Social Responsibility and the Traditional College Student Research Paper

Social Responsibility and the Traditional College Student - Research Paper Example Freshman, all too often students leave for college and have no idea what the next chapter of their life will consist of in college. They understand they are headed to college and they are expected to attend class, make the grades, and graduate to get a good job. What they do not realize is that it is hardly that simple. There is so much more to the college experience aside from the obvious and one thing I feel traditional students lack is an understanding of personal responsibility. Students embrace the absence of their parents with the new gained freedom but the end result is binge drinking, campus reports of rape, alcohol poisoning, and lowered retention rates. It has been understood that in order to cultivate the values of responsibility, and good citizenship in the next generation that active investment is desirable for the purpose of civic responsibility. Apart from simply academic endeavors, productive and stable society needs in socially minded individuals able to give due dil igence to the needs of the community, and interest of a multicultural integration for the betterment of the whole. A time-honored strategy which serves as both an indicator and an encouragement of civic responsibility would be the fostering of voluntary service programs, often involving college students. Primarily, the evaluation for any such program at the college level is whether and to what extent the program or intervention measure benefits the students collectively. Involvement in voluntary service initiatives can be useful in the strategic planning for institutional policy in the long run. While civic responsibility and social awareness are desirable traits, and such programs by definition should be bereft of a profit motive, there must still be some nod to the principle of efficiency. What is the most effective use of the institution's time and resources with an eye towards long-term objectives of cultivating social responsibility? The investigation of programs and interventi ons that promote student responsibility are valuable for long-term planning purposes, but the body of literature concerning longitudinal research on the subject remains sparse. There are findings that indicate voluntary service programs can provide gains in civic responsibility, as well as cognitive performance – but more work is needed to fully quantify to what extent such gains are likely. And critics would suggest that many such studies concerning cognitive gains with respect to voluntary programs demonstrate limited evidence of effectiveness beyond the originating college campus. (Astin & Sax, 1998), (Batchelder & Root, 1994) Literature Review To integrate the subject of personal responsibility into curriculum would serve them well. Like a College 101 but on the social end rather than the academics end. In the article, â€Å"Teaching Students Personal and Social Responsibility With Measureable Learning Outcomes†, the topic of personal and social responsibility was addressed with regards to the 21st century college student. There was a study done at Rollins College (a small private liberal arts school) and Winthrop University (medium-sized, public comprehensive university) to evaluate personal and social responsibility; they created Core Commitments as a guiding philosophy (AAC&U,