The party pathway is described as “an implicit agreement between the university and students to demand little of each other.” The authors of Paying for the Party use of the idea of the party pathway as an example of how colleges are making students more unequal to each other. Besides the party pathway, the authors speak about a plethora of other issues in college campuses that are contributing to inequality among students such as how colleges focus on admitting more out of state students who can pay full tuition instead of focusing more on in state students who have higher need to how students aren’t receiving the proper academic advisement that can help them to take classes that can point them in the direction of attaining a job after college. …show more content…
It can definitely be said that the arguments that are made in Paying for the Party do carry validity to them, especially when looking at a school like Union College.
One of the issues that the authors speak about in the book is the presence of Greek fraternities and sororities on college campuses. They discuss how Greek organizations are the ones who facilitate the party pathway. By allowing fraternities to hold houses on campus, this gives the students a space in which they can engage in parties and potentially even more dangerous activities. Union College definitely has a strong fraternity and sorority presence, being the school that possessed the first fraternity in history. The argument that fraternities are contributing to students deciding to take the party pathway is an argument that is most certainly applicable to Union and colleges like it. At Union, students are utilizing fraternity spaces to have parties. Fraternities at Union also host many other social events as well which, what the authors of Paying for the Party argue, can further lead to students being strayed off of the mobility …show more content…
pathway. The authors of Paying for the Party discuss solutions as to how to counter the issue of Greek organizations facilitating the party pathway. A solution that they discuss is making Greek organizations more equal to each other. The authors discuss how historically white Greek organizations have access to benefits such as being able to have houses on campus and having special attachments to college administrators.. The authors suggest that historically white Greek organizations and multicultural organizations should both not have access to these special privileges. It can be said that this is a plausible solution, especially taking away the houses that these organizations have located on campus. However, when looking at Union College, there are Greek Organizations who have housing located off campus. Although the process may be more complicated, you can still make the organizations unable to have said house. Another solution just short of taking away the house entirely , as suggested by the authors, can be to have more close oversight on these Greek houses. I do agree with these solutions in that they can definitely change the strength of the party pathway or even eliminate it all together. Another argument that the authors make of how colleges are reproducing inequality is not properly advising students on what path to take in order to ensure employment after college.
The book highlights that this an issue on college campuses because “advisors were more accustomed to advising more affluent students” Rather than making students more equal, advisors are creating a bigger and bigger divide between those who aren’t as affluent and those that are. According to the authors of Paying for the Party, there was even an example where a student had decided on career option but was not told that that option did not fit her very well. The authors discussed how a student named Amanda had heard from a classmate about how the classmate was hoping to become a wedding planner. Amanda found this occupation to be interesting. However, she was not performed that there are certain qualities that a wedding planner possesses, qualities that she herself did not have. She ended up going ina direction academically that later proved to be detrimental and this occurred due to her not being properly advised. It is also important to point out that Amanda was highlighted in the book as a student who comes from a less affluent and privileged
background. In terms of whether this type of issue is applicable to colleges like Union, it can be said that it is indeed applicable. At Union for example, students who have declared a major are assigned academic advisor who works in the department of major you chose, for example a psychology major would be given a academic advisor who works in the psychology department. However, students, for the most part, have the flexibility of meeting with their advisor whenever the advisor and the student are free to do so. For the most part means that when it is time to register for classes for a new trimester, students are required to meet with their advisor before doing so. Other than that, there is no other required meeting time. Having said that, it is highly possible that students are making academic decisions and are not speaking to advisors about those decisions. Students who do this, like Amanda in Paying for the Party, could be going down a direction that could detrimental for them academically and even potentially after college. As said earlier, the only time students are required to meet with their advisors is when it comes time to register for new classes. This shows how issues of improper advisement is applicable to colleges such as Union. The solution to this issue that the authors discussed in the book is streamlining a mobility pathway by giving students better quality advising. In other words, students should be told about courses that they do not need to take or majors that won’t lead to employment after college. The authors also made clear that proper advising should resemble the advisement that highly educated parents give to their children. I do agree with this solution because part of the college’s job is to help students stay on the correct in order to have a successful life after college. Not advising students properly illustrates a failure to do so which can result in huge problems for the student post college. Student advisement should not be based on how affluent the student is. Each student should be given the most proper advice on what direction to head in, regardless of their financial background. Paying for the Party accurately pointed many ways how colleges are actually hurting students rather than helping them. During their time in college, it is important that students have access to the same opportunities as everyone else. It is also important that colleges do not promote ways in which students can get strayed off of the mobility pathway. Students are not only looking to have an enjoyable college experience but they are also looking to have a successful career after college. Colleges play a big role in making sure that each student is able to do so, no matter what race or class they happen to belong to.
I myself am from a very “awkward” dichotomy. The reason for that is that I grew up in Oak Cliff Texas, a low socioeconomic neighborhood with the a very criminal atmosphere. However, my father was able to obtain upward mobility through his construction business that he built, therefore I have always been financially well off. Since I grew up in Oak Cliff and attended an inner city public high school my classmates were mostly of low socioeconomic background and well, the nature of their behavior is very much like mine. Now when I attended A&M I decided to join a fraternity. There is “Latino” fraternities available for students to join on campus but I joined one that is recognized by the IFC (Intra Fraternity Council). This is one of the barriers amongst universities’ Greek life systems themselves. As described in the book, Greek life systems generate a barrier where students of low socioeconomic status find it harder to join. The fraternities and sororities that are recognized by the “IFC” are those that are categorized by the student body as “cool or better” organizations. Those that aren’t recognized by the IFC are seen as the “poor or gay” organizations. Those fraternities that are recognized by the IFC on campus as far as I know are all white. Latino or Black fraternities and sororities aren’t recognized by the IFC, at least at A&M. I am the only Minority in the fraternity that I am apart of, and I sometimes recognize that I am different in different aspects than most of the members and can feel the “isolation” that is described in the book. Once my fraternity was having an event and everyone was required to pitch in 30$ towards supplies for it, and the way that the money is gathered is through a mobile application where people can pay with their credit cards. I asked one of my fraternity brothers is I could just pay him cash and he
Bruni begins by describing the golden promise of college as it appeared for baby boomers. In that time getting into college and completing a degree was enough to be successful. He acknowledges that this idealized vision of college may be inaccurate, however, he asserts that the issue is far more “complicated” than it once was. Bruni makes use of a recent (2012) debate over student loan interest rates in the U.S. to explore the issues surrounding college education today. While rising student debt is certainly part of the problem he suggests that the issue extends beyond that. College is now a “luxury item with newly uncertain returns” (Bruni). While rising costs make college a luxury item that not everyone will be able to afford, even those who can and do manage to go to college are not guaranteed success.
Brooks wrote this article to inform the new generation not to buy into the hype of the “baby boomers.” He uses a compare and contrast type of approach with contrasting explanations of people’s expectations versus reality. The author wants to convey a feeling of awareness, which almost feels foreboding. The intended audience is young American college students or those about to enter college. It's intent to them is to inform them of the dangers that follow graduation where expectations are concerned. This audience is comprised of both male and female readers of all races and
So what allows a campus fraternity to fall under the category of a social institution? Social institutions are commonly conceived as the necessary focuses of a social organization, which is common to most of society and usually deals with the problems and procedures of structured social life. General characteristics of a social institution involve regulated patterns of behavior that are specific, continuous, and organized. The patterns become the regulated norm, and are carried on from generation to generation, allowing the social institution to continue on through the years. Fraternities were first developed back in the late seventeen hundreds and continued to expand over the past couple of hundred years. Today there are about sixty different fraternities all over the United States, represented by different letters of the Greek Alphabet, with several chapters and various schools. Fraternities is a ‘member only’ social institution that is just for guys, (women have similar institution called sororities). Every fraternity has a board of members that they personally e...
The right and privilege to higher education in today’s society teeters like the scales of justice. In reading Andrew Delbanco’s, “College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be, it is apparent that Delbanco believes that the main role of college is to accommodate that needs of all students in providing opportunities to discover individual passions and dreams while furthering and enhancing the economic strength of the nation. Additionally, Delbanco also views college as more than just a time to prepare for a job in the future but a way in which students and young adults can prepare for their future lives so they are meaningful and purposeful. Even more important is the role that college will play in helping and guiding students to learn how to accept alternate point of views and the importance that differing views play in a democratic society. With that said, the issue is not the importance that higher education plays in society, but exactly who should pay the costly price tag of higher education is a raging debate in all social classes, cultures, socioeconomic groups and races.
Instead, Sanford J. Ungar presents the arguments that all higher education is expensive and needs to be reevaluated for Americans. He attempts to divert the argument of a liberal arts education tuition by stating “ The cost of American higher education is spiraling out id control, and liberal-arts colleges are becoming irrelevant because they are unable to register gains i productivity or to find innovative ways of doing things” (Ungar 661). The author completely ignores the aspects of paying for a liberal arts degree or even the cost comparison to a public university. Rather, Ungar leads the reader down a “slippery slope” of how public universities attain more funding and grants from the government, while liberal arts colleges are seemingly left behind. The author increasingly becomes tangent to the initial arguments he presented by explaining that students have a more interactive and personal relationship with their professors and other students. Sanford J. Ungar did not address one aspect of the cost to attend a liberal arts college or how it could be affordable for students who are not in the upper class.
Community colleges and vocational tracks are not wrong about the high cost of traditional higher education. According to the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, one year at a public, four-year institution costs upwards of $23,000 on average, while private institutions will cost nearly $10,000 more on average. Coupled with the fact that prices at public institutions rose 42 percent and private institutions rose 31 percent between 2001 and 2011, it’s not a shock that parents and students alike worry about paying for college. However, this won’t always be the case, as this rise in prices simply cannot continue the way it has. Eventually, people will be unable to pay the price that colleges charge. They will either settle for com...
"Some have argued that fraternities are places where rape is likely to occur on college campuses and that the students most likely to accept rape mouths and be more sexually aggressive are more likely to live in fraternities and sororities, consume higher doses of alcohol and drugs, and place higher value on social life at college." according to the article "Fraternities and Collegiate Rape Culture: Why Are Some Fraternities More Dangerous places for Women?" written by A. Ayres Boswell and Joan Z. Spade. The article ...
The large number of sororities and fraternities around campus create a large party environment. Frat parties can get extremely rowdy and a number of them have to be shut down by local police. Obviously, the police being involved to shut something down is never a good thing and is clearly a sign of negativity for the overall atmosphere of any campus. Plus, the constant partying that goes on weekend after weekend really cuts down on the amount of time students spend studying. The excessive partying also takes away the significance of the education that is provided by universities, which is seen as a huge negative impact for universities and students. This argument is completely disputable! As stated earlier, Greek students have higher graduation rates and higher accumulative grade point averages than students who are not a part of Greek organizations. If Greek students can throw parties and continue to achieve admirable grade point averages, why can’t non-Greek students? I was unaware that every time I have a good time at a university, it would be taking away the significance of my education, that notion is honestly illogical and shouldn’t even be considered as problem caused by Greek organizations. This issue seems to be a non-Greek student problem that is being pushed onto Greek organizations. Maybe if they were all Greek students they could continue to party while maintaining a decent grade point
The American Education system needs to check their purpose and refocus students back on the reason for furthering their education. Although, many colleges are known for many amenities and student activities, college students need to focus on the issues at hand and conquer them with knowledge and compassion for humankind. Americans need to realize that student debt is a national crisis, and the best way to make a change is be involved and responsible for every cost during your education career. As a responsible student, know where your tuition money goes and question changes that are going on at school, students pay for the experience they should know what is
College administrators say that there are consequences for making college education free that mostly affect the college. Their argument is that students from low income families will affect the ranking of colleges on graduation rate. They say these students are not qualified to take these positions in the college as they don’t have the qualities required and their making th...
In “The Growing College Gap”, author Tamara Draut suggests that in spite the growth of high school graduates pushing forward with plans of higher educational goals, socioeconomic situations play a role in college access and achievement among class and race. Draut validates this claim by explaining “When student aid is focused on merit rather than need, it tends to go to students from families who can already afford college tuition…The same can’t be said for need-based aid. The availability of grant aid has a big influence on whether lower-income students will enroll in college at all” (382-383). Draut’s position is that many lower income students are not able to attend college due to the shift in funding from need-based aid to merit-based aid.
Every member of this class, this university, this collegiate atmosphere, has most likely accumulated debt to achieve higher education. I certainly had the feeling that entering into the University of Massachusetts as a freshmen this year would involve relatively little debt which I would pay off upon graduation–a simple affair in which I received an education for a fair price. Yet, looking even at the comparatively “small” expenditures I have to deal with, examples of educators, students, and parents all paint a portrait of the devastating and deceiving nature of debt involved in the collegiate system in this country. Systemically, culturally, and personally, the system of debt associated with virtually every modern college experience of all but the highest socioeconomic echelon wrings the resources of the average college student dry.
As colleges’ funds dry up, colleges must turn to the public to further support higher education. By raising state taxes, colleges can collect funds to help improve the school’s budgets. The state provides funds from the taxes for colleges to receive a certain amount for each student currently enrolled. All community and traditional four year colleges collect these funds in order to maintain the school’s budget. As reporter, Eric Kelderman states, “less than a third of colleges’ budget is based from state taxes”. The school’s budget is how colleges are able to provide academic support programs, an affordable intuition, and hire more counselors. Colleges must now depend on state taxes more than ever for public colleges. Without collecting more funds from state taxes, as author, Scott Carlson explains how Mr. Poshard explains to senators “our public universities are moving quickly toward becoming private universities…affordable only to those who have the economic wherewithal to them” (qtd. in.) Public colleges must be affordable to anyone who wishes to attend. If colleges lack to provide this to students, it can affect dropouts, a student’s ability focus, and cause stress. The problem of lack of funding is that colleges have insufficient funds. Therefore, the best possible solution for the problem of lack of funding would be increasing and collecting more funds from state taxes.
There are two different types of financial aid for college students, merit-based aid and need-based aid. Merit-based aid is given to students with good grades and allows them to not have to pay the full price of college tuition. This allows students who work hard in school to reap some form of reward for their efforts. Need-based aid gives students the ability to continue their education, when they would not have the money for college otherwise. The problem that is faced with the two kinds of aid is which party should receive the money, the hard working students or the lower class students?