Letter to the Editor: Academically Adrift

Dear Editor,

            A recent article has been floating around numerous periodicals, the Internet and radio stations, talking about how college students have become too “lazy”. The article is titled “A Lack of Rigor Leaves College Students Adrift”; the article cites a book called Academically Adrift, where a study followed over 2000 students at 24 different universities tracking their academic progress. The study showed that nearly a third of the students showed no academic advancement in their time at school. This poses the question why are students around the country and here at Umass becoming lazy and not putting forth the effort in college? There are two answers to this question. One, college students around the country and here at Umass are lacking effort. Many students have been brought up to do the bare minimum and their work ethic has carried over to college. They do just enough to get by and in the end; they end up with a college degree. This brings me to my second point that college professors around the U.S. are just becoming soft, many take it easy on students because they are looking for a high approval rating which will lead to high scores on evaluation papers at the end of the semester. This is not to say there are thousands upon thousands of students out there who work extremely hard and in the end get what they deserve, but as a society our generation has been coddled by our parents and this has lead to poor work ethics. It is not hard to walk around Umass and find students that are working hard but everyone knows multiple students who don’t go to class and take the easy way out of doing their work. This translates to college students going out into the work force and struggling to handle the “real world”. As graduation approaches my future and thousands of other students, you can’t help but think about how we are graduating into a poor economy with a high unemployment rate. Millions of college graduates today are unable to find jobs in this economy. A professor at Umass reminded me today to think about how much effort you put into your schoolwork and to always remember that there is someone out there that is working harder than you are. It is simple, in today’s economy if you do not put forth hard work and effort into achieving your college degree you will be left on the side while others look at you as they pass by.