Customer Reviews

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

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
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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.

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.

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.

While the eight chapters tie together in a coherent, readable format of analyzed survey data, the final chapter disappoints with a lack of conviction and a too-briefly summarized solution.

"The history of all societies is a continuing effort to find the perfect balance between the community and the individual. Societies move first in one direction, then the other, in the search for that balance. They overcompensate in both directions, and correct the balance by moving in the opposite direction" (p147).

In an apparent effort to find the perfect balance of problem and solution in their book, the authors chose the concluding chapter to attempt advice on a new and "unique brand of education" (p.157) to overcome the challenges of today's college student. Here they begin to move first in one direction, then the other, in search for that balance. They overcompensate in both directions, raising more problems, and then attempt to correct the balance by moving in the opposite direction towards more solutions. The solutions include curriculum suggestions, addressing heritage, the environment, roles, values, and the life needs of the student.

"At the bottom, what is being proposed is a contemporary vision of liberal education." When it comes to finding that key balance between the community and the individual, educators need to meet the intellectual needs and provide useful and practical education at the same time. Levine and Cureton should consider a sequel, "When Classroom and Life Coincide: A Portrait of Tomorrow's College Student" to expand on their proposals of attaining the four attributes (hope, responsibility, appreciation of differences, and efficacy) and five curricular elements (communication, heritage, environment, individual roles, and values) through curricular and co-curricular strategies.

Levine and Cureton present an interesting portrait of college students in the mid-1990s. Their findings concerning students' perceptions of racial issues are particularly troubling and worthy of additional study and thought. (For reasons that are not clear to me, the chapter entitled "Multiculturalism" deals almost exclusively with racial issues, and does not consider gender (dealt with elsewhere in a very limited way), sexual orientation, religion, or any of the other diverse cultural issues that true multiculturalism attempts to address.) They present a lot of information, but give one very little idea what to do with it, except in the most of general of terms. (Like another reviewer, I would have liked to have seen the last chapter expanded significantly.) And I was concerned throughout that the information (gathered largely between 1993 and 1998) may now be out of date. Even so, the authors make the important point that educators must look beyond their own perceptions and experience and attempt to see the world as their students do, if they hope to provide an education fitted to the demands of the 21st century.