (a Millennial), work full-time at a local college in a department where 3 of the 4 generations are present and I teach in an MBA program to an audience of predominantly Gen X’ers and Millennials.

The hands-on business management tools provided with our approach are so helpful that I would be interested in talking with any organization(corporation, institution of higher ed, etc.)about developing a program.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards, Nancy Patota ’81, ‘06MBA Director, Advancement Operations Adjunct Faculty, Hagan School of Business, M.B.A. Program Iona College (914) 633 – 2413npatota@iona.edu

Nancy Patota, at 9:40 am EDT on August 21, 2007

“They will encounter roughly equal numbers of female and male professors in the classroom.”

Yeah, and a disproportionate number of the former will be adjuncts...

grad student, NYU, at 11:10 am EDT on August 21, 2007

Understanding new faculty

Ditto on new, fresh out of grad school faculty. They seem to expect to buy houses and live like middle class people as soon as they get their PhDs—or earlier. When I went through the assumption was that you lived in student poverty until you were about 35 and that throughout your life you sacrificed income for the privilege of being a scholar.

LogicGuru, at 11:40 am EDT on August 21, 2007

Generational issues with undergrads

The work of the team at Benoit is good, and is aligned with the benefits, in general, of bridging gaps in any situation where diverse yet discrete groups must interact well for the success of some joint enterprise.

However, respect and loyalty is a two-way street, and (as pointed out above) undergraduates also need a certain amount of attitude adjustment to fit-in and thus succeed in their new environment. Here are a few starters for “What freshmen should understand about how their teachers think":

1. Your teachers have your success as one of their goals, and they will be deferential to your needs. However, unlike your high school teachers, you are not the only reason that your teachers were appointed to this college / university.

2. You get about as much out of something as you put into it. Don’t expect to be spoon fed here. “No child left behind” does not apply here. Nor will you find a philosophy here that slackers will be congratulated and treated as winners when they complete some small fraction of their proper work load. If you think this is harsh, be assured that this environment is far less harsh than the working world. You will be cared for, but you must do your part.

3. Grades are grades. No whingeing.

4. Work hard and play hard. Find a sport or other non-academic diversion (social work, university outreach, chess, or whatever) and work at that with as much regular thought and perseverance as you give to your academic work. Two half-days in each seven-day week that do not clash with your classes is a reasonable maximum initial time commitment for this; you should adjust downward for yourself if it is a bit much.

5. College athletes are not superstars. Most of these college “superstars” will end up on the scrap-heap of professional sport, and they may or may not graduate.

6. Buy an alarm clock, and get up early enough for a modicum of grooming before class. How would you like to teach people who look (and sometimes smell) like they have just been dragged through a sewer backwards ? Part of the mutual respect of the educational process is that your professors and you should dress to a similar standard, if reasonably informally.

7. Remember that the word education comes from a latin verb: educere. Educere means “to lead out". Here, unlike in high school, your education is YOUR responsibility. Your teachers are here to provide resources of various types(lectures, seminars, study guidance, reading assignments, lab exercises, etc.) for you to exploit as you grow. Your teachers have, as their aim, to encourage your growth, and while they will guide (lead you out) they are not there to somehow pull you up by your shoestrings.

8. Note that, except in very rare exceptions, your teachers are not here to teach you how to speak, read or write in your ordinary interactions. These basic skill sets are assumed. English classes are for you to learn more advanced techniques of writing and to explore literature in depth. By analogy, Math class is not designed to instruct you that a graph should have a title and axis labels; that is also a basic communication skill set that will be assumed. A class cannot be held up while Remedial Ed is provided for a small number of its members.

9. Concentrate on academics and your chosen sport (see above) during your freshman year. There is plenty more time, once you have had a year understanding how this place works, to consider the many political, religious, newspaper, etc., activities that take place on this campus. You will be better equipped next year to know what the right balance for you in assigning time amongst these.10. This first semester may be the most stressful of all that your will experience during your college career: don’t be downhearted if that seems to be the case.

Anthony W Fox, Assoc Clin Prof Vol at Skaggs SPPS UCSD, at 12:50 pm EDT on August 21, 2007

New Faculty Expectations?

The comments about new faculty expectations are very interesting to me. Why shouldn’t we expect to be able to buy a home with the income we receive from our first professional job? Aren’t most others with comparable levels of education able to afford such a thing, outside of academia? Most of us are awarded our Ph.D.s when we are approaching 30 or beyond; we teach for pennies during graduate school, and many of us rack up significant student loans. A few of us even dare to have children while we are dissertating or while we are Assistant Professors, in spite of the lack of real “family friendly” policies and quality daycare in most places. A modest middle class house seems like a reasonable expectation after a decade or more of advanced education and adjunct/visiting assistant professor jobs, not to mention the money spent while on the job market. I think our expectations are shockingly low, and we’ll continue to be treated poorly by institutions that pay their administrators $300,000+ until we demand the respect that our achievements have earned. I don’t understand my 45-60 yo colleagues who feel it is a badge of honor to starve for one’s profession, the ones who brag about being denied credit and mortgages for years because being an English professor at a R1 institution isn’t sufficient for such things, at least not until tenure. I can’t romanticize the two weeks during my second semester as an assistant professor when I had to sell used textbooks to get the $15 I might need for a medical co-pay should my infant son become ill before my next meager paycheck arrived, weeks when I was literally rationing slices of bread and lunchmeat so we’d get through the week. At age 31, with a Ph.D. and a tenure track job, I did expect life to be a bit easier than that, but my institution took months to reimburse travel expenses to MLA that literally gutted our budget; serving on a search committee nearly bankrupted us that first year. It took my partner 9 months to find a job in our new town. How soon senior faculty forget what life is like on the other side of tenure.

The glut of Ph.D.s in English means that there are 100s of others out there qualified to do my job, so I put up with a lot to keep a job I truly love, although there are many days when I wonder what life on the other side, outside academia, might be like. Is it any wonder that I hesitate to write letters of recommendation for graduate programs for any but my very best undergraduates? They get a serious reality check about the job market before I agree to write such letters. My former hippy colleagues may romanticize the rice and beans they lived on as assistant professors, but I can’t, not as a mother of two kids in daycare. I absolutely love my job on every level but the compensation. If I had it to do over, knowing what I know now about how hard it would be just to buy a tiny home in a relatively low cost college town, I’m not sure I’d do it again. We don’t even get tuition credit for our kids at my university, and with what I make, my kids will be lucky to afford college here by the time they are old enough to attend.

On the topic of the age gap == a bunch of my students just blinked at me this morning when I made a Rolling Stones reference in class. Suddenly I’m ancient.

Grouchy Prof, Tenure Year Prof at Research 1, at 2:35 pm EDT on August 21, 2007

From an old “silent” generation prof...

Having made a reasonable leap from traditional ed to online education, I always enjoy bantering with this group of “digital natives” (Sorry about this term from Don Tapscott for those who still consider them millennials.

So let’s try these thoughts on that come from the Strategic Trends from the Koinonia House (khouse.org). How will they react to the rise of China and India into world prominence by 2050 putting the US as the third ranking among the financial giants?; the new Super Transportation Corridor from southern Mexico to Canada through the I-35 corridor that will be railroads and 12 lanes of highways that are RFID controlled for no stopping at the so-called borders?; The creation of the North American Union with upwards of 10 states to be added to the American Union expanding the borders of the continetial US?; the demise of the dollar as the world standard and the rise of the “amero” reflecting the new North American Union. It will be interesting what the freshpeople (not freshmen) for the class of 2030 will believe. Hmmmm?!

Edward Winslow, A “tired” retired business prof, at 3:20 pm EDT on August 21, 2007

Anthony Fox — Your post should be required reading for all undergrads! They would be well-served by this advice. While I am no longer in academe, such thoughts would have been considered incendiary at most of the institutions I was once affiliated with. How refreshing!

Rachel — Beloit has indeed archived the Mindset List. They’ve been churning this out for 10 years, and you can find their prior lists here:http://www.beloit.edu/~pubaff/mindset/2011.php

Scott Gunem, at 10:35 pm EDT on August 21, 2007

It’s actually a little older than that...

Actually, Bob, I believe the World Wide Web is considered to have been “born” in 1989 — the year most of these kids were in fact born. In my freshman year of college (1990, a year after most of this year’s incoming class was born), we commonly used VAX terminals to chat with friends and classmates around the country — the web existed before 1993, just in a different format. 1993 is simply when Mosaic was introduced, and put the WWW on the road to being mainstream.

K Freeman, at 12:35 pm EDT on August 24, 2007