Penn State president speaks about 'Today's College Students'

Penn State president speaks about 'Today's College Students'

Penn State President Graham B. Spanier was the featured morning amphitheater speaker at New York state's Chautauqua Institution on Thursday, July 6. He appeared as part of the Week Two theme "Education: Our Children and the World" and spoke on the topic of "Today's College Student." Following are his remarks.

Remarks by Graham B. Spanier
The Chautauqua Institution
Thursday, July 6, 2006


For those of you who have already begun to reminisce about your own college days, as a reminder of those wonderful years, I would like to share with you the top four ways you can tell that you've been out of college too long…

4) A $4 bottle of wine is no longer "pretty good stuff."

3) You go from 130 days of vacation time to 14.

2) Over 90 percent of the time you spend in front of a computer is for real work.

And the No. 1 way you can tell you've been out of college too long ...

1) You hear your favorite song on the elevator at work.

During my college years phrases like "make love, not war," "power to the people," and the ever-popular "groovy" were all part of the lexicon. Some of you "flower children" of the 1960s might remember those phrases, even if you were like me and never actually spoke any of them.

Or if you were a teen in the 1970s, some things were really "far out." If you hit the disco scene, did you "get down and boogie?"

As in every generation, adolescents today have a language all their own, and to help you begin understanding today's college student, I offer a quick primer. Ok? Cool!

Remember when a "crib" was somewhere you put a baby to sleep? No more. It's now your place of residence. Or grill -- the appliance used at backyard barbecues. Forget it. It's now your face or teeth, as in "He was all up in my grill and yelling."

Dude was once a cowhand on the open range -- now it's just about everyone and anyone.

Remember when "booty" was a pirate's treasure? Not now.

Some of you may long for the days when flip flops were worn on your feet at the beach, pajamas were not considered everyday attire, and the word "like" was not "like" inserted freely into "like" each sentence. But students of today -- sporting popular names such as Michael, Ashley, Jessica, Justin or Brittany -- are shaping popular culture.

They are the future, and it is my adventure today to help you better understand that mysterious creature known as the college student. I suspect that many of you have children or grandchildren who are either preparing for or are already in college, so you can help me out. Some of what I tell you may make you wonder why you wanted to know in the first place.

I am the president of a university that enrolls more than 82,000 students, and although I know I don't look it, I am also the father of two recent Penn State graduates. I do know a little bit about college students, but I say "a little bit" because as every parent realizes early on, our children know so much more than we do. As Mark Twain once said, "When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have him around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in just seven years."

In America today, our colleges and universities enroll nearly 17 million students -- with about 40 percent of these being what we consider "traditional" college students, those who are 18 to 24 years old and enrolled full-time. It is the largest and most diverse generation of college students in American history. For the most part, these are the students I will focus on, although there is a healthy and growing "adult" or "non-traditional" student population.

It might interest you to know that the most common nontraditional characteristic is financial independence from parents. I suspect that like many of you, I was NOT fortunate enough to be the parent of such an undergraduate. In fact, I thought my initials were ATM for quite some time.

The majority of the traditional students that will be entering college this fall were born in 1988. Remember 1988?

That was the year a Pan-Am flight was hit by terrorists and crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland; Ronald Reagan was in office with then vice-president George Bush (senior); the Democrats nominated Michael Dukakis to run for president; and concern over the environment caused McDonalds to stop using Styrofoam cartons for Big Macs.

A postage stamp cost 22 cents, CDs outsold vinyl records for the first time, the movie Rain Man was a box office hit, the comedy series Cheers was at its peak, and the Song of the Year was "Somewhere Out There."

To the children born in 1988, voice mail has always been available; Michael Jackson has always been bad; Andy Warhol, Liberace and Jackie Gleason have always been dead; and toll-free 800 phone numbers have always spelled out catchy phrases.

Today's incoming freshmen never saw Roseanne Roseannadanna on Saturday Night Live, don't remember when "cut and paste" involved scissors, and have always used the word "whatever" as an expression of sullen rebuke.

College campuses are undergoing some changes, and one very notable change that will continue is the diversity of our student body. National demographic projections suggest that about 65 percent of the growth in population in the U.S. through the year 2020 will be in ethnic minority groups, particularly Hispanic and Asian populations. However, three-fifths of that increase will take place in just three states -- California, Florida and Texas. Many of our universities will not have student populations that mirror the nation's expected diversity.

And, something that may surprise you, the majority of college students today are women, who make up more than 56 percent of the undergraduate population. Nationally for every 100 men earning a bachelor's degree, 133 women do the same.

Today, many of our students aren't even on campus. While overall higher education enrollment in the U.S. is stable, online enrollment is skyrocketing. One out of every 10 college students will soon be enrolled in an online degree program. That ratio will continue to change as more of our wired whiz-kids reach college age. Just the other day I had the opportunity to meet a five-year-old boy who was visiting campus with his parents. They were proudly showing off all the knowledge their son had learned. When asked what country he lived in, the boy confidently declared, "The United States of America Online!"

Education is often seen as the great fault line that determines who will be part of the American dream. In 1950, 80 percent of jobs were classified as "unskilled." Now, an estimated 85 percent of jobs require education beyond high school. It might surprise you to know that in a recent national survey, today's teens -- perhaps even more than their parents -- said they believe in the American Dream: marriage, owning a home, having a successful career and having children.

In decades past, the transition from adolescence to adulthood was brief. For many teenagers of the 1950s and '60s, soon after high school graduation they were married, became parents, and for many males, assumed the responsibility of being the sole full-time wage earner in the family. In this part of the country, mining and manufacturing provided a comfortable existence with lifetime careers for many.

Over the last decade, however, the percent of high school graduates choosing to go on to college has climbed, reaching a national rate of about 67 percent, compared to less than 50 percent in 1980. This is actually the first generation in which many of the parents of our students are college graduates as well. Today's traditional college students are the babies of boomers -- perhaps the majority of those in this room; we'll talk about you in a few moments, and I promise it won't be too painful.

However, in some parts of the country, while the percentage of high school graduates who go on to college is at an all-time high, the number of high school graduates going to college is at a standstill. Here in the Northeast, for example, we continue to lose people to warmer environs. In fact, just three states -- again California, Texas and Florida -- will account for 45 percent of the net population change in the U.S.

In 2011, the first Baby Boomers will turn 65 (no need to raise your hands) and within 17 years, 70 million will follow suit. These baby boomers are the parents of today's college students and they are more involved in their child's college experience then ever before, so much so that some have nicknamed them "helicopter parents" because of their tendency to "hover over" their students.

I'm sure some of you have heard this terminology before since this phenomenon has gotten nearly as much publicity as the birth of Brad Pitt's and Angelina Jolie's child. Some schools, I've heard, have parent "bouncers" during orientation with the main goal of keeping parents separated from their kids. At Penn State, we forgive parents who designed their kid's science fair project in grade school, made the Boy Scout pine box derby cars, and did all of the Girl Scout cookie selling -- we just don't want them to move into the residence halls.

A recent national survey found that three out of four college parents are in touch "two to three times a week" with their children, with more than one in three communicating on a daily basis.

In my experience, this is a gross underestimate. My own daughter called me two or three times a day through college, which I must admit I loved. My son, on the other hand, called less frequently, causing his mother, who is plagued by the theory of catastrophe, to become a professional worrier. The theory of catastrophe, by the way, is the belief that if something really bad can happen, it will happen, and it will happen to you.

This year, as I have done every year as president, I stayed overnight in the residence halls with students on move-in weekend. I help them move in, eat with them, and share living quarters with them. I do this to keep my finger on the pulse of our student population. It has been an extremely informative experience. In fact, market researchers who want to capture the $200 billion college market actually pay money to spend valuable time -- just like this -- with students. They then charge large corporations big fees for gathering this information. Right now, I am going to give you these research data ABSOLUTELY FREE!

One overriding reality is that students come alive after dark and desire to be entertained. They are like bats, owls and vampires -- creatures of the night -- who avoid 8 a.m. classes, go to the fitness centers after 10 p.m., keep the pizza delivery services going past midnight, and send the president e-mails at 3 a.m. -- which incidentally is not always the best time to try to make a serious point.

For university administrators, thinking differently about the students we serve has been a priority. No longer can our hours of operation be just from 8 to 5. Students of today expect everyone to be as connected and instantly reachable as they are, and they cannot fathom a world without remote controls, microwaves, cable television and gadgets that make their lives easier. This is a generation of students best known for their ability to multi-task -- that is, do many things at once. In fact more than half of 13- to 24-year-olds watch TV and surf the Net at the same time.

This year, during my stay in the residence halls, I noted three distinct trends that I'd like to share with you because they reveal quite a bit about college students today.

The first trend is something called Facebook.com. How many of you have heard of it? Facebook.com is an online community for college students. It's a Web site where students can create their own Web page, post photos of themselves, find like-minded students from their own university or other universities, reveal personal information, keep in touch with friends, and connect with anyone else who is part of Facebook.com. Every group imaginable can be found here, from the "I Wear Sweatpants Everywhere" group to the "Engineering Students Who Think They're Better Than Everyone Else" group (which incidentally has 267 members). In short, it's an enormous social network of young adults. But as the Disney song says, "It's a small, small world."

On my first night in the residence halls this year, I stopped to chat with folks in the room next door, where I found five guys and a girl who were talking like old friends -- which is unusual in a dorm full of freshmen who just arrived that same day. They had met over the summer on Facebook.com. It seems the guys had seen the girl's picture on Facebook and decided they really wanted to get to know her. She was from Virginia and upon arriving at Penn State, she already had established friendships because of this online network.

While there is some social value to this relatively new phenomenon, the term "online privacy" is an oxymoron. With this generation, there is no such thing. Their information is available to millions of people online, and this can also cause problems. Some of the things that students choose to post to Facebook.com could put their safety at risk. In addition, some students have found that potential employers often take a look at Facebook.com as an unofficial reference check. Not many employers are impressed when they see what they once thought was a responsible job candidate dancing on a keg of beer, in his underwear, in a photo posted on the Web, with a caption referencing drug and sexual preferences. Can you say, "Too much information?"

The second trend I noted was poker -- a lot of poker. Texas Hold'em to be exact. You can learn it in a few hours. I want you to know that many of today's students have had way more than a few hours of practice. Some of them even received fancy poker sets, with Las Vegas-style chips and silver carrying cases, as high school graduation gifts from their families. One of my suite-mates was on the Internet within moments after arrival, gambling online. This is a troubling trend, and it's starting in high school.

Just as an aside, you'll be relieved to learn that I left with my ring, car keys, watch and other possessions intact after staying up for most of two nights playing poker with the students.

The third trend that I observed in my stay in the dorm was a change in the level of emotional crisis displayed as parents were leaving their children. This year I didn't see the sobbing that I saw in other recent years.

This year most of the emotion was over such matters as who forgot to pack the computer cable or bring the hangers.

Can you guess the reason?

Cell phones. These first-year students knew they would be speaking to their parents just a few hours later, and regularly thereafter, so the drop-off was not as traumatic as it used to be when students had to choose between long-distance phone charges and pizza. Today's students are very much in touch with their parents, so the transitional ritual is less traumatic than before.

Today, some four out of five college students carry cell phones, and not just for talk. College students send and receive text messages at twice the national average.

I decided to do an informal survey after two days in the residence halls. I asked a sample of students how many times they had spoken to their parents in the last 48 hours.

It is interesting to note how many were embarrassed to admit the frequency, usually saying that their parents had called them. ("Yeah, sure," is what I was thinking!)

If you were like me in college, calling home was for emergencies. In fact, many of us went to college with the express thought of escaping our parents. So you might be asking yourselves, "Is all this connectivity good or bad?" That depends. One magazine calls the cell phone "the eternal umbilicus."

The downside is that a lot of today's students are not as independent as they need to be at the time they graduate from college. Failing to develop skills such as time management, conflict resolution, and decision making is a concern. Students call parents -- even from other times zones -- to ask for driving directions from Mapquest, to have them Google an answer to a question, to check on plane schedules, and to ask if they should take Tylenol or Advil.

On the other hand, the upside of connectivity is that today's students are closer to their families. Remember when the mantra of a previous generation was "don't trust anyone over 30?" Today's college students consult their parents on everything from what classes to take to roommate disputes to what detergent to buy. (My daughter avoided the detergent question by bringing her dirty laundry home.) Students today value the strong bond they have with their parents and are often happy to have them involved in their lives.

But don't get your hopes up. All this connectivity does not mean that today's youth tell their parents everything. About a year ago, the daughter of one of my friends told me she had gotten a tattoo of a Japanese symbol put on her hip. "Please don't tell my parents," she begged.

"What does the symbol stand for?" I asked.

"Honesty," she said.

We in higher education are adjusting to this current crop of students. Many in this audience may recall an era when campuses were doing away with many of the rules and regulations that had previously governed students. Curfews, dress codes and restrictions on visiting hours faded. As students were drafted in the military and 18-year-olds gained the right to vote, students began arguing for personal freedoms they believed were deserved. Colleges and universities responded by abolishing policies considered to be in loco parentis -- a Latin term that means "in place of a parent."

Now, the tables have turned. Many parents of college students today want closer supervision of their children. They want to know what we are doing to serve, protect and pay attention to them. Interestingly, students are seeking more student support services as well.

Today's reality is that many students arrive at college with a host of physical and mental health needs. Many of our students are already taking medication prescribed by psychiatrists and family physicians at home. Many students have already been in therapy and seek counseling services upon arrival. In a national survey, 85 percent of health center directors reported an increase in "severe" psychological problems over the last five years and 60 percent report that a record number of students are using campus counseling services for longer periods. Our campus counseling centers are changing to meet these growing needs.

Let me highlight this trend with some interesting data. We fill 55,000 prescriptions annually for students at Penn State's pharmacy on our University Park campus. At the top of the list are oral contraceptives. Also very popular now is "Nuvaring," a hormonal contraceptive that has caught on. Many of the top prescriptions are for antibiotics for the usual things such as upper respiratory tract, ear and strep infections. But many are for the treatment of sexually transmitted diseases and vaginal and yeast infections. Parents, please don't kill the messenger here. As I'll demonstrate in a moment, but by the time we see them, it's a done deal.

Included on the list are psychotropic drugs such as generic Prozac, an antidepressant. And after everything I've said, are you surprised to hear that medications for depression and anxiety are the top prescriptions for faculty and staff? True.

A study released in June by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America reports that "Generation Rx has arrived," with an alarming number of today's teens abusing prescription drugs and over-the-counter medications.

A variety of factors are responsible for this rise in counseling and prescription needs including cultural pressures, family dysfunction, problems stemming from intimate relationships, and excessive alcohol use. A significant portion of new freshmen are already sexually active.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that almost half (47 percent) of all U.S. high school students report having had sexual intercourse; for high school seniors, the figure is 62 percent.

As for familiarity with drugs and alcohol, many incoming college students, I regret to report, are experienced in these areas as well. The number one drug of choice for teens is alcohol. Nearly 20 percent of 8th graders and almost 50 percent of 12th graders reported drinking alcohol within the past 30 days, and significant numbers drink to excess. By the time they reach the eighth grade, nearly 50 percent of adolescents have had at least one drink, and more than 20 percent report having been "drunk." So a large number of students go to college as experienced drinkers and many continue this behavior.

High-risk drinking among college students is a serious concern on our nation's campuses. In fact, in a national study 44 percent of all college students reported engaging in high-risk drinking within a given two-week period, and this figure has remained about the same for a decade.

High-risk drinking is a major public health challenge. Sometimes called "binge drinking," this abuse of alcohol is defined as having five or more drinks in a row for men, and four or more in a row for women. Frequent binge drinkers are eight times more likely than non-binge drinkers to miss a class, fall behind in schoolwork, be injured, be the victim of a crime, or damage property. More than 60 percent of college men and almost 50 percent of college women who are frequent high-risk drinkers report that they drink and drive.

A snapshot of the yearly toll of high-risk college student drinking reveals that 1,700 college students die each year from alcohol-related injuries and nearly 600,000 are unintentionally injured while under the influence of alcohol. In addition, 400,000 students are estimated to have had unprotected sex and more than 100,000 have been too intoxicated to know if they consented to having sex.

All of these changes have made the role of student affairs on campus more important than ever before. There has always been a debate over whether a traditional college student is an adult or a child. I have always seen this period as a transition from adolescence to adulthood. University faculty and staff members can play a role in helping to guide students through this transitional period and in providing an environment that not only supports them, but also fosters independence. We must trust students and encourage them to assume responsibility and manage their own lives.

Most of today's college students have never had to share a room, and may have never even shared a bathroom. For many, college is the first time in their lives where they will have a roommate, and it will usually be someone they have never met before.

University housing officials don't have many single rooms in their inventories, but today's dorm rooms do usually come complete with a small refrigerator, microwave, high-speed Internet hook-up and sometimes even air conditioning.

I recall arriving at college with a basic green desk lamp in one hand and a suitcase in the other. Today, students need a van, sometimes even a U-Haul, to transport all of their gear -- computers, stereo equipment, futons, rugs, a semester's supply of energy drinks and more. Some college dorm rooms look like Circuit City. And others look like the blue jeans department at the Gap. I've learned that some women really, really need 15 pairs of jeans.

All of this occurs in the context of more than 63 percent of undergraduates nationwide receiving some form of financial aid. But the gadgets and possessions they bring with them to campus are not seen as luxuries -- they are deemed necessities by today's college student. They have never known a world without VCRs, computers or the Internet, and they don't plan to start now.

Even our dining halls have gone upscale. No more mystery meat or Jell-o. Think salad bar, fresh pastries, pasta bars, stir-fry, made-to-order meals, even sushi. Students don't necessarily eat three meals a day, and they are eating more vegetarian and organic dishes, drinking bottled water, and reading product labels.

Sometimes when parents and alumni hear what colleges and universities are doing to answer the needs of today's students, it may sound like administrators have lost their minds. I assure you that we are still committed to providing a quality education and nurturing our students' personal development, but we also try to remain relevant and address their changing needs. Students are demanding more for their money and they see themselves as consumers purchasing a service.

They are, I am pleased to say, largely responsible and ambitious. Seventy-five percent of college students hold jobs as compared to 68 percent of the Baby Boomer generation.

This is a generation where George Foreman has always been a barbecue grill salesman, Cherry Coke has always come in cans, and rap refers to music.

This year's freshmen are comfortable with diversity and technology. Physical appearance is very important to them, which comes as no surprise to anyone who catches a glimpse of MTV or today's teen magazines.

For today's students, photographs have always been processed in an hour or less, or not at all with digital cameras. There have never been any Playboy Clubs, they have done most of their college search online, Godiva refers to chocolate, and Madonna is an aging singer.

Obviously, they have no point of reference for the energy crisis of the 1970s, or Watergate, or Reaganomics. So faculty members -- who are aging themselves -- must be careful to provide more detailed explanations of history and incorporate new technologies into the classroom. At Penn State, we are moving some undergraduate courses online to promote more active student learning. The changes we are experiencing are expected by our students, and we need to answer their expectations.

The benchmarks of this generation are vastly different than our own. As teens we never worried about AIDS or computer viruses. Today Paris Hilton is not a hotel but the star of a sex video, and "hot" refers to how she looks. Bling is not the sound an elevator makes when stopping, but rather the jewelry you flash.

Despite the sometimes negative perceptions about today's college students, I am pleased to say they are socially conscious, optimistic, forward-thinking and anything but homogenous.

Many have experienced a childhood with scheduled play dates, an abundance of activities, after-school care, seat belts, bike helmets and a level of over-protectiveness not seen since the movie "Jaws" made parents across the country abandon the beaches.

Yet one thing remains the same for college students -- parents and those who work in higher education still want them to succeed in becoming educated, independent adults. I, for one, am optimistic about the future of today's college students.