The Virtual Campus Tour - Student Interviews on College Click TV

With the help of an informative, yet innovative website - high school juniors, seniors, and their parents have the chance to "meet" students who attend the college or university they are considering. College Click TV enables future students to view the "best [residence halls], the school spirit, night life, Greek life, campus activities, and professors" by watching the streaming video interviews.

My take - Personally, I will recommend this website to students who attend the "College Prep Boot Camp" workshops. Most of these students come from low to middle income families, which may not be able to attend college viewing events.

Here is the Texas A&M University section of the website.

Here is the Boston College section of the website.

Millennials are ENTITLED!

Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of reading an older edition of Spectra, a newsletter from the National Communication Association. This issue focused on millennial undergraduate students, who comprise a majority of our college student population.


This article stated, "Today's college students (the Me generation) are more self-confident, assertive, open and direct than previous generations. They are much less concerned about privacy (perhaps they recognize the impossibility of it in such an intrusive age)." I completely agree with the prior statement. Many students do not understand the potential repercussions their online comments or images may have on their job search, career, or political ventures.


The author also contributed, "[Millennials] value and appreciate genuine self presentation and disdain blatant impression management. They don't appreciate that some topics might be taboo and they have little patience for explanations that hide information in service to cultural politeness norms. They are not very audience centered but instead value individual expression." This last statement could be debated, it seems that most of my students focus on their peers' opinions more than their own (clothing, conversation topics, etc.).


I strongly agree with this statement:
"On the need for social approval scale, the average college student in 2001 scored lower than 62% of college students in 1958. Sixth graders were even more pronounced in the declining need in that they came in at the 24% percentile. By the mid-90's college members from generation Me registered higher self esteem than 86% of 1968 peers." The millennials have higher self-esteem than the hippies? Interesting!

Lastly, the author refers to the assertiveness of this generation. She states:
This is a generation that appreciates directness. They don't do well in abstractions so we will be more successful if we find ways to make information concrete, relevant, and active. They were raised on the internet and don't sit still very long for passive learning encounters."

It seems millennial students value hands-on learning (or service learning) experiences in high school and college. "[Millennials] believe in experiential learning and they value their own uninformed opinion. They will question test items and their interpretations in ways that may feel disrespectful because Generation Me has zero tolerance for role governed authority."


Overall, I believe this author's article addresses the "millennial generation" issue effectively. I wonder how professors reacted to this article. How did YOU react to this article?

Andersen, J. (2008, September). Entitled generation. National Communication Association: Spectra. 12-13.

In Retrospect...Mentoring Undergraduate College Students

This weekend, my husband and I presented a workshop titled, "Student Leader to Professional" at the Southwestern Black Student Leadership Conference in College Station, TX.

It seems that the 50+ students who attended the workshop really appreciated the content. After the presentation, a majority of the students had questions about their job search, student organizations, internships, etc. In fact, one of the students asked me to critique her resume.

I love helping students make a successful transition from the college environment to the workplace. In fact, this transitional period is one of my strongest passions in life. Sometimes, I miss supervising undergraduate students in a managerial capacity. I always tried to make sure that they were professional at all times (personal and professional). In fact, many of the students that I supervised at my former university still serve as my mentees. 

Here's what one of my mentees wrote on facebook.

Thank you!! much of what I have become as a leader is because of you. I do have many people to thank, but a greater thanks is extended to you- as you have molded much of what I am, the first few years of a college student's career are vital. there arent enough words to thank you, Im so thankful that I had you to look up to.

This student recently graduated and I was suprised to receive a message from him. I truly enjoy observing students when they effectively apply concepts and theories in their everyday lives, but student affairs was different. I supervised students who are professional alumni of their undergraduate institution. In fact, one of the students is working on his master's degree in student affairs.

This is my second year at XYZ university, but I feel that I have to work harder to sustain a mentoring relationship with my students. Many of these students take my 100-level course as a requirement of the core curriculum. However, a few of our non-majors have taken my upperlevel classes as electives. In fact, one student (that was undecided as a freshman) decided to become a communication major and has taken EVERY class that I introduced at XYZ university (including a 400-level class when she was a freshman). I feel that I established a mentoring relationship with her and also with students in an organization that I advise.

I hope and pray that I am able to establish a mentoring relationship with our undergraduates and graduates.

Sincerely,

MillennialProfessor 

I Can See You on My iPhone Student Tracking Program!!!

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, article titled, "Stanford U. Unveiled iPhone Application That Will Soon Let Students Locate Each Other". A couple of Stanford University students created an iPhone program that will enable students to find each other on a GPS-like network (with the students' permission). In the future, I wonder will professors be able track our truant students down via iphone when they choose not to come to class. Interesting concept!

Thought provoking questions:

a) Will this program increase the number of reported student stalkings of each other on college campuses?

b) Since most students are engrossed in facebook and myspace, will these GPS-like programs result in more student to student, face-to-face contact?

c) Will more student choose to purchase iPhones?

Do Students Prefer Online Courses?

        This week, registration started at my university. Every semester, I virtually watch the enrollment in each of my classes. I am not a huge football fan, but my view of class registration is similar to the NFL draft. The team (classroom) dynamic seems to change as the enrollment changes. It appears that many of the students in my classes were referred by other students who took the class before. This helps to keep a steady line of "academic minded" students as well as "class clowns" every semester. :)

        When examining the enrollment each semester, I pay particular attention to the following: (a) the number of women and men, (b) the majors that may potentially add to the dynamic context of my course, and (c) the amount of students who enroll in a class that is held at a morning time vs. an afternoon time.

        This semester's registration period is slightly different for me. I am teaching three sections of COMS 101 (Fundamentals of Human Communication) in the spring, because this will be my first semester teaching an online course at a university (I taught a similar course at a community college). The students seem to be very interested in my online COMS 101 course. At this time, I have more students in my COMS 101 online course than my three sections of COMS 101 (face to face classes) combined. I have to keep in mind that many students have not registered yet, but it seems that they are excited about taking an online course. Next semester, I plan to conduct a few assessments in both types of classroom environments (face to face and virtual). I cannot wait to see the results!

Is anyone else encountering this situation (increased enrollment in online courses vs. face to face courses)?

Millennial Professor

Prospective College Students Encounter a Potential Facebook-Based Barrier

     High school students who are interested in attending a community college or four year university have another obstacle to overcome - their facebook/myspace profile. These "personal" profiles serve as open windows to a prospective college student's personal life.

    

     College admission counselors are logging on social networking websites like facebook.com and myspace.com to gain an in-depth look at the high school students who may attend their college or university. Read more information about this phenomenon here - "Admissions Officers Peek at Applicants' Facebook Profiles".

Are Millennials Politically Engaged Inside and Outside of the Classroom?

Are Millennials Politically Engaged Inside and Outside of the Classroom?

As a millennial, I feel that this has been the most interesting election since I have been able to vote. As a freshman in college, I was VERY interested in the 2000 election. In 2000, on the count/recount night, I remained awake until 1:00 a.m. to see who the new president would be. This time I have watched CNN and Fox News every night to hear the new stories that emerge from the political battleground.

However, it seems that my undergraduate students are not experiencing the same level of exhilaration that I have at this time. On the first few days of class, I asked my students if they watched CNN on a regular basis and if they were keeping up with this year's election. None of the 75 students in my lower level classes watched CNN on a regular basis and only a small percentage of the students were actually keeping up with the election.

This was very discouraging to me and I felt that my millennial students were not politically engaged. However, the students from my upper level course were politically engaged and were excited about the election. This is a very small example, but are older millennial students more politically engaged than younger millennial students? Hmmmm... this may be a great research study.

In addition, over the summer, I read a book titled, " Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube, and the Future of American Politics by Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais. This book was VERY interesting and I plan to write a book review about it in a few weeks. It featured a wonderful historical analysis of the candidates and the political parties. The book gave the millennial generation freedom from the usual negative portrayal of their generation. In addition, after reading this book, I have braced myself for the wonderful leaders that will emerge from my generation (the millennial generation).

Access the authors' website here - http://www.millennialmakeover.com/.

- Millennial Professor

Creating a Syllabus for Millennial College Students

I am finishing my syllabi for the fall semester and I had to keep a few items in mind when planning for my millennial students. Here is the checklist for my syllabi:

(    ) Include a picture of the textbook. I like to include a picture of the textbook that we are using in class because the students know exactly which textbook to choose when perusing the bookstore. In addition, when I was an undergraduate, I bought all of my books on barnesandnoble.com. If my professors would have included a picture of the textbook (or the ISBN) on their class syllabus, the textbook search would have been easier. 

(    ) Include an explanation of my virtual office hours. Many professors have not adopted virtual office hours and my students do not have any frame of reference for such office hours. As a result, I include my yahoo im username and briefly describe how virtual office hours may help them.

(    ) Remind the students that laptops are not allowed in my classroom (except on designated days). Laptops are a distraction in the classroom. As an undergraduate, I used a laptop to take notes in my class (and also to play games and search the internet). Since my lectures are in powerpoint format and I provide these notes for my students, there is no reason for laptops to be present in my classroom (except on designated days).

(    ) Include the "Best Practices" Section. Millennial college students want to know how they can make an "A", "B", "C", etc. I provide these best practices for the students in my classroom, because I want them to know exactly what they need to do to make a satisfactory grade. 

(    ) Include My Attendance Policy. This is my third year teaching and I have always taken attendance. In addition, students have two to three allowed absences (without a doctor's note, etc.) from my class. I hold my students to a very high regard and I remind them that they will enter the post-graduation world in a few years. They cannot miss an extra ordinate amount of days on their jobs without a penalty (reduced pay, etc.). 

What do you include on your syllabus?

- Millennial Professor

Can College Students Still Afford Alcohol When They Cannot Afford to Pay for Food?

In college, I knew that a few of my friends were participants in the food stamp program. When I moved to the Houston area, I discovered that a few community college students received groceries from the local church food bank. However, I did not know that a fair amount of college students have started to take advantage of both types of programs for their weekly meals. A few days ago, I wrote about college students and gas prices, but I did not realize that these students are starting to feel the impact of the surging food prices as well.

In fact, according to U.S. News and World Report author Alison Go, a facebook group has been formed as a virtual support group for students in need, "I Ain't Afraid to Be on Food Stamps". Here is the link to her eye opening article, "College Students Get Food from Pantries".

Cafeterias and Millennial College Students (Financial Cutbacks) - Part 2

A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog post about my university's cafeteria - "Cafeterias and Millennial College Students (Financial Cutbacks)". I have not received any additional information about the cafeteria at my university, but I did read a few articles about other university cafeterias and how they are choosing to cope with the rising food costs.


Fall 2008 = No Trays

Bruce Horovitz, a USA Today contributor, wrote an article about this food service transition process titled, "More College Cafeterias Dump Food Trays". According to the article, food service companies like Aramark and Sodexho are creating a college dining experience that is more "sample and toss" than "take all you want". This move perpetuated a 50 percent decrease in the amount of daily waste that cafeterias produce. New York University reports a food waste reduction of 44.03 ounces per tray to less than 2.37 ounces. 

Scratching the Recipes?

JJ Hermes, of the Chronicle of Higher Education, wrote "Soaring Food Prices Squeeze Dining Halls". He reported that universities like Louisana State University may choose to reduce the amount of ingredients it takes to complete a recipe. In the article, the director of dining services stated, "Maybe we're going to put half an ounce less cheese on a slice of pizza".  Ohio University cut their food service costs by making many items from scratch (i.e. - cookies, rolls, and pizza dough).


Increasing the Costs of Meal Plans

Alternatively, some cafeterias are taking the easy route by increasing the dining costs. The highest meal plan fee increase was reported by Louisiana State University (LSU), which will increase the cost of their meal plans by 7 percent this fall. The LSU meal plan fee increase is followed by a 4.5 increase at the University of Miami and a 3.5 increase by Ohio University.

These articles leave me with a few questions:

• Will the college buffet continue to exist?
• Will the trayless and recipe ingredient reduction approach cause college students lose the freshmen 15 stigma?
• Will college students choose the healthiest food if they have to choose one or two items at a time. 

-Millennial Professor

Black in America - Day 2

Last night's special focused on African American males and their impact on the black race. I expected some additional facts on education and African Americans, but this was not the subject of last night's broadcast.

As a result, I wanted to focus on the fact that there was a void in the television show about African Americans in higher education. This show missed out on some very strong issues in higher education - HBCUs/HWCUs and the success of African American undergraduates.

Between 1993 and 2003, the enrollment for African American undergraduate students increased more than 42% (Edmonds & McDonough, 2006). In 2006, these numbers reached over 2,299,000 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2006).

According to NCES (2005), the nationwide African American undergraduate enrollment at HWCUs was over 1,734,000 in 2002. However, the graduation rates for these students were very low (Benton, 2001). In fact, over half of the African American undergraduate students enrolled in HWCUs fail to persist and graduate. The picture is worse for African American undergraduate students who attend HBCUs. Only 28% of these students actually complete their degrees (Gasman, Baez, Drezner, et al., 2007).

This leads me to one last sentence: What should HWCUs and HBCUs do about the African Americans (and Hispanic Americans) in higher education? Any suggestions?

-Millennial Professor

Ask a Millennial: "Four Ways to Reach Millennial Students in the Classroom"

Our first official question comes from Mitch (fahrenHEIGHT360.com) about reaching millennials in the classroom.

I am writing for advice on reaching the millennials in the classroom. This is particularly a pain point for me, since I am a millennial myself. Any input you have is very helpful.

Well Mitch, here's my answer:

As a person who has served on both sides of the spectrum (student and professor), I will offer "Four Ways to Reach Millennial Students in the Classroom".

Millennial Reaching Mechanism 1 - USE STUDENT ENGAGEMENT ACTIVITIES

I define "student engagement activities" as small groups, in-class panel discussions, service learning, skits, blogs, wikis, and other activities. Millennials are taking many classes, they are involved in extra curricular activities, and are working AT THE SAME TIME. As a result, we have to keep these students awake during class. (I don't know about your teaching style, but I require students to attend class during every class session. This requires engaging activities that keep them awake and provide them with a closer relationship with the class material.) I use all of the above activities and I RARELY have students who fall asleep in class.

Millennial Reaching Mechanism 2 - POST-GRADUATION WORLD APPLICATION

Millennials actively engage themselves with course material that has "post-graduation" (real world) application. This generation wants instant gratification. For example, almost 75% of these students work jobs that require their attention for more than 20+ hours a week. They work to satisfy their needs and wants, which include cell phone bills, new ipod wants/needs, itunes downloads, GAS, college beverages, etc. This drive to have instant gratification applies in the classroom environment as well. For example, when a new concept is introduced in the classroom, these millennial students want to know how this will help them in the future. Make sure that you show these students exactly how they will use the classroom material in their post-graduation world.

Millennial Reaching Mechanism 3 - BE ENTHUSIASTIC

Professors/teachers - Try to exude enthusiasm in the classroom environment! If you are not excited about the material that you are teaching, the students will not be excited about the material that they are "learning". Millennials spent their lives watching Sesame Street, Camp Anawana, Salute Your Shorts, You Can't Do That On Television, What Would You Do, Sisqo's Dance Show on MTV, and Real World - they need stimulation! Therefore, be enthusiastic about your course content!

Millennial Reaching Mechanism 4 - USE TECHNOLOGY!

Reach millennials where they are - on the internet! Use an instant messenger to stay in contact with your students (I use yahoo IM). Join a social networking website. I would suggest http://www.linkedin.com. The career services office on my campus says that many employers are searching linkedin for entry-level candidates.

Use your college or university's content management system (WebCT or Blackboard). I use blackboard to reduce my carbon footprint (i.e. - killing trees). I post the syllabus, assignments, announcements, and I require the students to interact with each other via the message board. In addition, I give the students their speech grades on blackboard via the grading rubric tool. This keeps the students accountable for their course grade by checking blackboard daily.

What a wonderful question Mitch! Everyone - Let me know what you think!

Also, please remember to submit your question for the "Ask a Millennial Question" before next Friday.

Have a great weekend!

-MP

Do ALL College Ministries Effectively Reach Millennial Students?

Benson Hines from the Exploring College Ministry Blog (http://exploringcollegeministry.wordpress.com) wrote about importance of text messaging in his article titled, "Txting 4 Gen Y". I am a Christian, but I have never explored religion and text messaging. Interestingly enough, I have not functioned as a leader of a college ministry in about three years, but it was interesting for me to communicate with my millennial peers (students) about Christ. I used text messaging to stay in contact with the student leaders in the ministry, but we never thought of advertising our bible studies/college lunches via text messaging.



As I stated before, I am African American and I observed a growing number of black churches are grasping technology. However, the number of churches that are actively grasping technology are not meeting the demand of their millennial students (middle school and college). It would be interesting to see how many additional college students would begin to accept Christ if churches would use new technology to reach the students of this generation.


Read Benson Hines's article here - http://exploringcollegeministry.wordpress.com/2008/06/29/txting-4-gen-y/

-Millennial Professor

Cafeterias and Millennial College Students (Financial Cutbacks)

I was astonished when I discovered that our college cafeteria is strongly considering the elimination of trays in the cafeteria. Obviously this has been caused by an increase in food costs, but I am worried about the health implications that this will cause for millennial students. These students want everything all at once and they may not fill up on healthy alternatives in the cafeteria if they have to walk back and forth one plate/glass at a time.

In addition, over the break I had the chance to speak with a dietitian of a community college cafeteria. She said that a significant number of the millennial students are coming into college with diabetes and are on medication. In addition, she indicated that these students eat ranch dressing with their greased-filled pizza. Amazing!

It will be interesting to see the health implications of early life McDonald's addictions and status quo infatuations with calorie-filled items (i.e. - Starbucks, Krispy Kreme, etc.) on my generation.

What do YOU think?

She's Back!!!

The summer has finally begun! I am very excited about resting, catching up with my blogging obligations, and the synchronization of my research.

This morning, I read an interesting article about my favorite subject...undergraduate students. This article indicates that rising gas prices are keeping college students on campus (in the residence halls). This will be GREAT for residence life and student activities! Some campuses struggle with retaining students for development programming efforts, sports functions, etc.

Here is the article - http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5813235.html

Let me know what you think!

Millennial Professor

The Importance of Understanding Millennial Mannerisms and Lingo

Greetings Readers! I conducted research for the past few days and I was unable to post to the blog. The interesting thing is - I have experienced a few epiphany's over the past few weeks.

Soon, I will be 26 and I have realized that I will be an additional year older than a majority of my undergraduate students. I have enjoyed teaching (with my doctorate) at a very young age, because I feel that I relate to my students on many levels. For example, I listen to the music that they listen to and if a student orally recalls a phrase from a popular rap song, I know what he or she is referring to.

In fact, I think that seasoned professors are at a disadvantage when it comes to millennial culture. However, I am wondering if my students relate to me differently than their other professors. In addition, I am African American and this may contribute an entirely different dynamic to the situation. Most of my students are 90% Caucasian American.

What do you think?

MP

Millennials and Privacy

It seems that undergraduate millennial students who use facebook and myspace tend to have a false expectation of privacy on facebook and myspace. For the last few weeks, I have conducted experimental research on millennial undergraduate students and their perceptions of privacy on websites like facebook and myspace. All of the students took a pretest and post test, both of which measured the students' perceptions of privacy regarding social networking websites.

I invited a guest speaker to deliver a presentation to half of my classes. This speaker's presentation was focused social networking websites and their potential impact on the job search. During the presentations, students posed questions and offered comments regarding companies who check the facebook and myspace profiles of their job candidates. Many students did not agree with the "virtual background checks" that companies are conducting and they thought that these companies were invading their privacy. I collected qualitative and quantitative data from the groups who heard the guest speaker and the group who did not experience the presentation. I plan to use this information in a future research article.

This week I pose this question to all of you - Do millennials have a false sense of privacy on the web? Do they care? Do these students think about the impact of their virtual disclosures (pictures, comments, etc.)?

Will Less Millennials Fill Our Classrooms?

As everyone that subscribes to this blog knows...I LOVE the Chronicle of Higher Education (CHE). This weekly periodical enables anyone to examine the issues affecting colleges and universities. In the past few weeks, CHE focused on the entering freshman classes that are graduating from high school from this year to 2022. The CHE article promotes a report from the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) titled, "KNOCKING AT THE COLLEGE DOOR: Projections of High School Graduates by State and Race/Ethnicity 1992-2022". This March 2008 report (as reported in the CHE's - Student Pool Is Expected to Dip and Diversify by Elyse Ashburn) featured such projections as:

The Number of High School Graduates is Projected to Steadily Decrease
After this year's high school seniors receive their diplomas, the number of graduates nationwide will begin a slow decline until 2015.

The High School Graduating Class is Projected to Become More Diverse
The number of minority graduates is expected to grow rapidly as Hispanic and Asian students replace white ones. Nationwide, the number of high-school graduates is expected to peak this year — a year earlier than previously thought — at 3.34 million, according to the commission. The number of graduates is expected to start growing again in 2015, it says, when the rapidly growing Hispanic and Asian populations will begin pushing that number to new highs.

By 2022 almost half of all public high-school graduates will be members of minority groups — with Hispanics alone making up a quarter — according to the commission. If those graduates go on to college, many of them will also be the first in their families to do so.

My Analysis

One may predict that since the number of high school graduates is decreasing and this graduating class is becoming more diverse, then the incoming freshmen classes will be slightly smaller and more diverse. This may be good for college students, because they may have a more college experience with a more diverse student population. However, one may project that colleges and universities will experience lower enrollment rates. Consequently, colleges and universities may start actively recruiting non-traditional students. Please let me know what you think about this post.

MP

Millennial Conference Highlights!

On Friday, I attended a conference that was focused on teaching millennial students. As a millennial and as a researcher on millennial issues, I was very pleased with the content that was presented in the workshops and the keynote speech.




During the conference, the following topics were addressed:

• Virtual Textbooks


• Social Networking Websites


• Instant Messenger & Virtual Office Hours (My Workshop)


• Usage of Wikipedia in Student Research


• Usage of YouTube in the Classroom


• Blackboard


• Usage of U.S. Census Website in the Classroom


• Why College Students Do Not Read Textbooks


• Podcasting Lectures


• Text Messenging in the Classroom


• Academic Integrity of Millennial Students


• The Millennial Mindset List (Beloit)


• Twitter and Skype in the Classroom

Overall, the conference was very interesting and I hope that the university continues to offer such informative and intriguing information to the faculty and staff.

As a millennial professor, I was inspired to continue my research and to spread knowledge to other professors about my interesting generation.

Millennials Do Not Read

I personally feel that millennial students/Gen-Yers do not read. After conducting research, another source agrees (Sweeny, 2005).

However, I feel that I am one of the outliers when examining this subject. Since the age of eight, I have read the Sunday newspaper from cover to cover EVERY Sunday morning. Currently, I live right outside of a large city and I am able to get the local and regional Sunday newspapers.

As I stated in the beginning, I feel that I am outside of the norm. My students do not READ newspapers and consequently they do not know what is happening around them. This year, I have started my class with an icebreaker pertaining to the news. I ask the students a question about the election, the obesity problem in Mississippi, the Grammys, the Super bowl or ANYTHING that focuses the status quo. I post the question about current events to the students, most of them look at me with a blank stare. However, there are some students who started reading the news after I began this current event icebreaker.

I am a BIG advocate of the NAA College Readership program, which supplies the students, faculty and staff with newspapers that are available across campus. Personally, I think that this program is VERY underutilized by all of the students, faculty and staff on campus. Some days I walk by the newsstands on campus and there are still MANY newspapers that were not taken during the day.


Sweeney, R. T. (2005) Reinventing library buildings and services for the millennial
generation, Library Administration and Management. 19(4), 165-75.