Talking Stick - May/June 2018 - 44

. . . what is familiar is safe, and iGen spends so
much time online that they feel safe even when
it's clearly not safe. They are more cautious
in the real, physical world partially because
they don't spend as much time in it as previous
generations did.

of them don't seem to care about is
fancy living, especially if they have to
take out more loan money to foot the
bill. Before building another high-end
residence hall with a karaoke lounge
and test prep kitchen, consider more
modest options for those students who
may really want the benefits of living
on campus but just can't justify the
expense.
Housing departments have to
find a way to brand the specific valueadd that living on campus provides,
noting specifically what Generation Z
students would gain from the experience that cannot be attained otherwise. Having a value-based marketing
approach for living on campus also
applies to schools that have mandatory
on-campus living requirements that
may impact college enrollment. For
a student concerned about finances,
a defining part of the college choice
might come down to whether the institution requires residing on campus.
If a student does not know the value
of on-campus living, the choice may
seem easy: pick the school where you
can just stay home and save money.
Overall, Generation Z students
will be coming to college for many
years to come. If we can better understand their perspectives and values,
we can certainly help in retaining and
developing them for the future.

TALKING STICK

Q&A: JEAN TWENGE
Odds are you've heard
of Jean Twenge and
her work. The professor
of psychology at San
Diego State University in California has
recently been featured in The New York
Times, U.S. News and World Report,
and The Washington Post, as well as on
the Today show, Good Morning America, National Public Radio, and CBS
This Morning. With her latest book,
iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected
Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious,
More Tolerant, Less Happy - and
Completely Unprepared for Adulthood
- and What That Means for the Rest
of Us, she has tapped into both the fears
and expectations for the tech-savvy generation. ACUHO-I members who read
her book as part of the online community
reading project posed questions for her.

The book discusses the drawbacks
of students being
too absorbed just
in what happens
on their phones.
Yet I've also been
watching how our student leaders behave, and they seem to be
taking the cue and paying more
attention to their surroundings.

I wonder if leadership skills and
training changes the norm of
phone use. As student affairs
professionals, are we ignoring
the average student and not
engaging them in the same skill
building that we do with our
leaders? Is this another of those
cycles that we need to break?
I think it would be great if we could
train more students to be aware of
their surroundings. Perhaps that could
be done through first-year success
programs, including the presentation
of information on not spending too
much time on screens and the importance of face-to-face interaction.

One of the things I have found
most frustrating is the idea of
safety. Intrinsically, I understand the desire and need to be
safe, to provide safe spaces,
and to work toward making the
world safer and more accepting. But the reality of life is that
there are times when, regardless of what we want or work
for, bad things happen. I feel like
sometimes, in our attempt to
work towards making things better or safer, we have neglected
the other side of the equation.
How do we recognize and honor
the need these students have to
feel safe, while also providing
them with the coping and resiliency skills necessary for them
to survive?
I agree. Emphasize safety, but also get
across the message that you can learn
from failure. Most successful adults
will tell you that the time they learned
the most was a time they failed.

I also found the discussion
around safety to be compelling

Talking Stick - May/June 2018

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