August 1, 2005

National On-Campus Report August 1, 2005 full issue PDF
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How to Learn What Students Really Think: Four Presidents’ Strategies
In the new book My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student, an anthropology professor in her 50s describes her experience living undercover as a nontraditional first-year student in one of her institution’s residence halls. She undertook the two-semester project to learn firsthand what students really think. But high-level administrators usually don’t have that kind of time. So how do they stay tapped in to what students are thinking? Four college presidents recently described to National On-Campus Report their strategies for getting candid comments about their institutions.

Students Still Bear Most of the Blame for Attrition
Despite all higher education has learned in the last 25 years about helping students stay in college, institutions still tend to blame students, not institutional factors, for dropping out, says a new national study by ACT, Inc.

Campuses Both Help and Hinder Stalking Crimes
There is bad news and good news about stalking on college campuses, experts say. The services campuses provide, whether for a residential or commuter population, make committing the crime easier. But when staff members are trained appropriately, they can provide more help to student stalking victims than is often available to non-students.

Public Schools Step Back from Affirmative Action
In the last decade, many institutions, particularly public schools, have “stepped back” from considering race in admissions, even though they have not been required to do so, say two University of California-Davis sociologists.