More Preconference

As Julie mentioned, Tuesday's Professional Development Committee preconference was "Who are our students? The Millennial Generation." This is a topic that's gotten a lot of coverage in the academic press and I'm glad WAAL decided to take a look at it too.

The keynote speaker was Nancy Truesdell, Dean of Students at Lawrence University. Nancy did a fabulous presentation about who our newest students are. Millennials are defined as kids born between 1982 and 2002 -- those traditional students who are on our campuses now.

More stuff from her talk:

Using statistics from the CIRP, NSSE and ACE surveys, and background info from the books, Millennials Rising, and Serving the Millennial Generation, Nancy gave us a descriptive (but not judgmental) assessment of the Millennial Generation. Some random stuff I wrote down:

55% of undergrads under age 25 are female

34% of undergrad under age 25 are students of color

About 87% of those students performed volunteer work in high school -- and 70% did weekly volunteer work

About 2/3 of those students reported that it's essential or very important to help others

There's an increase in polarization of political views -- more on either end of the spectrum and (relatively) fewer in the middle

More students are interested in spirituality, even if they don't describe themselves as traditionally religious

Millennials tend to "reach out and touch someone" constantly -- they're always in touch with friends and family through cell, IM, email, Facebook...

There's increased parental involvement: "helicopter parents" who hover over their students, helping (or sometimes interfering) with the student's academic career

Some Millennial characteristics:
They're "special" -- this is the "baby on board" generation that's been told since birth that they're special.

They're sheltered and protected -- it's been a dangerous world in the last 20 years and parents are being more careful. They've also been highly scheduled and "driven" (in more ways than one) for years.

They're academically confident and achievement oriented. They've done well in high school and assume that will continue.

They tend to be more conventional and emphasize cooperativeness. They want to get along and do what the authority figure asks.

They're team oriented, moving and working in groups.

They're pressured -- by schedule demands, their own and other (perceived) expectations.

These characteristics can lead to some conflicts: a disconnect between aspirations and efforts -- they want to achieve but are used to doing it easily. When it doesn't come easily, they get stressed and can seize up. They value volunteerism but are used to "getting credit" for it -- it's often been required for high school classes or graduation. They tend to have a respect for authority and want to "do the right thing" but their need to achieve can lead to "academic integrity issues" -- they may find it easier to "download their workload" than to do it.

Health issues also play in. Millennials tend to be highly diagnosed -- with obesity, asthma, allergies, and ADD/ADHD -- more than previous generations. A student with ADD who has had a highly structured and protected highschool career can have a hard time dealing with the relative freedom of college.

Some of the implications for teaching and learning:
The most successful students seek out the special attention and look for faculty and professional staff outside of the classroom.

Millennials want structure and work well within a highly structured environment.

They respond well to active learning techniques and feel great pressure to succeed.

Time management is a big issue for these students -- they've had their days scheduled for them throughout middle and high school and may feel at a loss when they get to college.

Millenial Preconference

We had an excellent preconference! Nancy Truesdell, Dean of Students at Lawrence University started us off with a presentation on the characteristics of the millenial generation (students born between 1981-2000 give or take a few years) and how they differ from previous generations. She also talked about ways that campuses can and have adjusted to meet the needs of these students.

Nancy's presentation was followed by a panel of three librarians and two millenial students. Renee Buker, Outreach & Bibliographic Instruction librarian at UW Oshkosh discussed the various ways they've changed library instruction and other library programming to better reach the millenial population. Emily Rogers, Head of Access Service at UW-Green Bay, talked some more about the traits of the millenials and about the ups and downs of managing these students. And Terri Muraski, Access Services & Reference at UW Stevens Point, discussed the various technologies we can use to reach the millenial students using our libraries and ways in which they can be incorporated into instruction sessions.

The librarians were followed by presentations from two millenial students, Kyle Neugebauer, Lakeland College and PaNa Lor, UW Stevens Point. I found Kyle's comments particulary interesting in light of the Time Magazine article last week about the multi-tasking generation. He sees a big difference between himself and students even a few years younger than he. The younger students are more likely to be doing homework, listening to an i-pod, and chatting with friends and watching some sort of video at the same time.

PaNa was also very informative about her generation. She, as a first generation college student, also is a-typical of her generation, but has many friends and family members who have the distinct characteristics of the millenial generation.

All the presentations will be on the WAAL Conference website. And PG will have more.....