At a recent meeting of the College of Arts and Sciences faculty, Dr. Timothy Snyder, dean of arts and sciences, announced some alarming statistics from a survey given to graduating seniors by the Higher Educational Research Institute.
The survey gives administrators a sense of the lives and thoughts of the graduating seniors and compares them to a group of over 100 hundred other schools, many of which are Catholic.
“The majority of schools in the survey do not exhibit the level of quality of our admissions profile; in short, our students have, by all indications, more learning potential,” said Snyder.
But regardless of this potential, Fairfield students did not rate very well in this survey.
The survey found that 35 percent of students studied less than six hours per week. Only five percent said they studied over 20 hours per week, compared to the average of eleven percent at other surveyed schools.
“I definitely study around 20 hours per week and so do many of my friends,” said Dora Denardo, ’04. “If we study that much, it’s scary to think how many people are studying so much less to get that 35 percent.”
The number of Fairfield students that reported partying more than six hours per week is 68 percent, compared to an average of 28 percent at other schools. That means that many students are partying more than they’re studying.
“What ever happened to party hard, study hard?” said Kim Liaw, ’04. “I guess at Fairfield its party hard — study when you want to.”
On average 26 percent of students at other schools reported frequently feeling bored in class. Forty-one percent of Fairfield students reported that.
“My interpretation of this is, instead, a cause for celebration: our students can handle more than we traditionally give them,” said Snyder.
At the conclusion of the meeting Snyder challenged the faculty to take students deeper, to turn up the level of rigor at Fairfield.
“This should not be an ‘add another five papers’ exercise,” he said.
“It will require a frank assessment of what each of us do-not a simple dismissal of ‘those other courses,’ but a hard look at each one that each of us teaches.”
Dr. Katherine Kidd, director of international studies, agreed. “As faculty we have to adjust to this more selective environment where we can encourage students more effectively and express a higher level of scholarly interaction and dialogue.”
“I think it’s an overreaction to presume that all students are lazy or party hounds,” said Dr. Kathryn Nantz, professor of economics. “But it would be a great outcome to increase the level of engagement of our students.”
Many students are outraged by these statistics.
“Maybe because I have a real major, physics not communications,” said Julia Lundy, ’04. “I could not pass my classes if I fit the profile that these statistics are showing to be common.”
Chris DiBiase, ’05, agreed. “I would like to think my class is somewhat more studious than those graduating seniors who took the survey,” he said.
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