ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries NEW RELATIONSHIPS ■ The double life of the college campus Striking a balance between reality and expectations by William C. Welburn A h a n d fu l o f A m erican p laces enjoy p o w ­ erful d ouble lives, o n e daily a n d real, an­ o th er co n d u cted largely in the national ima n a tio n . M a n hattan, like California, is su c h a place; so are Alaska a nd the Mississippi Delta, th e fro n tie r West, a n d th e in n e r city. O ld e st and strongest of these com m on dream scapes is the cam pus.”1 So b e g in s th e w rite r A n n e M atth ew s in B right College Years, her journey through col­ lege life across the U nited States. N ow here is th e d o u b le life o f the A m erican college cam ­ p u s m o re e v id e n t th a n in the e x p erien c e s of students— undergraduate a nd graduate, liberal arts a n d professional, part-tim e a n d full-time, U.S. citizen a nd foreign born. And w hen think­ ing a b o u t n e w realities, n e w relationships for college and university libraries, now here is the double life o f the college m ore evident than in stu d e n ts’ involvem ent in learning. L earning, e d u c a tio n a l re s e a rc h e rs h a v e fo u n d , d o e s n o t sto p at th e cla ssro o m door. O ut-of-class e x p erien c e s— w h e th e r involve­ m ent in fraternities and sororities o r o ther stu­ dent organizations, athletics, em ploym ent, ex­ tracurricular activities, or d oing research w ith faculty— are fo u n d to have p ro fo u n d effects o n s tu d e n t lea rn in g a n d cog n itiv e d e v e lo p ­ m ent.2 “In m ost cases,” Vincent Tinto writes, “aca­ demic integration seem s to be the m ore impor­ tant form o f involvem ent” over social integra­ tion in getting students to persist through gradu­ g ation.3 T he challenge to academ ic libraries is to c o n sta n tly revisit th e q u e s tio n o f o u r re l­ ­ evance to students in an era w h e n students are d e e p ly affected b y o bstacles o n a n d o ff cam ­ p u s th at o ften defy their im agined collegiate experience. Different characteristics, environm ents, and cu ltu res o f h ig h er ed u ca tio n , n o t only in the U n ited States b u t a lso in o th e r p a rts o f th e w o rld , p ro v id e the first level for d iversity in h igher education. Yet the locus o f diversity is m ost often considered w ithin the cam pus. The g lo b aliza tio n of th e stu d e n t p o p u la tio n a n d questions o ver access to higher ed u ca tio n for students from low- and m oderate-incom e fami­ lies, have em erged as tw o o f the m ost pressing issues affecting th e very chara cte r o f the col­ lege cam pus, a n d b oth are essential to o u r dis­ cussions about ho w academic libraries are likely to affect college students. S t u d e n t s c r o s s in g b o rd e rs Learning, like knowledge, knows no geographic b o u n d a rie s. A ccording to th e Institute o f In­ ternational E ducation (HE), enrollm ent by U.S. students in study abroad has more than doubled over the past d e ca d e a n d a half. Although Eu­ rope continues to b e the “destination of choice” for U.S. s tu d e n ts , th e HE re p o rts th a t “th e m ost n otew orthy c hange since 1985/86 is that the share o f Americans studying in Europe has fallen by 18% w hile the p ro p o rtio n g o in g to Latin A m erica has m o re th a n d o u b le d , from i About the author William C. Welburn is assistant dean o f the graduate college a t the University o f Iowa, e-mail: william-welburn@uiowa.edu 718 / C8/RL News ■ November 2002 mailto:william-welburn@uiowa.edu C&RL News ■ November 2002 / 719 7% to 15%.”4 Likewise, the number of inter­ national students on American campuses has grown from 34,000 in 1954 to more than 514,000 in 2000. International students now compose 3-8 percent of students enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities and are 12 per­ cent of the students enrolled in graduate schools.5 Some disciplines are heavily subscribed by students from other countries. For instance, the “Survey of Earned Doctorates” reported that while 70 percent of all doctorates awarded in the United States in 1999 were awarded to U.S. citizens, some fields such as engineering and physics awarded substantial numbers of doctorates to students from abroad.6 Yet as we entered the 2002-03 academic year, concerns surfaced over the potential ef­ fects of September 11 on students crossing borders. Early reports tell us that students have continued with their plans to study away from their home countries. U.S. students are going abroad, although the number of American stu­ dents selecting the Middle East as their desti­ nation continues to decline. Foreign students have continued to apply for admission to Ameri­ can universities, especially to prestigious gradu­ ate programs. Colleges and universities are already expe­ riencing the much anticipated effects of more intensified scrutiny of foreign students, includ­ ing more student visa denials (particularly in science and mathematics disciplines) and in the reporting requirements of the new zero toler­ ance policies of the Immigration and Natural­ ization Service and their implementation of a new tracking system known as the Student Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). While the short-term effects of federal poli­ cies on the international exchange of students are uncertain, it is likely that in the long run the composition of our student populations and the demands that they make on our ser­ vices will be forever changed. This change is brought about by students’ rich cultural expe­ riences and the flow of knowledge and learn­ ing across borders. C o n se q u e n ce s o f so cio e co n o m ic c o n d itio n s The idea of the campus as a microcosm for globalization in the national consciousness is not the only image confronted by the realities of the broader society in the early years of the The ch allen ge to academ ic libraries is to co n stan tly re visit the question o f ou r relevance to students in an era w hen students are deep ly a ffected by obstacles on and o ff cam pus th at often d e fy the ir im agin ed co llegiate experience. 21st century. Higher educators are also deeply worried that the gains made by low- to moder- ate-income, first-generation college students will be lost by rapid tuition increases, losses in state support, and an inability of the federal financial aid system to keep pace with the cost of educating students who lack the resources to attend college. According to one recent study o f student financial aid, “This year, 406,000 college-quali- fied high school graduates from low- and mod- erate-income families will be prevented from enrolling in a four-year college, and 168,000 of them will be unable to enroll in any college at all,”7 due to the high financial barriers of attending college. Closing the educational gap, another study concluded, would “clearly pay for itself not only through the resulting long-term savings in income transfer and public social programs, but also through the resulting increased tax rev­ enues and increased disposable income for in­ dividuals involved.”8 Given differences in costs for college in re­ lation to the needs students have to fit higher education into their circumstances—be they the need to commute from home; to take care of parents, siblings, or children; or to have access to academic or social support services— our greatest challenge to the diversity we seek among our students is one of opportunity, to continue to close the education gap. Making college affordable for low- and moderate-in- come students may also be our greatest chal­ lenge in higher education in the United States in the present decade. In stitu tio n a l re sp o n se s o f a ca d e m ic lib ra r ie s Where does all of this leave libraries? We know that certain themes transcend colleges and uni­ versities, including the attention given to the 720 / C&RL News ■ N ovem ber 2002 M odels o f c o lla b o ra tio n w ith fa c u lt y p u rsu e d b y m a n y lib ra ria n s can se rv e to b r in g a rich d im e n sio n to c la ssro o m te a c h in g an d le a rn in g b y o p e n in g n e w v is ta s fo r in d e p e n d e n t p u r s u it o f ideas. lives of students outside of class and our un­ derstanding of the relationship between stu­ dent persistence and academic and social inte­ gration. Yet we must understand that no single response by the library to work with students can fit all institutions of higher learning. Dif­ ferent strategies must correspond to the char­ acteristics, environments, and cultures that dis­ tinguish colleges and universities from one an­ other. We have also learned over the past year how vulnerable our students are to the outside world. Anne Matthews noted that the college was invented “as a safe place to sleep.”9 Stu­ dents are no longer cloistered from the issues and the ills of the outside world. Perhaps our strongest response is to promote civility. Civil­ ity enables us to think about a healthy marriage between intellectual freedom and cultural di­ versity, not only in how we work with one another but also how we work with our con­ stituents. Models of collaboration with faculty pur­ sued by many librarians can serve to bring a rich dimension to classroom teaching and learn­ ing by opening new vistas for the independent pursuit of ideas. Learning to trust through cross-cultural communication between diverse student populations and a diverse library workforce— from student assistants to admin­ istrators— can also signal a library’s commit­ ment to the promotion of campus civility. In her presentation at the ACRL 10th Na­ tional Conference, Eileen de los Reyes re­ marked, “I name libraries as pockets of hope since I have learned in my years as a student, as a librarian and as a faculty member that those who were immensely powerful in my life did not have as much power in the university as I had imagined.”10 Libraries, in de los Reyes’ view are places “where students can learn to live in their world and dream about a healthy and humane future.” This vision for academic libraries in their role with today’s college stu­ dents brings the double lives of colleges and universities— one imagined and one real—to­ gether. N otes 1. Anne Matthews, B right C ollege Years: In ­ sid e th e A m erican C am pus T oday (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997), 17. 2. Patrick T. Terenzini, Ernest T. Pascarella, and Gregory S. Blimling, “Students’ Out-of- Class Experiences and the Influence on Learn­ ing and Cognitive Development: A Literature Review ,” Jo u rn a l o f College Student D evelopm ent 37 (March/April 1996): 149-62. 3. Vincent Tinto, “Colleges as Communi­ ties: Taking Research on Student Persistence Seriously.” Review o f H igherE du cation 21 (Win­ ter 1998): 169 4. O pen D oors 2 0 0 0 (New York: Institute o f International Education, 2001): 17. 5. Ibid., 17. 6. In 1999, 51.2 percent o f doctorates in engineering and 42 percent of doctorates in physics were awarded to international students. “Doctoral Recipients from United States Uni­ versities: Summary Report” (Chicago: National Opinion Research Center), 16. 7. Empty Prom ises: the Myth o f C ollege A ccess in Am eric a (Washington, DC: The Advisory Com­ mittee on Student Financial Assistance, June 2002), 27. 8. George Vernez, Richard A. Krop, C. Pe­ ter Rydell, Closing th e E du cation G ap: B en efits a n d Costs (Santa Monica, CA: Rand, 1999), xiii. 9. Matthews, B right C ollege Years, 117. 10. Eileen de los Reyes, “Becoming Pock­ ets of Hope: The Challenge to Academic Li­ braries in the 21st Century.” P ro ceed in g s o f t he ACRL 10th N a tio n a l C o n feren ce, (Chicago: ACRL, March 2001), 26. ■ Correction In the October 2002 “Fast Facts” column, it was stated that a survey by the Pew Internet P roject found that “85% o f American Internet users have n everu sed an online search engine to find information on the Web . . . ” The quote should have read, “85% of American Internet users have e v e r used an online search engine to find information on the Web” (emphasis added). The editors regret the error. C&RL News ■ November 2002 / 721