NASPA Ties to Dodgy Drinking Study

March 12, 2009 in Administration, Alcohol, Media, Student Bashing, Students, The Corporate University | by | Leave a comment

The flawed study of college students’ drinking habits that got such an ugly writeup in yesterday’s USA Today was produced in conjunction with NASPA, a professional association of campus student affairs administrators. 

The USA Today article described Outside the Classroom, “a Boston-based company that offers alcohol-prevention programs to colleges,” as the study’s sponsor. It said the study’s lead researcher had been “William DeJong, a professor at Boston University School of Public Health.” The study’s findings, it reported, had been presented that day at NASPA’s annual meeting.

The article prominently quoted Gwendolyn Jordan Dungy, NASPA’s executive director, as hoping that the study would prompt others to work with her group “as we redouble our efforts to de-emphasize the role of alcohol in college life.” 

Here’s what the article didn’t say: Outside the Classroom is a major donor to NASPA. NASPA grants its donors time to make infomercial-style presentations at its conferences. DeJong is an employee of Outside the Classroom, and his “study” is a glorified press release for the company’s products. 

USA Today and NASPA are promoting a for-profit educational services company, and they’re arguably doing it by mischaracterizing student culture. In two upcoming posts we’ll explore the relationship between NASPA and Outside the Classroom, and the ways that their partnership may be compromising the interests of America’s students.

Update: Follow-up posts: 

NASPA and Outside the Classroom.

What’s Wrong With the NASPA Student Drinking Study.

Misleading Headline of the Day

March 12, 2009 in Alcohol, Curriculum, Student Bashing, Students | by | 1 comment

From USA Today: “College Freshmen Study Booze More Than Books.”

Well, no. The study found the opposite — that a majority of first-years who had drunk in the previous two weeks spent more time studying than drinking. It was a narrow majority, but a majority nonetheless.

And though it did find that those students who drank spent more time on average, drinking than studying, it also found that 30% of students didn’t drink at all.

If you factor that 30% into the study’s totals, you find that only a third of students surveyed spent more time drinking than studying, and that the average student surveyed spent an hour and fifteen minutes a week more time with the books than with a beverage.

One other thing. The study found that the average student spent 8.4 hours a week studying. But as the USA Today article notes way down at the bottom of the piece, that result is inconsistent with a National Study of Student Engagement, conducted last spring, that found that students spent an average of 13.2 hours a week prepping for class. 

To summarize: The study found that 65% of college students spend more time studying than drinking, and that the average first-year spends seventy-five more minutes a week studying than drinking. The article itself suggests that the study may have underreported students’ study time by as much as five hours a week. And yet there’s that headline again … “College Freshmen Study Booze More Than Books.”

Nice work.

Update: I’ve taken a look at the actual “study.” It was put out by a company that offers online alcohol education programs to colleges, and based on the answers provided by students who participated in the company’s programs. Estimates of time spent studying were amalgamated from several different sources, and estimates of time spent drinking were derived from an odd and unnecessarily complicated formula — in neither case did the study rely on students’ self-reporting. This wasn’t an academic study, it was a marketing device.

Second update: Okay, this is turning into a series. I’ll link to follow-up posts here…

NASPA Ties to Dodgy Drinking Study

NASPA and Outside the Classroom

NYU Scrambles NYPD for Phantom Protest

March 11, 2009 in Administration, Campus Protests, Police, Student Power, Students, The Corporate University | by | Leave a comment

April 10 update: If you’re looking for news on this morning’s New School building occupation, you can find it here.

Dozens of New York City police swarmed into Washington Square Park late last night in response to rumors of a planned midnight protest at NYU’s Bobst library.

An NYU spokesperson said the university had received word that student activists at the New School had been discussing an upcoming Bobst action, and requested the police presence — fifty cops, thirty police cars, and at least one paddy wagon — as a “precaution.”

The cops set up barricades on Washington Square South, but stood down by 2 am when it became clear that no protest was taking place.

NYU student activists Take Back NYU! mounted a 40-hour occupation of the university’s Kimmel Center last month, and New School students sat in at a campus dining hall for 30 hours in December. The New School activists, who call themselves The New School In Exile, have pledged to shut down that campus on April 1 if the university’s widely-reviled president and vice president do not resign before then.

April first is twenty-one days from today. This is shaping up to be a jittery three weeks for NYU and New School administrators.

Evening update: There was an anonymous flyer drop into the atrium of the Bobst library this afternoon. Text: “The time has come to begin our refusal. We cannot allow ourselves to stand idly by while NYU profits by our intelligence, lining other people’s pockets while our future slips away. The crises we face are too great for self-interest-as-usual. This is the beginning of their end, and our beginning. Out of their fall, we will rise. Will you rise with us?”

Morning update: NYU Local has a video from the flyer-droppers.

Law Prof Threatens Student Paper Over Sex Column

March 11, 2009 in Campus Press, Civil Liberties, Faculty, Media, Student Power, Students | by | 2 comments

Kristen Juras, an assistant professor of law at the University of Montana, doesn’t approve of a sex column that runs in the school’s student newspaper, the Montana Kaimin.

The column, Juras says, is “embarrassingly unprofessional,” and “affects my reputation as a member of the faculty.” She wants the student government’s publications board to create written content guidelines that would ban such material. If they don’t, she intends to take her case to the university’s board of trustees — and, if necessary, the state legislature.

Juras, whose son attends UM, has also sent a letter to the university’s president and the dean of its journalism school asking them to meet with the Kaimin editorial board and ask them to drop the column.

Kaimin editor Bill Oram has no intention of backing down. “We welcome the fight,” he says. “We feel we have a right and a duty to publish potentially controversial material.”

“The Bess Sex Column” has appeared weekly since late January. Its five installments to date can be found here.

March 17 Update: Follow-up post here.

Low-Cost Campus Birth Control Restored By Last Night’s Budget Bill

March 11, 2009 in Access, Campus Protests, Feminism, Gender, Health Care, Reproductive Freedom, Student Power, Students | by | Leave a comment

The omnibus budget bill that the Senate passed last night may make low-cost birth control available from campus health centers after a four-year absence.

The bill incorporated the Affordable Birth Control Act, which overturns provisions of a 2005 law that, in the words of Choice USA,

stopped pharmaceutical companies from providing prescriptions at lower than market costs to health clinics and College and University health centers. Previously, companies were supplying schools and safety-net providers with low cost or no cost birth control. As a result of the [Deficit Reduction Act], low income women and college students were forced to pay market price, approximately $40-$50 per month.

The Affordable Birth Control Act was the subject of intense organizing by campus groups, making its passage a victory for students and for student activism.

Quoting Choice USA again, “This is an example of the power we as young people have to make real change that directly impacts our lives. Congratulations everyone!”

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StudentActivism.net is the work of Angus Johnston, a historian and advocate of American student organizing.

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