Collegiality and Community on College Campuses

"Building a vital community is a challenge not just for higher learning, but for society at large.”

-Ernest L. Boyer, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Despite sounding like a common and basic word, many different definitions exist for the term community. One definition of a community refers to the concept as a physical locality. Another definition of community describes it as simply a society at large. While both of these definitions can relate back to the higher education realm, neither definition completely grasps what community means to the students in higher education. One definition stands out in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary in which it defines community as “a unified body of individuals.” This definition best describes the college experience for students. In our evolving world of higher education, constant threats endanger community and collegiality at our institutions daily. Some of these threats can be controlled, others, unfortunately, cannot. I want to address the concept of campus crises as well as technology on campus to further understand collegiality among college students.



In a review of the tragedy at Virginia Tech in 2007, Terry Wildman (“Sustaining Academic Community in the Aftermath of Tragedy”) questions the effect on the academic community after the incident. Wildman was concerned with the recovery of the academic community and how it could return to achieving high aspirations for the students of Virginia Tech. Regardless of the argument of who was at fault in this situation, the response by the administration and VT community was important because they were charged with restoring a sense of community among the students, faculty, staff, and Blacksburg community. The administration focused on a student-centered approach to restoring the sense of community at this large institution. Classes were cancelled for one week while questions were resolved regarding the end of the semester and how to evaluate the students’ performance. The crisis at Virginia Tech was one example of how the university administrators brought resolve to the community at a large institution.

From a personal standpoint, I can recall the fire at the Alpha Tau Omega house in 2004 that claimed the lives of three students. As a student leader at the time, I can vividly remember the University’s response to the situation. As part of Welcome Week, one of the Student Programming Board’s largest events, Rumble in the Grove, was cancelled on that Friday. The University Counseling Center was prepared to handle the students suffering with the loss of the students’ fellow classmates, fraternity brothers, children. Volunteers were quickly assembled to assist the displaced students while prayer vigils were organized for the campus community. The University leaned on the strong sense of community among the student body to steer its way through the situation.

To switch gears, I would like to address the somewhat controllable area of technology. The incredible advancements in technology have forced college students to change how they react in their community. According to NASPA (http://naspa.org/2008%20technology%20use.pdf), in a survey to college students across the country, over 80% of students owned a laptop. Over half of the students surveyed were frequent users social networking sites. In the same research, 90% of college students claimed to own a cell phone. Almost 85% of these students responded that they use text messaging, and over 70% of those students use text messaging at least a few times a day to communicate. What do these statistics mean? The community in which students communicate has become more technological. By thinking about how much time there is in a day and how much time the students spend texting and “Facebooking,” I wonder how much time is actually spent with face-to-face interaction. Despite this gradual change in communication among the community, a 2005 article in The Chronicle by Vincent Kiernan (“Students Desire a Balance of Technological and Human Contact, Survey Suggests” http://chronicle.com/article/Students-Desire-a-Balance-o/11687/), concludes that students still want to see a balance in terms of their academic community. In a survey of over 18,000 students, 41% of students preferred moderate use of technology in the classroom while 26% wanted limited use of technology. In the article, Robert Kvavik claimed that students “value the interaction among themselves and with faculty, and they don’t want technology to get in the way of that.”

The campus community is constantly changing, and universities are responsible for providing a positive community that is comfortable for students. This means the universities will need to maintain stability within the community while accommodating the changing world of higher education (as well as the changing personalities of students).