Naomi Rockler-Gladen's Blog

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

Eight a.m. classes, bad professors, financial aid nightmares. Let's face it: there are days that college sucks. There are serious problems with the system, and there's nothing wrong with whining and venting about college now and then. However, on days that aren't so bad, I also hope that you take the time to appreciate your college education. College education is a privilege. It may not feel that way during that 8 a.m. midterm exam, but it's the truth.

Here's some basic statistics Only about 28% of U.S. Americans over the age of 25 have a bachelor's degree. That's a little more than 1 in 4. You might come from a family and a neighborhood where everyone around you has a college education, but that's deceptive. The opportunity to earn a bachelor's degree already places you at an advantage over 70% of the population. And worldwide, the number of people with a bachelor's degree is less than 1%. Yes, you are among the privileged elite.

If you are a woman or a minority, another reason to appreciate your education is that others before you fought long and hard to get you there. Women now outnumber men on college campuses in the United States, but only after years of legal and social battles to give women equal access to education. My grandmother was the valedictorian of her high school class and was an exceptionally bright woman, but she never considered going to college. There were four boys and four girls in her family, and the limited resources paid for college education for the boys, but not the girls. African Americans only have to look back to the early 1960s to find examples of college students fighting through mobs for an opportunity to register for classes. Minority groups have struggled and continue to struggle to break down segregation and economic barriers to higher education.

And if you're lucky enough to have parents who are able or willing to fund you college education? Thank them. Thank them often. They are giving you a treasure that most people do not get. Just look around campus and you're likely to see a single mom struggling to get through school, or someone who has to work over forty hours a week to pay for tuition, or someone who is worried about having to drop of school if there's a tuition hike.

Look, you don't have to appreciate your college education every moment. But the next time you're on your way to that 8 a.m. class and feeling sorry for yourself, try to put things in perspective. An awful lot of people, past and present, would love to be walking next to you into that classroom.

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

College seniors, is it your last semester and are you running out of steam? Here are some New Year's Resolutions for College Seniors to help get you through to graduation. And here are the:

Top Ten Signs that You Have Senioritis

1. You start imagining jail bars on the windows of your classrooms.
2. Your professors all sound like Charlie Brown's teacher.
3. When you wear your backpack to class, you have visions of pushing a giant boulder up a mountain.
4. The pond on campus starts to resemble an eternally burning lake of fire.
5. It no longer even feels worth it to press the snooze button.
6. You have nightmares that it's Groundhog Day of your last semester over and over again and you never graduate.
7. You wonder why there are so many children running around on campus, and then you realize that they're freshmen.
8. You start imagining that your professor has a hand puppet like Mr. Hat.
9. Your last 143 blog entries are about boredom.
10. When someone mentions graduate school, you feel nauseous.

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

Need some suggestions for some realistic New Year's Resolutions? Here are some suggestions.

• New Year's Resolutions for Students
• New Year's Resolutions for Teachers
• New Year's Resolutions for Freshmen
• New Year's Resolutions for Seniors

One of the cool things about being a student or a teacher is that you get two semester breaks a year to take a deep breath, evaluate how things went last semester, and start fresh. Everyone else just gets the big "resolution" time once a year.

Happy New Year students! Have a great 2007.

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

Looking for a fascinating television show that goes beyond the gimmicks of reality TV and offers an intelligent discussion on diversity and social issues? Looking for an educational resource that encourages students to think about these issues and identify with the perspectives of others? Teachers and students, check out the new television show by Morgan Spurlock, the documentarian best known for Supersize Me. The program is called 30 Days, and it's being shown on the FX Network.

The premise of 30 Days is this: a person takes on a new identity for 30 days in order to see the world through a radically different perspective and to illustrate the complexities of a social issue. In one episode, a devout Christian moves in with an American Muslim family for 30 days and participates in their everyday activities, including prayer. In another, a young, all-American straight man moves in with a gay resident of San Francisco's Castro district for 30 days and accompanies him to gay softball games and bars. In the pilot episode, Spurlock himself spent 30 days in a prison. Other issues covered in the program include illegal immigration, binge drinking, and the minimum wage.

What makes 30 Days an effective and appropriate classroom resource is Spurlock's approach. Yes, Spurlock has an obvious political agenda, not all that different than the agenda of the more controversial documentarian Michael Moore. Unlike Moore, however, Spurlock does not condemn the folks he disagrees with, like the homophobic straight guy and most of the other participants in his documentaries. While Moore mocks and vilifies the "enemy," Spurlock presents them as sympathetic. As the philosopher Kenneth Burke argued, persuasion is most effective and most humane when the "other side" is presented not as evil, but as mistaken. (Burke called this the "comic frame.") Viewers who disagrees with Spurlock's position are given a sympathetic protagonist with whom to identify, and thus may be more likely to consider Spurlock's arguments.

The creative and non-confrontational approach of 30 Days makes it a great educational resource to use during classroom discussions about social issues. Perhaps teachers can invite students to imagine where they might spend their own 30 days, and what they might learn from this experience.

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

I have to confess that until this year, I had never used Wikipedia. Now, I often use the world's largest interactive online encyclopedia at least once a day. Whenever I have a random thought, like about what the history of Velcro might be, I consult Wikipedia. I've used Wikipedia to research political candidates, corporations, software, and even to learn about my favorite South Park characters. Yeah, I admit it, I'm kind of a Wikipedia junkie. So I can imagine that for the Generation Y college students of today, Wikipedia must provide a fabulous research tool to aid in their education.

However, not everyone is enthusiastic about Wikipedia, and I was surprised at how skeptical my students are about this phenomenon. Wikipedia raises eyebrows because unlike traditional encyclopedias, anyone can edit it. The idea is that if an expert with knowledge on a topic reads a Wikipedia article and wants to elaborate, the expert can add his or her knowledge and share it with the world.

As you can imagine, this system can be abused easily. Wikipedia does employ people to keep track of changes, and volunteers help by reporting and deleting abuse, misinformation, and spam. However, as Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert demonstrated in his now famous "Wikiality" prank, content is not above manipulation. To demonstrate the socially constructed nature of knowledge on Wikipedia, Colbert encouraged viewers to incorrectly edit the Wikipedia page on elephants with "information" on how the world population of elephants has been increasing rapidly. (Actually, they are in danger of extinction. Poor elephants.) Hundreds of people messed around with the article, which Wikipedia finally closed to edits because of "vandalism" (which is as good a word for it as any, I suppose).

So, the argument goes, Wikipedia is not a credible source because its knowledge can be manipulated by anyone and can be altered if enough people insist that a point of view is true. I ask, however, how is this different than any other documentation of knowledge? How do we know that a newspaper is accurate? Or a college textbook? It used to be "true" that the world was flat, remember? Knowledge has always been socially constructed and manipulated by individuals, cultures, and interest groups. One of the amazing things about Wikipedia is that it has made this social construction of knowledge visible. Now, this construction of knowledge is documented as users can read a log of how articles are changed over time.

As far as students go, I'm jealous that they have Wikipedia as a source to refer to throughout their education. If a topic sparks their interest in class, there's a place to go for more information. Yes, students need to be a little skeptical of the information in Wikipedia. But the thing is, they need to be skeptical of the information that comes from everywhere. Perhaps the awareness of this need for skepticisim is one of Wikipedia's greatest gifts.

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

A few days ago, a little postcard arrived to tell me that my 15th year college reunion was scheduled for May. I was so excited that I forgot to feel old and even forgot to wish I were twenty pounds thinner. So it's back to New Brunswick and Rutgers University for me to walk down College Avenue past my old dorm, have a beer and a boli at Stuff Yer Face, and catch up with my old classmates from the Class of 1992. My high school reunions, now those I don't think I'm going to bother to attend. Pennsauken, New Jersey is not exactly first on my vacation list. But you couldn't pay me to miss my college reunion.

And hey, if anyone's reading this from the Rutgers College class of 1992 (or anyone else who knew me then), leave a message in the discussion or email me.

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

This year, Hanukkah begins at sundown on December 15. Happy Hanukkah! Good Yontif! Hopefully you'll be through with your exams and ready to celebrate. If you're looking for a few last minute gifts for college students, here are some helpful links:

• Holiday gift ideas for students.
• Unique holiday gifts for students.
• Cheap holiday gift ideas for roommates and college friends.

As Hanukkah approaches, a sad and scary event occurred on the campus of Colorado State University. Two freshman students had chosen to display Mezuzot on their dorm room doors, and those Mezuzot were ripped off of their doors and stolen. Here's an article about the incidents in the Rocky Mountain Collegian, which is well-written (with the exception of referring to a mezuzah as a decoration, which is inaccurate). For those of you not familiar with Mezuzot (the plural of Mezuzah), they are small rectangular boxes that contain a prayer scroll. Jews hang them outside of their doors. They are a religious symbol (as opposed to a decoration, such as a cardboard dreydel that a student might hang on a dorm room door), so ripping one down is akin to ripping down someone's crucifix. They also have come to be a symbol of a Jewish home, which Jews hang proudly as a symbol of their identity. Because of that, ripping one down is an act of anti-Semitism.

My heart skipped a beat when I picked up the Rocky Mountain Collegian on the way to class that featured that story on the front page. I have a Mezuzah on my door, and I'm sick of having symbols of my identity mocked and desecrated. But we're a tough people. Try as we might, no one's been able to put out our burning oil, and a couple of Colorado State University dorm punks aren't going to either.

So, Happy Hanukkah, students! I have to go finish buying eight presents for my toddler, who's just learned how to say "Jewish."

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

Concerned about how to avoid or prevent plagiarism? Here are some articles about plagiarism that may help you:

• A definition of plagiarism.
• A discussion of why plagiarism is a bad idea.
• Tips for teachers to help prevent plagiarism.
• Strategies for dealing with last minute papers that are great alternatives to plagiarism.

Thanks to websites all over the Internet that offer free college essays and college essay writing services, sites that buy and sell term papers has become big business on the Internet. The quality of these essays vary, but if a student is willing to pay enough, well-written essays are available. Students can also use these websites to pay people to write college essays. Some of these sites also allow students to hire someone to write a masters thesis or even a dissertation.

Why aren't these sites illegal? Well, in a nutshell, although plagiarism violates intellectual property law, these sites technically do not commit plagiarism (although they do aid and abet plagiarism). Term paper websites purchase people's writing and then sell it for a profit. As long as they post and sell papers only when they have the author's permission, they're engaged in a transaction like any other. Many of these websites claim that the essays are being offered only as "sample essays" to help students write quality original essays. Uh huh. Websites that sell custom paper writing services aren't technically committing plagiarism either. They're selling writer services.

Should these sites be illegal?

I hate plagiarism with every ounce of my body. Plagiarism shows a complete lack of respect for the educational process. In my opinion, these websites are among the sleaziest things on the Internet, even more so than most pornography on the web.

However, as the good web geek that I am, I fear the consequences of censoring just about anything on the Internet. Setting a precedent for legislation on the Internet truly can be a slippery slope. The freedom afforded by the Internet is worth the garbage we have to put up with, and these sites are among the garbage. Besides, regulating just about anything on the Internet is a logistical nightmare. If these sites became illegal, plagiarism sites would simply become a little more difficult to find. Look what's happened with illegal music downloads. Illegal plagiarism sites would simply move offshore, like Internet gambling sites.

I doubt these sites are going anywhere. In fact, take a look at the Google ads for this blog entry and for my above listed articles about plagiarism. I don't control the ads on this site, which are triggered by keywords. I betcha many of these ads are for plagiarism websites! How's that for irony?

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

My students assured me that at 36 years old, I am not too old for MySpace. So curiosity got the best of me, and I now have my own MySpace page. You can check it out if you want, but it's not the least bit impressive. However, I've had the page for two days and I already have sixteen whole friends. Woo-hoo! And I found out that my cousin Terry has a MySpace page, and she's twenty years older than me, so I guess I'm not too old.

I've been poking around the MySpace pages of my sixteen friends (including my cousin Terry, of course) and I find myself fascinated by the phenomenon of interpersonal communication on MySpace. There's so much drama on MySpace and Facebook! I can't believe how much drama people are willing to post about their lives on these pages, where anyone can read it and join a drama queen flame war. One of my sixteen friends showed me the MySpace page of her boyfriend's ex, who apparently is not quite over him and has been posting brokenhearted tales of her heartbreak all over her page. My friend is irked, to say the least.

Although I would have loved a MySpace or Facebook page when I was in college, it's a good thing I didn't have one. I was such a drama queen, and I can only imagine the tales of heartbreak and woe I would have spewed out for the universe to read! My page would have contained all the cheesy poems I wrote for the various unworthy men who "wronged" me, as well as diatribes about the dorm drama of the week. Freshman year, perhaps I would have taken the picture of my ex-boyfriend that I marked with a big black X and posted it on my page (along with a cheesy poem, no doubt). And perhaps I would have told the whole world about the creepy student government guy I dated who dumped me on Valentine's Day, or about the guy I dated that my friends and I named Astral Projection Man, who informed me that he was reincarnated and had been in love with a girl I knew for many, many lifetimes.

Oh wait. I did just tell the whole world about them, didn't I? What can I say? I'm guess I'm still kind of a drama queen. (Although I won't be posting any pictures of ex-boyfriends with big black X's here). I must say that overall, I like being 36 years old better than I liked being 20. Boring is better than drama. The only drama in my life these days are the 2 a.m. debates with my husband over who's going to get up and console the sleep-resistant baby.

But seriously, students. Take it from a former college drama queen, and resist the urge to post your drama all over your MySpace and Facebook pages. Venting to the world will feel good, and it's entirely likely that the individual about whom you are venting deserves public humiliation. But one day you are going to wake up and die of embarassment and wish with all your being that you hadn't posted your most vulnerable feelings out there for everyone to read, especially your ex. Save the venting for a night with your friends and a pint of Ben & Jerry's, and don't give the people who don't like you the satisfaction of seeing you at your worst.

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

Generation Y college students are hard to pin down! So much of their identity has to do with technology-- MySpace, Facebook, iPods, cell phones, text messaging. Yet what is Generation Y addicted to more than anything else? One glimpse into a college classroom and you'll see a room full of students obsessed with a puzzle that involves a the shockingly low-tech technology of paper and pencil. I'm referring, of course, to the mindblowing phenomenon of the Sudoku puzzle!

Sudoku puzzles (here's some Sudoku examples, if you haven't seen them of these before) are logic puzzles. A puzzle consists of a 9 X 9 square grid divided into nine 3 x 3 square grids. To complete the Sudoku, every row and every 3 X 3 square grid needs to contain every digit from 1 to 9. Puzzles start with some of the numbers already in place as clues, and the puzzles are ranked in difficulty level.

How low-tech is that? Paper? Grids? You can't even do a Sudoku with a pen, because there's so much erasing involved, so even the pen becomes replaced with the lower-tech pencil and eraser. Sure, there are high-tech versions of Sudoku that are plenty popular, in the forms of online Sudoku and electronic Sudoku. But still, in the world of complex online gaming, it's striking that so much online game traffic is driven by such a simple game. There's no special effects here, just 1 through 9.

I think the Sudoku phase speaks volumes about Generation Y, and about all of us tech-driven postmodern folks. Perhaps the most accurate defining characteristic of Generation Y is that they cannot be defined. Yeah, we all want to put Generation Y into this technology box. We want to label them as technologically overdependent kids who instant message their roommates and who do all their research on the web. Instead, it's Generation Y who's putting things into boxes-- numbers, that is, from 1 through 9.

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

The last week of the semester is upon us. Woo-hoo! Here's some ideas to help you survive:

• Study tips for final exams.
• Ideas for exam week snacks.
• Ideas for effective study breaks.

I love the first week of the semester, when the campus is bursting with energy and everyone is excited to be back. By the last week, it's like you're on a different campus. It's freezing, it's icy, and everyone hates their lives! This time of the semester, students hate their teachers, hate their classes, and wonder what the heck they are doing in college in the first place. That's one of the worst things about being a student. Seasonal Misery Syndrome.

And to tell you the truth, professors kind of feel the same way, too. I have a stack of papers sitting on the passenger seat of my car that I haven't bothered to bring in yet to grade. Naomi is in denial. I told my students I'd have them graded by Wednesday. Fat freaking chance! (If you're one of my students reading this and your paper is sitting on the passenger seat of my car, you didn't hear that, right?)

Hang in there, everyone! Holiday break is almost here, Christmas and Hanukkah are almost here, and freedom is within reach. Please take care of yourselves, get all the sleep you possibly can, and enjoy some quality reality TV distractions. (I, for one, am about to get an icy glass of Crystal Lite and find out who's about to get voted off America's Next Top Model. But if you're one of my students and your paper is sitting on the passenger seat of my car, you didn't hear that.)

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

As you narrow your college search, you may ask yourself: is a Christian college or Christian university right for you? If so, what kind of Christian college? If there are any potential or current Christian college students around, I'd love for you to leave some comments in the discussion! In the meantime, here's a few articles to help all prospective college students narrow their college search:

• Narrowing Your College Search
• Bad College Search Choices

There are many different Christian colleges to choice from. I taught for three years at a Lutheran college called Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. Students had only one specific Christian requirement: they had to take one course about Christianity. There was a beautiful chapel in the middle of campus, and students had the option of attending daily twenty minute services. I was very impressed with how Gustavus incorporated religion into the world of a liberal arts college. Students were encouraged to question the specifics of their faith at the same time that they analyzed other important life questions that came up in classes. Although most students on campus were Christian, students varied greatly in the expression of their specific beliefs.

Other Christian colleges (Pensacola Christian College is a good example) are much more conservative. Some schools are guided by a covenant statement, and students are required to sign a statement agreeing to abide by its principles. Rules at conservative Christian colleges vary quite a bit, but some schools forbid students to dance, drink, have sexual relations, engage in homosexual behavior, or have physical contact with the opposite sex. Chapel and Christian courses are mandatory at conservative schools, and some do not employ faculty members who are not Christian (unlike Gustavus Adolphus College, which welcomed me a Jewish faculty member).

If you are a Christian student looking for a Christian college, no one but you can decide which model will benefit you more. I have several friends who attended conservative Christian colleges because they felt those colleges took Christianity more seriously, and because they were looking for the religious discipline offered by those schools. Some students look to Christian colleges as an alternative to what they see as liberal bias or anti-Christian bias in higher education. Many conservative Christian parents are drawn to these schools for the same reasons.

On the other hand, many students at Gustavus appreciated the opportunity to be exposed to different perspectives on Christianity and other topics as well. They enjoyed the freedom of exploring what their faith would mean to them as adults. Many students and parents feel that college should be a time to challenge one's perspectives and assumptions, and are drawn to Christian liberal arts colleges for this reason.

Remember, all Christian colleges are different, so if you're looking for one, be sure to visit the campus and the school's website. Ask faculty members and students about the school's philosophy and how that philosophy is incorporated into the everyday life of the school.

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

Thinking about taking an online college course? Here's a few articles for you to read:

• Advantages and disadvantages of taking a college course online.
• A satirical look at the move away from the traditional classroom to online learning.

What are my thoughts on online education? Generally, I am excited about this development. To me, the most exciting part of online education is its potential for making education more accessible. While money might still be an obstacle that limits educational accessibility, time no longer has to be. People in the workforce and busy parents can learn when they are able. How cool is that?

I am concerned, however, about the degree to which the classroom community experience will translate to the classroom. At their best, classroom communities are special places. I'm a proponent of critical teaching theories that propose that a classroom should be a place where students actively participate in their own learning and in critically challenging the world. Classroom communities are places where students have the opportunity to both explore new ideas and to develop their own voices.

Can this be replicated in a classroom? Maybe. I have personally been involved in a number of online communities, and based on my experience I know that a strong sense of community can develop in an online group. This makes me optimistic, although still wary.

It's important that we don't dismiss online education as all bad, or praise it as all good. Online classes work well for students with certain learning styles, and not so well with students who learn better in a more traditional environment. Just like traditional classes, the quality of online education will vary because of the quality of instruction, the attitudes of the particular students enrolled in the class, and lots of other factors. Not all classrooms successfully provide a sense of community, so it stands to reason that not all online classes will either.

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

Looking for some good ideas for holiday gifts for students? Check out:

• Suggestions for great holiday gift ideas for college students.
• Suggestions for some unique holiday gift items for students.
• Suggestions for cheap holiday presents college students can purchase for their friends.

What are some things you should avoid buying the college student on your list? Fist of all, avoid outdated tecnology, unless you want to be laughed at. An old game system? A camera that isn't digital? A CD/cassette player:? Are you kidding?

On a related note, most students aren't all that interested in another old form of technology: writing letters. When I was an undergraduate back in the Stone Ages (e.g. 1992), I loved receiving nice stationery with matching envelopes for presents. The Facebook Generation doesn't write too many letters to friends anymore.

In addition, avoid high-maintenance clothing, unless the student is about to go on a series of job interviews or something. If it needs to be hand washed, or dry cleaned, or even ironed, forget it. Who has the time? For the same reason, think twice about buying high-maintenance household items for college students. Appliances that can't be thrown into the dishwasher or washed easily by hand are probably a bad idea.

Hope that helps! Happy shopping, everyone.

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

Final exam week sucks. There's no better way to put it. Here are some final exam week tips to help you manage your stress and manage your time during this difficult week.

How did I handle final exam week when I was a student? Sometimes well, sometimes not so well, and sometimes memorably. One semester, a friend in my dorm named Joyce (where are you, girl?) organized a final exam week primal screaming session. Every night at a scheduled time, dorm residents would gather in the main longue and scream as loud as they possibly could. Then we would go back to studying.

Another semester, some friends and I discovered the joy of program length ads at about 1:00 a.m. After hours and hours of stressful studying, someone flipped on the TV in a lounge and discovered a program length ad for a 1-900 dating line. The women that callers could allegedly speak with were displayed on rotating stage like game show refrigerators. I don't know how long we sat there that night watching horrible ads, but it was a much needed stress relief.

Best of luck on your exams, students!

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

For years now, I've attended the National Communication Association Convention in November. Without fail, I dress in my most professional clothing and uncomfortable shoes, and by the end of the day the heels of my feet feel like the hooves of an Old West work horse. This year, as I was limping past the Alamo on the way to the San Antonio Convention Center, I decided that enough was enough. I stumbled into a nearby mall and found a Crocs display, and resisted the urge to chuck my heels off of the River Walk. Yeah, the Crocs looked pretty dorky with a dress and pantyhose. And you know what? I didn't give a Texas hoot.

It was my last academic conference. I am leaving academia at the end of the year.

Now don't get me wrong. I have enjoyed being an academic, and it can be meaningful to go to a convention and mull over ideas for hours with fellow scholars. But more often than not, academic conferences have felt like an enormous amount of energy and money spent on an event of inflated importance. This year, I corraled myself out to San Antonio to give a ten minute presentation on television criticism and a ten minute presentation on something about Christmas and Fox News. Each presentation had an audience of about twelve people. Ironically, one of my papers this year was chosen to appear in a panel for Emerging Scholars. For this my department spent close to $1000 for my travel and hotel accomodations. (I paid for my own Crocs.)

Conferences make me lonely. I get to see old friends and schmooze with interesting people, and that's great, but I also spend an awful lot of time wading my way through crowds looking for a familiar or friendly face. Thousands of people show up at these things, and I feel like I'm pushing my way through an enormous high school hallway, searching for my locker.

This year, I didn't bother wandering through the halls much (my feet hurt, after all), and instead parked myself on a bench and watched the scholars plow past. I watched their faces, and I noticed how intent everyone looked, like they were rushing as quickly as they could to a locale of great import. Were they faking it, or were they truly passionate? Both, I suppose. But as I watched, it became solidified in my heart that I had made the right decision. I didn't feel passionate, and I didn't want to fake it. And I certainly did not belong in that convention center.

I don't regret my decision to become a professor, and I expect to be writing some informative articles around here soon about about the pros and cons of academic careers. But I'm done with academia. I'll be riding off into the sunset soon, hooves clad in comfortable Crocs.

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

Happy holidays! Hopefully, this season will be a welcome break for college students. In the month of December, students can look forward to two sources of stress and anxiety. First, there's final exams and the end of the semester. Second, there's the pressures that come with the holidays, such as buying the perfect presents, moving back home with your parents for awhile, and/or dealing with family politics at holiday gatherings.

Keep the present giving in perspective. Your friends and family know you probably have limited time to shop and limited funds. If they don't understand that, that's their problem. To help, here's an article about inexpensive presents to buy for your college friends, and also a more general article about what college students might like for holiday gifts.

Visits home to your parents can be a joy and can be complicated. Developing an adult relationship with your parents can be challenging for both parents and kids. Here's some suggestions for how to develop a strong adult relationship with your parents and enjoy your holiday visits.

Some family gatherings are more stressful than others. Hopefully you're looking forward to a cozy celebration with a room full of relatives who love each other completely and have no baggage. However, since you don't live in a 1950s television show, probably there's going to be at least some conflict with your parents and drama amongst the relatives. As much as you can, try to ignore the drama and stay out of it. Don't worry about drama that's beyond your control; if Aunt Gloria and Aunt Mabel have the same fight they've been having since 1937, accept that the fight will take place and that your energies are better spent elsewhere. Unless your family is enormously dysfunctional, there will be fun things to concentrate on, so focus on those.

A sense of humor goes a long way when dealing with family. Most family dynamics are humorous and touching novels that the world is waiting for someone to write. Accept your family as beautiful, imperfect, and uniquely quirky.

Best of luck! Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Thanksgiving, Happy New Year, and happiness in whatever else you celebrate. I won't be around too much this week, because I'm off to Minnesota with my husband and daughter-- to stay with my mother for Thanksgiving. Hooray! My mom is the best.

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

Yesterday I had a bad teaching day, and wrote some fairly negative things about college education. Today, I thought I'd write about some of my favorite teaching memories.

• The canoe. The day started out badly, with an irate student disputing a grade. After he left, I peered out into the hallway, and saw two of my students carrying a canoe. "Hi, Naomi!" they said, as if it were perfectly normal to walk down the hallway with a canoe over their heads. They were on their way to my public speaking class, where one of the students gave a speech about explorers. She gave it while sitting in the canoe. When students do creative things, it's so much fun!
• The unicycle. One of my students was deathly afraid of public speaking. His solution? He decided to make his speech as terrifying as possible-- by delivering it while riding a unicycle.
• The table dance. I have an activity where students act out a movie or TV show with reversed gender roles. One semester, students decided reverse the gender roles in Coyote Ugly (they called it Guyote Ugly.) The original movie was about female table dancers, so they had a male one- who leaped on top of a wobbly table and proceeded to get down! Thank goodness the table didn't collapse.
• The war. During the beginning of the War in Iraq, I was fortunate to have a fabulous group of students in my media and politics class. We spent most of the semester watching media coverage of the war and discussing it. Students from both sides of the issue were very vocal, and we had the best conversations. I'll never forget one student in the class, who told me he wanted to work for the CIA because he lived in New York and wanted to protect his country.
• The singing TA. One semester in my popular culture class, I had a TA who volunteered to do the music lectures. She taught the students about music throughout the twentieth century by singing the lyrics and dancing. It was awesome, and students still ask me about her (and she pops by this blog sometimes, so hey there, singing TA!) That was one of my nicest classes of students. When I told them I was pregnant, they applauded.
• The trumpets. Two of my students played trumpets during my wedding ceremony. It was great to be able to include them.

I'll post more another time perhaps, as I have lots of great memories.

Oh, hey, if any of my former students have stumbled upon this website, post in the discussion or email me! I love to hear from former students.

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

No, education does not suck. But let me tell you about my bad teaching day.

Actually, it wasn't all bad. I teach two classes, and the 10 a.m. class went well. The 8 a.m. class was another story. Out of forty students, nine showed up. That's right, nine. As you can imagine, attendance is always a bit of a problem in my 8 a.m. class (since I have no mandatory attendance policy), but it's never been that low. I was hopping mad.

So I tried doing the activity I had planned, but it didn't work with so few students. So the class devolved into a discussion about why education sucks. What can I say? It was 8 a.m. and freezing outside, and sometimes students need to vent.

Actually, I enjoyed listening to my students vent about education, which everyone felt had some serious problems. One student said that compared to in his grandfather's day, when students were prepared well in primary school, students were going to college without basic writing and study skills, and therefore didn't get much out of their education. Several complained that they felt like they had to be there, because, in effect, college has become a prerequisite to a middle class lifestyle. All of them complained about problems having to do with lack of funding to the university, especially that they can't get the classes they need to graduate on time because departments can't afford to hire enough instructors to meet demand.

So I let them in on a little secret. Effective the end of this school year, I am leaving academia to pursue my dream of becoming a full time writer. I told them that I enjoy teaching (usually), but that I was ready to move on, and that I too was disgusted by problems with The System. Somehow we've created a system where students always get the short end of the stick. They are taught to jump through hoops to get through college, as opposed to learning to value education. And somehow professors find themselves in an uphill batle to motivate students when so much in the culture around us is anti-intellectual.

Anyways, teaching doesn't suck. I can't even tell you how much I value the human beings who have sat in my classrooms over the years and shared a bit of their lives with me, and I truly hope they learned things from me that are of value. And education doesn't suck either. We all have those moments of disgust, but despite the problems, a college education is a privilege and a valuable opportunity to learn about the world and challenge your assumptions about it.

I gotta say, though, 8 a.m. classes really do suck.

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

Teacher evaluations used to be something college students filled out only at the end of the semester. Now, sites like RateMyProfessors.com and a whole host of other sites allow students to leave comments about their professors anonymously.

Is this use of technology helpful for the educational process? On the one hand, these sites provide students a source of information about their professors. They can help to hold professors more accountable for their teaching. Students might be more comfortable leaving ratings on this sites than on paper evaluations, where a professor might be able to read their handwriting.

On the other hand, are these sites reliable? Sometimes, but not always. Students who are motivated to leave feedback for a professor might do so because they either love or hate a professor, so the results may be skewed. Also, the number of ratings usually is small, and can you really know what a professor is like after reading the opinions of a few students? And while much of this professor feedback is well-written and useful, some students use these sites as an anonymous way to flame professors. Furthermore, the sites can't verify that the person who leaves the feedback is actually a student. Perhaps the professor's jealous colleague or vengeful ex-boyfriend is leaving the feedback.

As you can imagine, professors hate these sites. Thanks to these sites, if a student hates a professor, now the whole world can know about it! That includes the professor's other students, colleagues, potential employers, spouses, ex-lovers, children, neighbors, stalkers, and anyone else who logs onto the site.

Imagine how you would feel if your job performance evaluations were available to everyone on the planet. Let's say you're a restaurant server, and you're having a terrible day and give someone unusually bad service. What if your customer had the opportunity to leave a review of you on MyServerSucks.com? Now your bad day and poor service can be known the whole world over, and your vindictive ex-boyfriend or girlfriend can laugh with glee. Or imagine if there was a site called RateMyStudent.com, where professors could leave nasty, anonymous reviews about problem students. You feel entitled a little privacy, right? Professors feel the same way.

Should students use teacher evaluation sites? By all means, take advantage of them. But just remember that they're only one source of information, and that they may not be the most reliable source. And if you're going to leave feedback on these sites, please be constructive.

Oh, and check out:

• a satirical look at the future of teacher ratings websites and blog wars, and
• suggestions for how to fill out a helpful teacher evaluation form.

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

My media students have been discussing the role of digital technology in society, and I had a great conversation with both of my classes about MySpace and Facebook. In one class, I asked them how many of them had a MySpace or Facebook page, and only three students did not raise their hands! It's pretty amazing. These technologies were unheard of a few years ago, and now they're a huge part of the college student experience.

I asked them what they felt the positive and negative implications were of MySpace and Facebook. Of course, they had positive things to say about how their pages allowed them to communicate with old friends. On the negative side, students complained that these pages promote superficial relationships with a long list of "friends" you barely know. At the same time, the opposite problem is true: these pages promote excessive intimacy, as people discuss all kinds of things in detail to strangers that they never would discuss face to face.

One student said that his friends get mad at him because he doesn't check his homepage often enough. He said it's not enough for him to leave them messages on their cell phones anymore; he has to go online and "talk" to them.

Another student made an interesting point: a few months ago when Facebook changed some of its policies, students all over the country were in an uproar. He said that it was a shame students hadn't put that much energy into the midterm elections. On a related note, several students complained that personal homepages are repositories of pointless content, of people posting pictures of themselves getting wasted and babbling about their angst, as opposed to focusing on more serious issues. I'm not sure what I think of this argument. On the one hand, I most certainly would like to see my students become more politically involved. On the other hand, I question how big of a role personal homepages play in distracting students from more serious issues.

One of the most disturbing things my students told me was that the conflict resolution office is in the habit of checking the homepages of students accused of questionable behavior in search of incriminating evidence. Granted, students probably should know better than to write about certain things on their homepages. Nonetheless, this is a little too Big Brother for my tastes.

One thing that cracked me up: I asked one of my classes how many of them had ever manually turned the dial on a television set. Many students had not! Some days teaching makes me feel old.

I'm a geek, so I've got to say that I think MySpace and Facebook are really cool, and I wish they were around when I was a student. At the same time, these pages bring up interesting questions about the relationship between technology and society, and I think it's always healthy to examine this.

On a lighter note: apparently the grandmother of one of my students is a big fan of Internet gambling sites, and keeps downloading Spyware and viruses onto her computer. She blames her grandson for the viruses because he stores music files there. Grandma, if you're reading this: he's a good kid, and it's not his fault! Please be careful about what you download.

Oh, and please check out my satirical article about how technology could make classrooms obsolete.

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

Many of today's college students have their cell phones, iPods, and laptops at their disposal, and are never too far from their MySpace or Facebook pages. The technology of the Generation Y college student is amazing, but is it impacting education negatively? (See my satirical article on how technology might make classrooms obsolete.)

My media classes are discussing technology right now, and I had a great conversation with a student named Ryan. We discussed the relationship between poor attention spans and our fragmented experiences with technology. In the 1950s, people used to watch television shows and listen to records from start to finish. Today, we can flip the remote control to a new station if we're bored, or record shows on TiVo and zap past commercials and uninteresting scenes. With digital music, we can listen to a song until we're bored with it, and then press a button and hear a portion of different song. The web lends itself more to scanning than actual reading, and there's always a hyperlink ready to take you somewhere else if you're bored.

In addition, today's media experience is fragmented because we're accustomed to multitasking and paying attention to multiple stimuli. We listen to music as we IM and skim through news headlines, read a textbook as we watch TV, and text message in class as we scan through the professor's Power Point slides. We develop valuable multitasking skills, but how much of each source of information do we really absorb?

So how is this affecting our education? Do students have poor attention spans because they are so used to enjoying fragments of media that can be switched at the touch of a button when boredom sets in? In classrooms, students are asked to sit still and listen for an hour at a time. People don't even listen to four minute songs on their iPods from start to finish!

Neil Postman, author of Amusing Ourselves to Death, argued in 1986 that thanks to the entertaining, image-based world of television, we've lost the ability to concentrate on topics of importance. Postman died a few years ago, but I can imagine that he would have felt that our fragmented digital technologies have thoroughly destroyed students' ability to pay attention.

Now, Postman was kind of technological determinist, which means he ascribed an awful lot of power to technologies. I'm not nearly as pessimistic. However, I do think he has a point. When I discuss this with students, most agree that they have poor attention spans and that this has quite a bit to do with technology.

So, what should be done? In part, professors need to adapt to Generation Y and their fragmented experiences with technology. This doesn't mean professors need to stand on their heads to be entertaining, but it does mean the traditional lecture format doesn't work as well as it used to and needs to be combined with interactive activities and media resources. However, students need to adapt as well. There are many situations in life that will require full attention, so listening to a professor is good practice. Lecturing might be a dying art, but it is a valuable art, and students ought to pay attention.

I love talking to students about these issues, so thanks for inspiring this blog entry, Ryan! I'd love to hear what some of you have to say as well, if you're still paying attention to this article and haven't clicked on a link already!

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

Thinking of trading your dorm room in for an off campus apartment? Check out my article about questions students should ask themselves about off campus housing before they make the move. I hope this will make your decision easier!

Let me tell you about my experience as an undergraduate at Rutgers. I stayed in the dorms all four years, for a number of reasons. First, I lived in Demarest Hall, the greatest dormitory on the Planet Earth. Well, probably not, but it suited me well. It was a "special interest dorm," which means residents had to apply to live in special interest sections (like art, Spanish, creative writing, etc.) and participate in weekly activities. I was in the History section. The dorm attracted an ecclectic mix of students and was a genuine community, with all the advantages (friendships, activities, fun) and disadvantages (drama, drama, drama). Plus Demarest was centrally located on a campus where housing was hard to come by, which was a huge plus.

Having found a dorm that felt like home, I stuck around because it made me feel secure. I was dealing with some pretty heavy family and money issues, so having a community to return to was comforting. I had plenty of stress in my life, and the responsibility of an off campus apartment sounded like more stress than I wanted. In addition, housing in New Brunswick, New Jersey is neither cheap nor luxurious (to say the least), so I didn't have that incentive to leave the dorms. Most of my friends stayed in the dorms too, so that was the clincher.

In retrospect, I wish I had found an apartment senior year. It would have been a boost to my self-confidence to know I could live independently. When I visited a few years back, I walked through the cramped hallways of Demarest Hall and felt clautrophobic, and wondered how in the world I lived with so little space for so long? And how in the world did I eat at Brower Commons for four years?

On the other hand, I've had plenty of time since then to become independent, pay a mortgage, raise a daughter, and take care of all the responsibilities that come wth adulthood. So maybe enjoying the convenience of a dorm for awhile wasn't so bad.

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

Should public colleges and universities display secular Christmas decorations, like Christmas trees and lights? In the United States, this has become a heated controversy in recent years, and I'd love to hear what my readers have to say about this.

Those who support Christmas decorations on college campuses argue that Christmas is an important part of American culture and of the lives of the majority of students. Refusal to display Christmas decorations brings up freedom of speech issues, as it is banning a form of expression important to many students. They argue it is an example of politically correct extremism. On the other side of the issue, students who are not Christian feel excluded by these decorations and celebrations. Public universities receive public funding, and many feel it is a violation of the separation of church and state to display images associated with a religious holiday. Non-Christians may feel like Christmas decorations are a subtle way to push religious beliefs upon them, under the guise of "Christmas is for everybody."

I think people with opinions on both sides of this issue would benefit from trying to understand this issue from the perspective of others. For those who favor Christmas decorations on campus and in other public places: try to imagine what it must feel like to live in a society where the culture's biggest celebration of family and giving is based around a tradition that is contrary to your own. Non-Christians often feel like they have to choose between betraying their own beliefs or opting out of a major component of American culture. Christmas is absolutely everywhere in American culture, and it's comforting to have a few Christmas-free public spaces this time of year.

Likewise, people who want Christmas symbols out of public spaces should try to understand the other side as well. To many Americans, Christmas is a joyful celebration that they associate with their most beloved childhood memories. To have someone come along and say that the images of this celebration are exclusionary can be painful. For those that see Christmas as an important religious celebration, attempts to limit the expression of Christmas can feel like persecution.

Here's my personal take on things. I don't think there needs to be a ban on all secular symbols of Christmas on campuses. These symbols bring many students joy and comfort , especially as finals roll along, and they are an important part of American culture. Campuses can balance these Christmas symbols with secular displays of non-Christian holidays throughout the year (and not just Hanukkah, which is a relatively insignificant religious festival). However, I do think campuses should show respect for non-Christian members of their communities and voluntarily limit the amount of Christmas symbols on campus. Since I am Jewish, I personally appreciate efforts like these very much. Students should be free to decorate personal spaces like dorm rooms in any way they want, but should understand that public spaces on campus are for everybody.

This, of course, is solely my own perspective. I'd love to hear what you think. Also, please check out my suggestions for holiday gifts for college students.

Naomi R-G

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

I try not to get too preachy, but here's some strong advice to students: vote! vote! vote! For my U.S. readers: now that your college midterms are over, it's time to think more about this important midterm election. This may be the most important U.S. election in years. Senate and House races across the country are extremely close (and nasty), and this election may or may not result in both houses of Congress shifting to the Democrats and George W. Bush losing quite a bit of influence. With everything that's going on--North Korea, the War in Iraq, terrorism--the party in charge is going to make a huge difference.

Along with the fact that this is an important midterm election, there's another reason college students and other young people need to vote. The Generation Y demographic (people born roughly between 1977 and 1997) are considered by many to be apathetic, self-centered, and not the least bit concerned about what's going on. Do you want to prove this stereotype wrong? Then vote.

Another good reason to vote: politicians don't focus on issues that impact young people because so few young people vote. Advertisers love the Generation Y demographic and spend a ton of money and energy trying to get you to buy stuff. Politicians, however, don't pay much attention to you at all. In other words, the powers that be think of young people as important consumers and not as important citizens. Wouldn't you like to change that?

Things have changed so much since my mother went to college in the 1960s during the Vietnam War era. In 1964, when my mother was a sophomore at the University of Minnesota, many students were uncertain of how they felt about the war. Most of their fathers had fought in World War II, so they had been raised to support the government and the military, but many also had doubts about this particular conflict. To address student concerns, the university held a sit-in in a huge auditorium. Pro-war and anti-war experts spoke for hours, and the students just listened so they could make up their own minds. Even though this was in the middle of midterm exams, thousands of stuents flooded the auditorium because they felt it was important to be informed.

In my experience, Generation Y students are not apathetic. In fact, since 9/11 and the beginning of the War in Iraq, I've seen students become more and more interested and concerned about current events. However, I do think many Generation Y students feel hopeless, like nothing they do can make a difference. This is how students of today differ from students in 1964, and that's a shame.

So I'll get off my soapbox now. I'll be voting on Tuesday, and I hope you will be too.

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

Need some songs for study breaks to help you relax and study more effectively? To offer you suggestions for great songs to blare in your room or on your iPod, I asked my students to suggest some of their favorite study break songs. Also, check out my suggestions for other healthy procrastination habits, including mindless television, awesome novels, funny movies , and study snacks.

My students can probably offer much better advice to you Generation Y students about music than I can! But in case I can be of use to you as well, here's a list of the music I loved to listen to when I was a student.

• Fleetwood Mac-- I drove everyone in my dorm crazy with my Fleetwood Mac craze. I listened to Rumours over and over (The Chain, Go Your Own Way, Dreams, Gold Dust Woman).
• Elton John-- My roommate Michele was largely responsible for this. My favorite loud Elton John study songs were I'm Still Standing, Love Lies Beeding, I Don't Wanna Go on With You Like That, and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.
• REM-- I discovered REM in college, and now they're my favorite band. As an undergrad, I listened to Out of Time (Losing My Religion, Texarkana, Me in Honey) and Reckoning (South Central Rain, Rockville). In grad school, I listened to Monster (Bang and Blame, What's the Frequency, Kenneth?) and Up (Walk Unafraid, Lotus, Diminished, Sad Professor).
• Billy Joel-- My history class friend Eric and I memorized the words of the last verse of We Didn't Start the Fire. (Yeah, I was a total geek.) I also loved The Stranger, Moving Out, and My Life.
• Cocteau Twins--This was from my annoying quasi-goth alternative music phase. If you haven't heard them, this music is mellow and gothy and has mostly inaudible lyrics, so it's great study music. My favorite albums were Heaven Or Las Vegas and Blue Bell Knoll.
• Nirvana-- A mandatory choice for an angsty Generation X type like myself. Great loud Nirvana study break music includes Heart Shaped Box, About a Girl, Pennyroyal Tea, and of course Smells Like Teen Spirit.
• Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young-- Great college music for all generations. They offer mellow study music (Teach Your Children, Wasted on the Way, Guinevere) and good loud study break music (Ohio, Woodstock).
• Peter Gabriel-- Peter Gabriel music reminds me so much of Demarest Hall, especially my friends Andrew and Seth. My favorite songs are I Have the Touch and Games Without Frontiers.
• Concrete Blonde-- One of my graduate school favorites for rockin' study break music. My favorite albums were Mexican Moon (Heal it Up, I Call It Love, Jenny I Read) and Bloodletting (Darkening of the Light, Joey).

But seriously, check out my students' suggestions for great study break songs, and please leave some suggestions of your own!

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

Are professors biased? Is there a liberal bias against Christians on college campuses? What is the definition of liberal bias or conservative bias? The answers to these questions are complicated and subject to interpretation. So here's my personal take on things:

Yes, bias in the classroom does exist. Many professors are liberal, and therefore much of this bias is liberal. (Keep in mind, however, that some schools and professors are more liberal or conservative than others, and not all bias is liberal.). If you ask social critics such as Ann Coulter or David Horowitz, this is a very serious problem. I think they are exaggerating. Although I do think it is an extremely serious problem if professors discriminate against their students based on political or religious beliefs, I don't think that a professor's personal opinions matter as much as some people may think.

First of all, all professors have bias (as do students). Although the professor can attempt to keep the class as balanced as possible, it's impossible for that bias not to affect the class to some degree. The topics, readings, and discussions chosen by the professor will reflect how the professor sees the world.

Second, professors should have the right to express their personal opinions openly, just as students should. Wouldn't you rather know where your professor stands on the issues being discussed in class than for this to be a mystery? During the McCarthy era, professors with the "wrong" views were fired and silenced. It's important to maintain an atmosphere where everyone can express their opinions, including professors.

There's a line, however, between bias and discrimination. All professors have bias, but they have an ethical obligation to observe certain democratic practices in the classroom:

• A professor has an obligation to grade each student with the exact same criteria, regardless of a student's opinions. An excellent paper that states an opinion the professor strongly disagrees with should receive an A, and a lousy paper that echoes the professor's opinions should receive a D.
• A professor has an obligation to treat each student with respect and kindness, regardless of a student's opinion. Students who state their opinions in class should be addressed with respect and invited to elaborate, regardless of that opinion.
• If a student is attacked by other students for expressing his or her opinions, the professor needs to put a stop to this.
• A professor should not try to persuade students. It's fine if professors state their opinions and explain why they feel that way, but it's not their job to convince other people they are wrong.
• If a professor expresses his or her opinion, he or she must be willing to entertain other opinions and accept polite disagreement from students.
• To a reasonable degree, professors should expose the class to multiple opinions about a controversial issue to help students make up their own minds.

If you have a professor who discriminates against students, you should complain to the professor, the department, and/or the school. But please understand that this is a serious accusation, and that most professors who express their opinions do not discriminate against students who disagree with them. Personally, I would much rather have a student who strongly expresses opinions that are different than mine than a student who says nothing at all. Talk to the professor if you have concerns, and you may just find yourself in a friendly and intelligent conversation.

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

This blog is entry is inspired by the two sweet students who were in my office this morning, one of them in tears, because they had missed my paper deadline. I want to talk about deadlines: how to keep them in perspective, why professors feel they are so important, and how to get deadline extensions if you need them.

I don’t know what’s going on at your school, but at Colorado State University this week, everyone’s having a meltdown. It’s just that time of the semester, you know? Break is still weeks away, and everybody has a long list of deadlines, deadlines, deadlines. When I ask students how they are doing, I am inevitably met with phrases such as, “three papers due this week,” “so freaking tired,” and “Ack! Too much pressure!” (The last phrase is actually the catchphrase of Tweek, my favorite South Park character, but you get the idea.)

So why are professors so insistent on deadlines? Well, it’s mostly because of our crazy schedules. We have a zillion time-consuming projects to complete, just like students do, and one of those projects is to grade our students’ papers. When we plan our schedules, we know that we’re going to get 40 papers on October 20, and we estimate how much time it will take to grade them. If we don’t establish deadlines, the papers would fly in on many different days, making it impossible to schedule the grading. For that reason, some professors get angry when papers don’t get turned in because it seems disrespectful. You know how students hate professors who don’t seem to understand that their class isn’t the only priority students have in their lives? Professors feel the same way about students who don’t respect their time.

I hate to say that another reason we emphasize deadlines is because “it’s for your own good,” but it’s true. You need to learn how to manage your time and meet deadlines now. It’s not going to get any easier once you are working and possibly also juggling a family. In school, the consequences of missing a deadline might be a letter grade or two; at work, missing the deadline could cost a company money and you can lose your job.

That said, there are perfectly good reasons to miss a deadline, but it’s much, much easier to get an extension if you ask before the deadline instead of afterwards. If you tell the professor two weeks ahead of time that have four papers due during the same week and ask for an extension, you might get it. This approach shows the professor that you do respect his or her time and are a responsible, professional person. It’s same approach you’ll take at work; give your boss some notice that you have too much on your plate, and the deadline may get moved. If many students in your class have a big deadline in two classes at the same time, let both professors know, and it’s quite likely that one of them will give the whole class an extension.

Also, if you know at the beginning of the semester that it’s going to be hard to meet deadlines because of illness, family obligations, or something out of the ordinary, let the professor know as soon as possible and he or she will work with you. It’s not necessary to share all your personal details; just let professors know you’re dealing with a problem.

What do you do if you miss a deadline and haven’t had a conversation with your professor? This is harder. Apologize and turn the paper in as soon as you can. If there’s a genuinely good reason why the paper is late, talk to the professor, and maybe you won’t be penalized. Please note that your professor will be leery of any excuse because an awful lot of problems seem to occur in students’ lives when a paper is due! This time around, about 15% of my students missed my paper deadline, even though I assigned the paper over a month ago, and that’s typical. As much as possible, don’t put your paper off until the last minute. Then if you have last minute problems, like a nasty cold or computer problems, it won’t matter so much because the paper is almost done.

But whatever you do, don’t have a meltdown. Test anxiety isn’t productive, and neither is deadline anxiety. It may seem like an emergency situation that your printer doesn’t work on a morning that you need to print out your paper twenty minutes before class, but in the grand scheme of things this isn’t such a big deal, you know? To prevent meltdown, manage your time as well as possible before the deadline, ask for extensions ahead of time if necessary, and keep things in perspective. Oh, and for stress relief, try out these study snacks.

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

One of the sweetest surprises in my life lately arrived in the form of an out-of-the-blue email from Michele, my college roommate. We hadn’t communicated since graduation due to some petty college drama issues that I don’t want to bore you with. (Needless to say, a guy was involved.)

College friendships can be challenging because there’s no getting away from one another, especially if you’re living in a dorm. The tendency is to share your deepest secrets and vulnerabilities, and although that makes for meaningful friendships, it also leads to Drama. Ah, drama. I picked up a journal I wrote junior year, and I could not believe what a drama queen I was! I spent pages whining and angsting about conflicts in my dorm that I don’t even remember now.

Students, be kind to your college friends. You’ll forget all about the latest Drama of the Week crisis, but you’ll never forget the special people with whom you share the life-changing experience of college. Let me tell you a little bit about my girls from college.

First, there’s Michele, who inspired this blog entry. We met freshman year as we suffered through the World’s Worst 8:00 a.m. College Calculus Class. (You think I’m exaggerating? Ask Michele). I managed to survive the class with a C+ and a new friendship. As roommates, we spent a lot of time listening to Elton John and occasionally blared her Barry Manilow records with the window open. She went through a Guns ‘n’ Roses phase senior year, and I pretended to be disgusted (since I was going through my annoying quasi-goth alternative music phase), but secretly I always feel nostalgic for Michele when I hear Sweet Child O’ Mine.

Then there’s Susan. We became friends pretty much instantly, when she stopped by my floor in hopes of running into some guy she liked. She got me instead (which is just as well, since he was kind of a pervert). Susan nursed me through my freshman year traumatic breakup (speaking of Drama of the Week) and was a bridesmaid at my wedding. I helped her finish a sculpture project in the middle of the night, and she helped me make a hideous blue mug. It’s on my desk right now, and I love it.

Next is Erika, who was the most like me of all my college friends. Have you ever had a friend with whom you shared a million nonsensical inside jokes? That was Erika. I think we spent about seven months total holed up in her room, listening to her Chess cassette. We shared an unfortunate chapter involving two particularly odd guys we dated from student government, but let’s not get into that.

Then there was Laura, who transferred to Rutgers our junior year. Laura seemed way more hip and sophisticated than me, so I was a little surprised at first that she kept hanging around. We took a trip down to D.C. together, and I have this peaceful memory of walking around Georgetown with Laura in the most beautiful fall weather. Laura and I lost touch a few years ago (so Laura, if you’re out there, give me a shout!)

So those are my college girls, who mean the world to me. I’ll have to tell you more about my crazy college dorm one of these days. Shouts out to everyone from Demarest Hall!

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

There are several reasons why students plagiarize papers. First, a failure to understand the definition of plagiarism. Second: a blatant disregard for academic integrity combined with extreme laziness. The third reason: desperation. In my experience, plagiarism almost always results from the third reason.

It goes something like this: A student becomes overwhelmed with the chaos of college life and the never ending list of pressures and deadlines. A 10 page paper is due on Monday, and the student hasn’t even done the research yet! And a lot is riding on this paper, since the student got a D on the midterm and the paper is worth 40% of the grade. Plus the subject material is difficult and the student doesn’t fully understand what’s expected on the paper. Ack! Ack! Then someone stops by with a paper written by a student at a different school about the same topic. Or the student finds something on a college essay plagiarism website that just needs a few modifications to fit the assignment. If this were a sappy TV teen drama, this would be the dramatic moment of truth in the episode.

I understand the temptation, but believe me, if you’re ever faced with the temptation, avoid plagiarism. Professors know how to prevent plagiarism, and it’s not worth the risk of failing the class or facing expulsion. And besides, you know your education is worth more than this to you.

There are better strategies to approach this situation. First, figure out what the penalty is for a late paper. You might lose ten points, but that will give you more time to write a quality paper. If you have a good reason, such as two other papers due the same week, ask the professor for an extension. If turning in the paper late isn’t possible, find other ways to clear your schedule so you can devote the next few days to the paper. Offer your shift at work to someone who needs overtime. Postpone your Saturday night date until Wednesday. See if another professor is willing to give you an extension on some other impending assignment.

If none of this is possible, try to keep things in perspective. What’s the worst thing that will happen if your paper sucks? Will a poor grade in this one class affect your life dramatically? Probably not, and it certainly won’t affect your life as much than getting caught plagiarizing.

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

College is bad for your health. Many students don’t get enough sleep or exercise, have way too much stress in their lives, and live in close quarters with hundreds of people and zillions of germs. But perhaps the most unhealthy experience of many college students is their relationship with food.

One common problem is the Freshman Fifteen. No, not all students will gain fifteen pounds their freshman year, but an awful lot of students do. Students leave their parents’ kitchen and suddenly are 100% responsible for their own food intake. For me, it was more tempting to indulge in two desserts than it was to drink!

But, you know, there are worse things you can do to your body and psyche than gain a few pounds. Thing is, at the same time that students are in a situation where weight gain is common, they experience increased pressure to stay thin. This is, of course, especially true for female students. There’s this media-fueled image of the “hot co-ed” that many young women want to live up to, and many feel an awful lot of pressure to impress the guys. Eating disorders are rampant on college campuses, especially bulimia, which tends to make its onset in college-aged women (while anorexia more commonly makes its onset in high school and middle school students).

Because I teach classes about gender and media images, many of my students have approached me to discuss their eating disorders and their poor relationships with food. I’ve heard such awful stories. One of the saddest things female students have told me is how they feel uncomfortable eating around both male and female students, as if eating were an unnatural and unfeminine thing to do. A student told me she got dirty looks from her friends when she brought a hamburger to the lunch table, because they just ate salads. How warped is that?

Yes, it’s a good idea to develop healthy eating habits and avoid the Freshman Fifteen. But food is a necessary and enjoyable part of human experience, so don’t focus too much on what you eat. You’re in college to get an education and to learn something about yourself, not to be a runway model. This should be a time for young women to reach their potential and develop self-confidence, regardless of their dress size.

Oh, and if you or someone you know has an eating disorder, please contact your school’s health center or counseling center immediately. This is a medical emergency, and it happens to be a common one that many schools are well equipped to handle.

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

I graduated from college in 1992, so I’m not exactly mummified. But in the years since I graduated, technology has transformed the college campus and the college experience. My technology savvy Generation Y students stroll around campus with their iPods and cell phones. They write papers on their laptops while updating their MySpace or Facebook pages and instant messaging their roommates.

Here’s what college was like way back in the day (a whole fourteen years ago!) As an undergraduate, I did not own a computer. Only a few of my lucky friends owned these expensive apparatuses, like my friend Laura. When we had to write papers, the rest of us poor schmucks used typewriters, waited in line for hours at the computer lab, or hung out in Laura’s room. I also did not have email. When my friend Andrew studied abroad in Germany, we exchanged letters, which took a full week to reach each other.

And music? I got my first CD player as a college graduation present. I listened to cassettes and made mix tapes when I was bored or had a broken heart. I would have sold my right arm for an iPod, if such a thing existed. Instead, my cassette Walkman with a broken battery case was one of my favorite possessions. The tapes would get tangled, and I’d have to unwind them by hand with a pen cap.

And cell phones? Are you kidding? I had a couple of friends who carried around Walkie Talkies (Betsy and Shaun, this means you), but most of us just had room phones that weren’t even cordless. There was no voice mail, but my roommate Michele had an answering machine that would crash onto the floor if you pulled the phone too hard. My stepmother, who graduated from the same school in 1977, thought I had it made with a room phone, because in her day students had to share a pay phone down the hall.

It floors me how important technology has become in the lives and educational experiences of my students. My students text message each other in class (a major professor pet peeve), and listen to their iPods all the time, as if their lives had a soundtrack. One of my students last year sat in the front row, participated actively, and listened to her iPod. She said she couldn’t concentrate otherwise (and she got an A in the class). Students can do most of their research at their desk, check their grades on-line, and are accustomed to Power Point in the classroom.

Some professors complain that students are losing out on interpersonal skills because they communicate via IM and email and tune everybody out with iPods. To some degree, this may be true. But hey, students, I would have loved all of this technology when I was an undergraduate. So enjoy it.

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

Some of the best classes I took in college were ones that made me feel very uncomfortable and challenged my assumptions about how the world works.

In one of my very favorite classes, my class debated the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The professor urged us to join a debate team that represented a side we totally disagreed with. Now, I didn’t know much about the issue at the time, but because I’m Jewish, I assumed I would be on the side of the Israelis. So I took the professor’s advice and joined the debate team that represented the most radical Palestinian viewpoint. Most of the other Jewish students in the class did the same.

At first, we didn’t know where to start because we all thought the Palestinians were dead wrong and lacked logical arguments to back their cause. So we started doing research, and that’s when things started getting uncomfortable. I realized that the Palestinians have rational, intelligent arguments for feeling the way the do, and that the Israelis have not always been unquestionably right. When the debate was over, the professor asked the class which side we most supported. I didn’t answer, because I was very confused, and when I walked home from class, my body was shaking. I realized that throughout my childhood, in Sunday School and even from family members, I’d learned things about Palestinians and other Middle Easterners that were inaccurate and just plain racist. I always assumed that I was too “enlightened” to have internalized racist views, but that class made me reconsider.

This debate did not totally change my mind on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But because I was put in the position of having to consider a different viewpoint, I now see this as a complex issue where different people have perfectly rational reasons for reaching different conclusions. I’m grateful to that professor for gifting me with this painful experience.

As you choose your classes, don’t be afraid to take ones outside of your comfort zone. And check out my recommendations for classes that I feel can beneficial for all students to take.

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

Okay, students, I don’t like to sound preachy. But as your friendly resident professor, I’m here to remind you of how very important attendance is in college. Attendance is the single easiest thing you can do to succeed, and lack of attendance is the single easiest thing you can do to fail. Show up, pay attention, take decent notes, and you’re more than halfway there.

I'm in a grumpy mood about attendance because I gave an exam today at 8 a.m. I don’t have an attendance policy in this class, and about half of my students show up regularly. This really hit home today when I walked into class with my exams in hand, and the classroom was completely full! I thought I was in the wrong room.

Now, I know there are extremely tempting reasons to skip class, especially at 8 a.m., and the most tempting reason is the desire to sleep. Believe me, I understand, as I ‘m the mom of a toddler who rarely sleeps through the night, and I bet I’m more tired than many of my students. And there are other good reasons to miss class. You’re sick. You have a family emergency. You have a test in another class. You’re recovering from a bad breakup. Your PlayStation is beckoning. Your roommate wants to play Frisbee. You have a hangover from the night before. You hate the class with every ounce of your being.

I understand. I was a student once too. And sometimes missing class is unavoidable. But the bottom line is very straightforward: if you care about your grade and want to have a meaningful education, going to class is mandatory, and that means all or most of the time. There’s no way around it.

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

I love fashion, and I'm glad that I have college students in my classroom, or I would never know what was in style! But let me offer a little advice about dressing for the college classroom.

Now, I'm no prude. I think women should dress in any way they feel comfortable. Nonetheless, I'm sometimes alarmed by the amount of skin displayed by the young women in my classroom.

The thing is, women have fought an awfully long time to be taken seriously in the classroom. Professors often used to assume that women were only in college to earn their "MRS" degrees (i.e. to find a husband), and didn't pay them much mind. Because of this, I think it's important for female students to take a little pride in themselves as serious students.

Unfortunately, it's hard for professors and fellow students to take a woman seriously who is so scantily clad that she may as well be topless. Clothes like this don't convey the message, "I'm a serious and intelligent student." Don't get me wrong, ladies-- go ahead and dress however you want on the weekends-- but when you're in the classroom, do yourself a favor and turn up the modesty a notch.

And guys, I've got some advice for you too. Casual is fine for a college classroom, but if you wear torn jeans and a filthy T-shirt and have a baseball cap pulled over your face, who's going to take you seriously? There's always a few guys in my class who I call the Baseball Cap Boys, because they sit in the back of the room and hide under their hats, and they're always the last ones whose names I learn. If you must wear a baseball cap (especially if it's a Bad Hair Day), wear it so we can see your face.

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

As a professor, I hate giving exams. I hate being responsible for making a whole room full of students miserable and stressed out. And this semester I teach at 8 a.m., so my poor students are extra miserable.

When exam day arrives, there are two kinds of students who are especially miserable: those who barely studied, and those who are overwhelmed with test anxiety. I’m not so concerned about those who didn’t study, because that’s their own problem. But I worry about the students who are freaking out needlessly. (They remind me of my favorite South Park character, Tweek.)

If you have test anxiety, try to put things into perspective. If you don’t do well, what are the consequences? It’s highly unlikely this one exam is will prevent you from getting a job, going to graduate school, or from maintaining your school’s minimum GPA. And no, your performance on this test is not a reflection of your worth as a human being.

There are so many worse things that can happen than a low grade on one lousy test. Let me give you some examples. When I was an undergraduate at Rutgers, a guy in my dorm was nearly killed by a Pepsi machine. When he paid for his soda and it failed to vend, he shook the machine. (Note: never, never do this!) The machine crashed down on top of him, putting him into a coma for days, and now he has to go through life being known as the guy who almost got killed by a Pepsi machine. This is a fate worse than doing poorly on an exam.

Another example: during my sophomore year, my best friend’s roommate almost burned down our dorm. As part of an art project, she glued flower petals into her scrapbook with rubber cement, and decided it would look pretty to cover the flowers with hot wax from a candle. (Note: never, never do this either!) Thankfully she was not hurt, and the fire was contained quickly. But think of it this way: if your roommate did not start a fire in your room, you are having a pretty good day,

So, keep things in perspective! Don’t be Tweek. Excessive worry about an exam is counterproductive anyway; you’re bound to do worse if you don’t relax a little. Be sure to get enough sleep, and check out my suggestions for exam week snacks.

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen

What stresses you out most about college life? Grades? Test anxiety? Financial aid? Leaving home? Friendships and dating? Living with a complete stranger in a tiny dorm room? Avoiding the Freshman 15? Career choices after college?

If college life information is what you seek, I’m here to help! I’ve always wanted to give students common sense, practical information and insight about real life college experiences. Those student handbooks they pass out at orientation are hokey and talk down to students. I’d like to give you useful tools to help you figure out how to have a fabulous academic and social experience at college— in a way that reflects your personality, your interests, and your values.

My name is Naomi Rockler-Gladen, and I’m an assistant professor of communication and media studies at Colorado State University. I’ve been a part of the world of college education for a long time, and I’ve taught at both public universities (Colorado State, Indiana University, Purdue University, University of Minnesota) and a private liberal arts school (Gustavus Adolphus College).

"As a professor, I’ll be giving you the inside scoop about who professors are, which Nutty Professor to avoid, and how to avoid an Angry Professor. I will tell you what you really need to do to be successful in different kinds of classes, and ways to work the system to get into the classes you need. And I’ll help you as you deal with social issues as well, from dating to drinking to friendships to fraternities and sororities. What kind of information would you most like to know about college kife? How can this website be of most use to you? Let me know what kind of articles you’d like to see by posting your ideas in the discussion section below. Tell me where you’re from and what kind of concerns you have about college. I’ll be seeing you around!

Naomi R-G