When Hope and Fear Collide: A Portrait of Today's College Student [Hardcover]

Arthur Levine (Author), Jeanette S. Cureton (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0787938777 | ISBN-13: 978-0787938772 | Publication Date: February 27, 1998 | Edition: 1

The clock becomes your enemy when reading this book. The revelations propel you along causing you to read faster and faster to the next line, paragraph, page, and chapter. Must reading for anyone concerned about higher education and the future. This will be the most often quoted research and literature on student demographics for all higher education during the next decade!


--GwAndolyn Jordan Dungy, executive director, NASPA

In his 1980 book When Dreams and Heroes Died, Arthur Levine presented a portrait of a generation of college students without heroes?a generation that turned inward, away from activism and community and toward individual and material gain.

But when Levine returned to campuses in the 1990s, he discovered a startling and encouraging shift in the attitudes of the new generation of students. When Hope and Fear Collide examines a generation motivated by a conflicting sense of hope and fear. While today's students fear a great many things both on a global and local level they are less pessimistic than the previous generation, as they look for ways to make a difference in their world. Campus faculty, administrators, and student services professionals are in a pivotal position?able to nurture students' hopes and help them confront and overcome their fears. Levine and Cureton give them the information they need to make a difference.

Contents:

Generation Without a Name

Flaws, Problems, and Decline: The New Localism

Campus Politics: Let the Buyer Beware!

Multiculturalism: The Campus Divided

Personal Life: Retreat from Intimacy

Academics: Search for an Insurance Policy

The Future: Doing Well of Doing Good

Conclusion: A Transitional Generation

Arthur Levine is president and professor of education at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Jeanette S. Cureton served as assistant to the president at Curry College in Milton, Massachusetts, and as a research assistant to Arthur Levine at the Harvard Graduate School of Educa

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is a must-read for everyone who wants to match current student needs with an appropriate college experience....Levine and Cureton present a comprehensive snapshot of students in the 90s. The data are interesting and the analysis is powerful." --Choice

"Continuing education professionals would do well to pay attention to the book's depiction of what is happening in colleges and universities today, not only because some of authors' research includes nontraditional undergraduate students, but also because the experiences of today's undergraduates will color expectations throughout their lives, including their continuing education." --Continuing Higher Education Review

"This 1998 book 'seeks to paint a portrait of the current generation of college students.' Succinct, well-researched, well-documented, and well-written, Levine and Cureton's book accomplishes that stated goal admirably.... This book, through juxtaposition of responses from a previous generation with those of today, substantially contributes to the student affairs profession by providing a translation of students' life experiences into values, attitudes, and behaviors. Student affairs professionals who read this book will understand students better, leading to services, programming, and relationships enriched by that understanding--enabling professionals to stand ready at the intersection when hope and fear collide." --Journal of College Student Development

"A lucid, subtle, knowing look at America's young people at the And of the 20th century: their aspirations, hopes, worries?a book that will help shape the way teachers across the nation do their work." --Robert Coles, professor of psychology and medical humanities, Harvard University

"The clock becomes your enemy when reading this book. The revelations propel you along causing you to read faster and faster to the next line, paragraph, page, and chapter. Must reading for anyone concerned about higher education and the future. This will be the most often quoted research and literature on student demographics for all higher education during the next decade!" --GwAndolyn Jordan Dungy, executive director, NASPA

"This is a MUST READ book for all college and university adminstrators, faculty members and student affairs professionals. Anchored in wide ranging research, it captures the complexities of today's undergraduates, putting them in historical perspective, like no other available work?all accessible through Art Levine's lively, penetrating style." --Dr. Arthur Chickering, visiting distinguished professor, Vermont College, Norwich Univeristy

"The manner in which our institutions of higher education care for students during this period of dramatic social change will dictate not only the extent of their academic success, but ultimately the competitiveness and strength of this country as well. Such care requires elegant understanding, and there is no better place to learn how that understanding can be provided than to read Levine's and Cureton's powerful new book When Hope and Fear Collide." --Barry Munitz, chancellor, the California State University System

"In the future, each time someone pontificates about the state of college students today, you will appreciate again this book's sound research and illuminating conclusions. You will also have uncovered a provocative lens through which to understand anew our recent cultural history. Levine and Cureton have done us a valuable service" --Dr. Donald M. Stewart, president, the College Board, New York, New York

"Student affairs administrators should encourage major campus decision-makers (presidents, trustees, academic affairs administrators, and other academic administrators) to read this book. This is a book that calls for fundamental change." --Georgia Journal of College Student Affairs

From the Inside Flap

In his 1980 book When Dreams and Heroes Died, Arthur Levine presented a portrait of a generation of college students without heroes--a generation optimistic about their own futures, but pessimistic about the future of the country and the world. These students turned inward, away from activism and community and toward individual and material gain, a trAnd that continued throughout the 80s and showed little sign of changing.But when Levine returned to campuses in the 1990s, he discovered a startling and encouraging shift in the attitudes of the new generation of students. When Hope and Fear Collide examines a generation motivated by a conflicting sense of hope and fear. While today's students fear a great many things both on a global level and on a local level, they are less pessimistic than the previous generation, as they look for ways to make a difference in their world.Levine and Jeanette Cureton explore what shaped this change and how those who deal with students on a daily basis can use the change to enrich the college experience. This book examines how students come to grips with the challenges of politics, academics, and personal relationships on campus and draws implications for their futures.Levine and Cureton base their findings on research carried out in the same manner as in Levine's landmark study. The data they present give those who deal with students on a daily basis the information and tools they need to help those students chart a meaningful course through college.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (February 27, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787938777
• ISBN-13: 978-0787938772
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #829,903 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An insight to this generation's struggles., June 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: When Hope and Fear Collide: A Portrait of Today's College Student (Hardcover)

When Hope & Fear Collide is a book every person in student affairs should read. This book explores the reasoning behind today's struggling college student. It explains why students perceive college as necessary not merely for learning, but for obtaining a better job and a better life. Learning is no longer a luxury, but a necessity. This book also gives a history of the events these students were exposed to during their lives and the role these events play in shaping their attitudes towards college and life. Students today view universities as businesses. They expect royal customer service and won't settle for anything less. They will take their money elsewhere. Students spend more time working jobs or with relationships than they do on college studies. When asked how they feel, students usually respond with the word "tired". When asked what they do for fun they respond, "study". Many students have become recluses with their jampacked rooms full of everything from VCR's to coffee machines. They don't need to go out for anything. Even classes are held on-line, so forget going to class. Students today are more likely to fear not being able to succeed than their peers a decade ago. They ask, "Will we have it better than our parents?" This fear is juxtaposed to their great hope to try and achieve. This generation is very service oriented and believe they can make a difference in their own backyard and thus,affect the world. Again, if you are in student affairs, administration or residential life, this book will be beneficial.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Must read for college and university types, January 2, 2002

By 

Kevin C. Kropf "I ADMIT" (Albion, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: When Hope and Fear Collide: A Portrait of Today's College Student (Hardcover)

I finished this book just after reading Making the Most of College by Dr. Richard Light. Both books offer interesting glimpses at today's college students (although most of the data in Hope and Fear is from 1995 and prior), but from different perspectives. Light focuses on personal narratives and Levine and Cureton more on compiled statistics. Both are well written and insightful.

This book also compares well with Millennials Rising by Strauss and Howe, which details more generational mores and trends than just college happenings.

The best chapter of this book is the last with the summary suggestions. So often authors point out faults, problems and weak areas, but Levine and Cureton put forth a very proactive, innovative and interdisciplinary plan for the necessary curriculum and pedagogical revolution.

I recommend reading the last chapter separately, otherwise it loses some of its appeal and clarity. I found myself re-reading the last chapter and even taking notes!

This book earned four stars instead of five because much more could have been written in regards to the summary suggestions. The early chapters are but supporting facts to what could/should have been a lengthier tome on college curricula and teaching styles.

Still this is a very worthwhile read and a helpful look inside college life, both in and out of the classroom.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A helpful snapshot of today's college students, May 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: When Hope and Fear Collide: A Portrait of Today's College Student (Hardcover)

This book is a quick and fascinating read. It provides insights into today's college students -- and how they are different from those of just 10 years ago. I recommend this book frequently and have found that those who read it enjoy it and find it very helpful. The authors occasionally tend to overstate their case on a few points, but this is an otherwise fine book.