Survey confirms ‘me-ism’ attitude
by UAbKItL dUcHUER
Of the Emerald
Today’s college generation is
uneducated, self-centered and
headed for vocational disaster,
according to a recent study
released by the Carnegie
Foundation for the
advancement of teaching.
Dr. Arthur Levine, the study’s
author, coined the term "me
ism" to describe the social
blight afflicting students.
University faculty and student
leaders contacted Wednesday
confirmed his suspicions.
University journalism Prof.
James Lemert, a public opinion
expert, agreed with Levine's
general diagnosis and remedy
for this college generation.
"This is a vocational, get-my
slice-of-the-pie generation,”
Lemert says.
The Carnegie Foundation is a
highly respected research insti
tution, Lemert says, and we
should pay attention to the
study’s results.
Lemert has observed that
University students are overly
concerned with the vocational
aspect of education and have a
“hyper-anxiety" about finding
post-graduation employment.
Students have a lack of inter
est and an inability to “look
beyond those blinders” to the
academic aspect of their
education, Lemert says.
“Students have to acquire
some skills in dealing with
abstraction,” Lemert says.
Lemert says academic train
ing outlasts the rapidly
changing vocational skills
students are concerned about.
Students without the
"abstract skills” provided by a
liberal arts education find it very
hard to adapt to situations not
structured to their vocational
training, Lemert explains.
"Abstractions are the kinds of
things you can put in your
pocket and carry with you,”
Lemert says. ‘ Abstractions will
not become irrelevant.”
ESCAPE student director Jim
Doty has a different perspective.
He believes today’s college
students have been mislabeled
the "me generation.”
“I don’t think it fits from what I
see students doing,” Doty says.
But he does agree students
are concerned about post
graduation employment.
"It’s the get-a-haircut, get-a
job mentality,” Doty quips.
University students aren't do
ing their own thinking in the
classroom, Doty explains.
Students can regurgitate what
professors tell them into a
bluebook, but they can’t do any
thinking on their own, he says.
However, the ESCAPE
program forces students to do
just that, he says.
ESCAPE participants must
set their own goals and objec
tives and evaluate their learn
ing, Doty explains.
“You’d be surprised how
many fourth-year students
come up here and can’t do
that,” Doty says.
Today’s students are “spoon
fed” motivation though grades
and the promise of employment
with a college degree, Doty
adds.
To bolster ridership
LTD drops cost of bus tokens
Lane Transit District bus rides will be 10 cents
cheaper this summer under a discount program
approved Tuesday by the LTO Board.
The cost of tokens — bus passes purchased
in advance and good for oneVide — will be 50
cents from June through August, a 10-cent
savings from the regular per-ride price. The
tokens now cost 55 cents.
The board approved the rate reduction to
help offset a drop in ridership since the district
raised its rates last June. Board members hope
the discount will entice more people to become
regular bus riders.
Tokens may be purchased at 7-11 stores, the
EMU and other locations around town.
The board also approved the comprehensive
bus route redesign that staff members have been
working on for the past 10 months.
The new route system, which will be
implemented in September, changes many of the
current loop routes to line routes that provide
more direct service to the downtown bus station.
The new routes will be easier to adjust to
meet changing ridership demand, LTD officials
say, and will provide direct service to the Univer
sity from southeast and southwest Eugene
Riders to the University from those areas currently
have to transfer buses downtown.
LTD officials say the new routes will provide
the same bus coverage — as measured by the
number of households located within a quarter
mile of a bus route — and will reduce travel time
for rush-hour commuters.
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People are so busy getting a
degree they don't have time to
get an education,” Doty says.
"There is little intrinsic motiva
tion in students.”
Another perspective on
Levine s results is offered by
University economics Prof. Ed
Whitelaw.
Whitelaw says the truth is
many students who turned away
from the group-orientation of
the 1960s to return to the
establishment short-changed
themselves in excluding the
liberal arts from their education.
Whitelaw says those who
went to school for marketable
skills excluded the enriching
part of their education that
would be more valuable to them
10 years down the road.
That’s one vote in favor of
Levine's conclusions, one
against, and one non-partisan
explanation.
ASUO President Dave Eaton
casts his vote in favor of Levine
Eaton says the description of
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today s University students as
the "me-generation” is
accurate.
But it’s not Levine's descrip
tion that angers him.
“The fact that’s the way
students are makes me angry.”
As a case in point, Eaton says
it was difficult to convince
University students to lobby for
higher education at the Legisla
ture.
“Ten years ago it wouldn't
have taken anything to get them
out in the streets."
Faced with economic pres
sures, Eaton says students
“have to spend more time on
surviving."
Eaton agrees with the study's
conclusion that student
government is the most power
ful group on campus — because
that is the group that controls
student money. But he says the
real power of the ASUO lies in its
lobbying efforts for higher
education funding at the
Legislature.
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