Astin, et al. 2002

This article outlined changes in undergraduate student experiences and development in a quantitative study of assessment records between the 1980s and the 1990s. The researchers did not just compare the 80s numbers to the 90s numbers because they believe that the differences in student demographics should be weighted for differently. This assumption complicates the data and closer analysis of the reasoning behind this could create greater understanding. The assessments draw on a large sample of institutions, thus the results can be statistically significant to the types of institutions assessed. Community colleges are not included in this assessment. This is a good preliminary study of student engagement and development, but is a bit out of date. For example, the study looks at increased television watching, but it would be more significant to today if it looked also at computer time. Still, the results are interesting. The article looked at mean numbers, which are usually most accurate, but it would be interesting to see if the mode findings would yield different results.

The biggest changes in undergraduate experience focus on a more student-centered environment. Since student learning rather than teaching is at the forefront, we can expect increased teacher-student interaction as well as increase in interpersonal skills. There is also an increase in volunteer work and community service. The authors posit that this service oriented learning has a direct correlation to increased public-speaking skills because the numbers parallel eachother. Although this is plausible, just because the numbers move at the same pace doesn't necessarily mean there is a cause and effect. For instance, just because there are fire trucks at bigger fires does not mean that an increased amount of fire trucks increase the size of the fire. (I am using a commonly used example that I heard in some of my sociology classes).

The study also sees a decrease in commitment to the environment, decreased interest in social activism and decreased commitment to promoting racial understanding. The authors try to explain this by saying that institutions, in their zeal to attract more customers (students), downplay activism in order to appeal to a larger market base. They are careful, though not to make a definite argument, but recommend further study. They do not talk much in the discussion about reasons why there is a decrease in racial awareness and feminist views. I wonder also if these changes are not attributed to the university, but due to changes in the social environment of the times. Perhaps in the general US population, the environment and activism in general declined from the 80s to the 90s.