SEVERAL months ago, members of the University administration made a veiled threat to students, suggesting that the future of Fall Break was in danger if students kept using the reading holiday as a time for vacation. Students were reminded that the name was changed from Fall Break to Reading Holiday for a reason.
Last week, the release of a study on how undergraduate students spend their time at the University probably resurrected the same type of concerns that we saw last fall. The study found that students spend 15-20 hours per week on academic pursuits outside the classroom, far below the recommended amount of time. These findings prompted the head of the Office of Institutional Assessment and Studies, Ned Moomaw, to say, "The data we collected suggests that students aren't being challenged enough."
This quote provoked the same concern I had last fall. Why does it matter how students spend their time?
Although the University represents an institution where the brightest students come to engage their minds, college life is a transition from the days of high school to the realities of the real world. Concepts such as rent and grocery shopping go from being something Mom and Dad took care of to something you have to deal with.
Part of this transition is learning how to budget time more effectively. In the days before I entered the University, someone mentioned that upon entering college, "You will have more free time than ever before, and you will have less free time than ever before." College is about learning how to deal with this reality.
Along with the idea that college life represents a transition to those who partake of it, there's also some ambiguity about what exactly students are supposed to be learning here.
Universities pride themselves on claims that they are training the future leaders of the country. They're absolutely correct. It's rare that leaders of the various institutions that make up America are not college educated.
Leadership, however, cannot be learned exclusively in a classroom. Leadership must be field tested repeatedly. The concept of students spending a total of 60 hours a week on scholastic pursuits does not recognize this.
I recall a quote from an official in charge of hiring planners - my major - in my hometown. She essentially said the students with 4.0 GPAs in college scare her. She said it made her wonder what the person had done in college. Either they went through an incredibly easy program, or they spent all their time holed up in a library studying.
Yet, if you believe some administrators in the University - many of whom have never had to venture outside the world of academia - studying is about the only thing we should be doing.
Anyone who fills every waking moment of his day with activity ultimately will burn out. Sure, you can try to study two hours for every hour you spend in class and try to hold down a substantial leadership position in an organization on Grounds. Just don't plan on having a social life.
I haven't met anyone at this school who enjoys doing schoolwork. Sure, there are classes that occasionally invigorate one of my friends. Normally, however, students at the University would rather not deal with the various homework assignments and papers.
Which brings me to my last problem with administrators admonishing students for not studying enough. By taking such a view, they seem to be blaming students for being slackers. Instead, they should be looking at why students look forward to studying about as much as they look forward to a root canal.
Many of the professors at this school are not good lecturers. Good lecturers can not only convey subject matter to their audiences, they do it in a way that commands the audience's attention and tells them why it is important.
If University officials are concerned about the amount of time students are studying, perhaps they should look at the quality of instruction students are receiving. In high school, teachers are rewarded for their ability to motivate and excite students. In a University setting, instructors are rewarded for their research.
In order to convince students that they should be spending more time studying, administrators need to sell the idea. They will never accomplish this through stern warnings on Web sites. They will accomplish it by engaging students and awakening the intellectual curiosity that exists in us all.
(Brian Haluska's column appears Mondays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at bhaluska@cavalierdaily.com.)
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