Category Archives: Students

Battling the Cell Phone Menace in Class for a Decade Now

Facebook’s wayback machine (“On this Day” app) reminded me this morning that I have been battling students using their cell phones in class for a long time now. I know some professors don’t care if students use their phones in class. Fine by me; their class, their rules. And some are just unaware. Many WakeContinue reading “Battling the Cell Phone Menace in Class for a Decade Now”

Putting Grading and Grades in Perspective

The quickening of life due to technology is a blessing I depend on daily. But it is also a curse at times, especially at the end of the semester when it comes to grades. I submitted my fall grades today at 11:45am (they were due at noon!). By 4pm the first grade complaint had arrivedContinue reading “Putting Grading and Grades in Perspective”

A Letter to My Future Students

I am participating in a faculty Writing Associates Seminar, in which we are learning to integrate writing more intelligently and productively into our courses. For an upcoming retreat, our seminar leader asked us to write a letter to our future students about what we hope they will get out of our class. I wrote theContinue reading “A Letter to My Future Students”

Contemporary Application of Bourdieu’s Distinction in Musical Taste

In his famous book Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, Pierre Bourdieu reports findings from a French survey of cultural tastes fielded in 1967-68. Of particular note is a figure showing the distribution of preferences for three musical works by class fractions. Bourdieu reports that Bach’s “Well-Tempered Clavier” represents “legitimate taste” andContinue reading “Contemporary Application of Bourdieu’s Distinction in Musical Taste”

Evidence Shows The Fraternity Experience is The Problem

Posted by John D. Foubert, Ph.D. , Author, The Men’s and Women’s Programs at Ending Rape Through Peer Education on April 29, 2011 at 7:15am EDT In 2007 I published a study of men who join fraternities, comparing their rates of sexual assault before they join and after they join. Before they join, their ratesContinue reading “Evidence Shows The Fraternity Experience is The Problem”

Drinking in Exam Week Hurts College Students’ Performance

Stop the presses! This shocking news from “Inside Higher Education”: Drinking in Exam Week Hurts College Students’ Performance College students who drink before and during their final exams show a “statistically and economically meaningful reduction in academic performance” — “of approximately the same magnitude as being assigned to a professor whose quality is one standardContinue reading “Drinking in Exam Week Hurts College Students’ Performance”

Why are my students so DOUR?

Dour. If I had to use one word to describe my students, that would be it. Maybe I’ve already blogged about this. I can’t remember. But it bears repeating. On more than one occasion, I have looked out at a room full of students and yelled, “Why are you so DOUR? You have EVERYTHING!” IContinue reading “Why are my students so DOUR?”

Work Hard, Play Hard?

Many students at elite colleges and universities in the United States adhere to the motto, “Work Hard, Play Hard.” I tell my students applying this motto to higher education creates a false dichotomy between work and play. I insist that my courses will require them to work, to be sure, but that we will haveContinue reading “Work Hard, Play Hard?”

No Poor Folks at Wake Forest

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, of the 75 wealthiest private universities in the United States (those with endowments of $500 million or more), Wake Forest University ranks 74th (second to last) in the proportion of undergraduates who receive Pell Grants. This is a rough measure of the proportion of students who are lowContinue reading “No Poor Folks at Wake Forest”