Is it true that "critical university studies has succeeded literary theory as a nexus of intellectual energy"? as Jeffrey J. Williams Jeffrey J. Williams asserts in today's Chronicle of Higher Education?
It's a timely idea. Even 20+ years ago, when I first began teaching as an adjunct at UConn-Stamford, meaning, of course, English Comp and introductory lit courses, I saw a change in the students and in the whole university experience in general. My university days consisted of 15 credits per semester, to ensure graduation in four years, and 15 hours of work per week. Today, students work 40 hours per week, yet squeeze in at least 12 credits per semester--and I've even seen students attempt up to 21 credits, which, as an advisor, I refused to sign off. How do they do it? They don't. But that's a blog for another day.
You might say I was lucky: despite the fact that I was the first in my family to go to college, and came from a blue collar background, I received a modest scholarship upon high school graduation, always found 15 hours of on-campus employment, and once actually got some financial aid consideration from the state of New Jersey, when I was granted relief from a proposed tuition increase--over the $400 per year in-state full tuition cost at Rutgers University. Yes, you read that correctly.
Up to this point, I'd received no federal, state, or university financial aid at all, despite the fact that my father, as a police officer, earned only $14,000 per year to support a family of four. Most importantly, I graduated debt-free.
Just about everything has changed for today's students. The idea of reading a book under a leafy tree on the campus green is about as quaint as the image of Wordworth wandering through the Lake District, composing his poems aloud, then returning to Dove Cottage to have Dorothy transcribe them.
It's a timely idea. Even 20+ years ago, when I first began teaching as an adjunct at UConn-Stamford, meaning, of course, English Comp and introductory lit courses, I saw a change in the students and in the whole university experience in general. My university days consisted of 15 credits per semester, to ensure graduation in four years, and 15 hours of work per week. Today, students work 40 hours per week, yet squeeze in at least 12 credits per semester--and I've even seen students attempt up to 21 credits, which, as an advisor, I refused to sign off. How do they do it? They don't. But that's a blog for another day.
You might say I was lucky: despite the fact that I was the first in my family to go to college, and came from a blue collar background, I received a modest scholarship upon high school graduation, always found 15 hours of on-campus employment, and once actually got some financial aid consideration from the state of New Jersey, when I was granted relief from a proposed tuition increase--over the $400 per year in-state full tuition cost at Rutgers University. Yes, you read that correctly.
Up to this point, I'd received no federal, state, or university financial aid at all, despite the fact that my father, as a police officer, earned only $14,000 per year to support a family of four. Most importantly, I graduated debt-free.
Just about everything has changed for today's students. The idea of reading a book under a leafy tree on the campus green is about as quaint as the image of Wordworth wandering through the Lake District, composing his poems aloud, then returning to Dove Cottage to have Dorothy transcribe them.
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