One of the most prominent changes in the realm of higher education within the past few years is the relationship between the student and the school.
Young people are treated as customers, not students, a relationship change that contributes to student insistence on rules they support, language they agree with, and an atmosphere where they are guaranteed to be free from any dissenting or disagreeable opinions.
Rather than appealing to the intellect of students, colleges and universities nationwide are appealing to their emotions and “happiness.”
Colleges have made improvements and additions to campuses in recent years, according to The New York Times. From providing diverse eating options and modernizing dormitories, to revamping fitness centers, adding entertainment complexes, and building water parks, colleges have committed to sprucing up campus life for student comfort.
Barry Schwartz, a professor of psychology at Swarthmore, told the Times that Swarthmore has resisted this trend more than other colleges, but not entirely.
“We devote all these resources to creating, basically, country clubs with libraries,” he said. “There’s a big difference between teaching students and serving customers,” Schwartz said. “Teachers know things, and they should be telling students what’s worth knowing and what’s not, not catering to demands.”
In light of the recent debates over censoring speech, safe spaces, and triggering, this treatment of students as customers is especially relevant.
Students at Oberlin College have demanded exceptions and special treatments several times. Students asked for trigger warnings for those who may be upset while reading Antigone, complained about the dining hall’s sushi and ethnic integrity, and signed a petition to make a “C” be the lowest possible grade for a semester so that those skipping class to participate in social activism wouldn’t be penalized, the Times noted.
Those actions may be viewed as extreme, but they are further proof that college students today feel largely entitled and in charge, empowered by many schools’ willingness to succumb to their demands.
“We’ve given students a sense that they’re in just as good a position to know what’s worth knowing as we are,” Schwartz said. “We’ve contributed to the weakening of student resilience because we’re so willing to meet their needs that they never have to suffer.”
