Every year, JMU’s more than 80 First Year Advisors have a full day of professional development to prepare for the summer registration of more than 4600 freshmen. This year, I offered some updates about the General Education program followed by these remarks:
I’m often asked by advisors, “How can we talk about the value of JMU’s General Education program in a way that seems persuasive and authentic for this population, Generation Z, at this moment in time?” Yesterday’s IHE featured an op-ed by Roger Ferguson, prez & CEO of TIAA, that got me thinking. Called “Liberal Arts Under Pressure,” it argues for the necessity of a liberal education as part of every single baccalaureate degree.
Ferguson notes the loud, incessant push for more vocationalism in highered, and he acknowledges the practical need to draw clearer connections between college majors and workplace opportunities, but he insists that it’s actually the liberal education portion of a degree that is most useful. “Where does a person learn how to relate to other people? How to communicate a message that’s calibrated for different listeners? How to work collaboratively to solve problems? We learn these things at colleges and universities that offer diverse classes full of diverse people.” His words here are generic—these learning outcomes apply to ALL aspects of life, not just careers.
There’s a tension that applies to first year academic advising: you’re here to help students get started in their chosen major, but you also encourage them to explore, to sample from the banquet of options open to them. Students and parents are very nervous about exploration, however. And they have a right to be nervous: Between 2008-2010 roughly 8.8 million Americans lost their jobs and many jobs didn’t come back after economy rebounded. In my Intro to American Studies class, which attracts freshmen every fall, we discuss the American Dream and how it has changed radically in recent decades. Parents imagine that STEM-y majors will guarantee success, but that’s just not so. Technology is helping to render many jobs obsolete, whether blue collar, white or pink, the kind that once supported a pretty comfortable, middle-class American lifestyle. Here’s some statistics: Out of 10 million new jobs created between May 2012-May 2016, only 5% (541,000) were in computing technology sector. In fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the majority of new jobs created were in fields that only indirectly relate to tech fields (what George Anders calls “tech- influenced jobs). If you consult the LinkedIn emerging jobs report for 2018, you’ll see job titles like professional medical representatives, relationship consultants, market analysts, application salespeople, assurance staffers, business support specialists, background investigators, etc.
Books like George Anders’ You Can Do Anything remind us that, despite the prevailing tech mania (Amazon!), the human touch is more crucial than ever. Anders argues that curiosity, creativity, and empathy may be even more valuable than communicating effectively, thinking analytically, and reasoning quantitatively. And it turns out that curiosity, creativity, and empathy—capacities that define the human condition—are just what Gen Z has.
That observation struck me while reading some infographics about Gen Z compiled by Vision Critical, a marketing firm. And yeah, I know it’s a marketing firm, but in important ways we are “marketing” to the first years already, trying to sell them on the value of our program, so why not learn from experts?
Some highlights about Gen Z:
- They use their smartphones more than any other device–more than 15+ hours weekly.
- They especially respond to video storytelling formats; Youtube is their preferred social media platform, where they spend an average of two hours per day. They also prefer Snapchat and Insta over FB and LinkedIn.
- They have an 8 second attention span! So if you want to grab their interest and hold it, be quick.
- They are entrepreneurial-minded, and sincerely expect to be their own bosses after graduation.
- They are very idealistic, very global minded; 60% say they want to change society for better.
These are traits we can address when we talk about the value of liberal education. So here’s my pitch to you to make to them.
- They are global minded. Well, that’s Curiosity. So talk to them about the knowledge of human societies and global cultures that runs throughout the program. Talk to them about the knowledge they need about the physical world we share. (That’s our program’s Cluster two and three, right there.)
- They are entrepreneurial. That’s Creativity. So talk up the intellectual skills and cultural competencies infused in GenEd, the critical and creative thinking, the problem-solving; the verbal and non verbal communication skills of Cluster one. Connect for them the use of the scientific method, the purpose of rigorous experimentation from Cluster three.
- They want to be the change. That’s Empathy. So talk about the dispositions or capacities that GenEd cultivates. Civic engagement, how to be a better citizen, from local communities to global, that’s Cluster four. And inclusivity, well, they especially foster that capacity in Cluster five.
Most of all, emphasize the value of learning in an academic context, guided by faculty who are teacher-scholars, experts in their fields. Sure, they will also take online or distance learning or digital courses. But the human connection is why they come to bricks and mortar university. We can leverage that, too. To repeat Ferguson: “Where does a person learn how to relate to other people? . . . [A]t colleges and universities that offer diverse classes full of diverse people.” We can absolutely reach Gen Z if we understand who they are, what they value. It’s not a hard sell.
Sources:
Christopher Goodman and Steven Mance, “Employment Loss and the 2001-009 Recession.” (April 2011). https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2011/04/art1full.pdf
LinkedIn Emerging Jobs Report, 2018. https://economicgraph.linkedin.com/research/linkedin-2018-emerging-jobs-report#_blank
Ferguson, “Liberal Arts Under Pressure.” Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2019/05/06/disadvantages-and-dangers-making-cuts-liberal-arts-opinion
https://www.visioncritical.com/blog/generation-z-infographics
Gen Z Looks a Lot Like Millenials …. (Jan. 2019). Pew Research Center. https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2019/01/17/generation-z-looks-a-lot-like-millennials-on-key-social-and-political-issues/