Commuter students: Balancing work, family and academics
I chose this topic for the presentations during the spring semester workshop because of its importance in the modern institutions of learning. Since the number of commuter students has greatly increased in most schools across the world, it is the right time to have presentations focused on establishing the problems they face and suggesting effective solutions for them. Their challenges affect the entire learning institutions because they lead to the overall poor performance of colleges ( Biddix, 2015) . Therefore, I strongly believe that having a discussion and presentations centered on this topic will be quite worthwhile in helping ameliorate the weaknesses that the modern education system is grappling with, especially poor performance in academic work.
This topic is very interesting and needed for the presentations and discussion during the workshop because undergraduate university programs are now witnessing an unprecedented trend, where the number of the commuter students is surging at a very high rate. Most of these commuter students in universities, doing their undergraduate studies, will be part of the audience during the workshop. They will be very much interested in hearing discussions aimed at finding solutions to their major challenges. It is significant to highlight the fact that the number of undergraduate university students increased at a rate of 45% between the years 1996 and 2006 (AUCC, 2011). Most of these commuter students normally come with needs and educational desires, which are very distinct from those of the traditional colleagues in the university. The shifting demographics on campuses towards more mature, married, working and commuting students makes it necessary for the colleges and universities to discuss issues surrounding this category of learners in order to adapt to their needs. The importance of understanding student needs is that the universities became able to satisfy them. Without having this topic discussed and presented in fora like the workshop for the spring semester, there is no other way university stakeholders can get to understand the shifting trends in students’ needs and educational desires. It is the reason I find this topic to be very important for the whole college.
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Presentations about this topic will bring out the differences that exist between the commuter and traditional boarding students in the universities. An understanding of these differences will be necessary in helping the campuses to balance between handling the two categories of learners differently. Notably, the commuter students are usually older than the traditional learners hence their needs and desires are very different. Despite the fact that the demographic features of the commuter learners are clearly known and understood, the causes of their stress and the resultant poor academic performance when compared to the traditional resident students are yet to be researched properly. Therefore, there is no clear understanding on this matter because of minimal research about it. Discussions and presentations about this topic within the university is, thus, very significant because it will help provide this much needed information. Apart from finding out the causes of their stress, the presentations and discussions will assist in establishing some of the most effective ways of coping up with these challenges so that they do not affect their performance in campuses.
As mentioned earlier, most commuter students are mature and married. With their adulthood and marriages, they have responsibilities related to taking care of their families and doing work while building their careers. Being students at the same time, they are vulnerable to experiencing stress. The top challenge that has to be highlighted in the presentations is the issue of time management skills. Commuter students find it stressful to have an effective time allocation for work, family and school studies. They are mostly overtaken by events at work and the pre-occupied by the family responsibilities. Deliberations during the workshop have to establish some of the effective ways of managing time so that the many responsibilities do not affect the commuter learners in their academic work.
The stress of balancing the many demands and roles that the commuter students normally face at work, campus and personal life greatly affects them. It is important to have presentations identifying these demands and roles and suggesting ways of coping up with them. Applying the resource scarcity theory, joining university creates functional needs that do compete for the limited resources available. These resources include time, finance and energy. Commuter students are likely to face a demand-overload and an inter-role conflict.
During the discussions on this topic, it will be vital to point out the measures that can be taken by commuter students, so that they can thrive amidst the many demands they face and the inter-role conflict. Some of the tips that can be pointed out include the need to improve time management skills by creating a work, family and school time-table. It is also vital to create a calendar where forthcoming events are marked and integrated in the timetable in advance. Secondly, activities have to be prioritized so that the most important ones are given precedence over the less significant ones. Furthermore, commuter students must learn how to multi-task effectively. It is only through multi-tasking that they can balance among work, campus and family demands.
Veteran Friendly Campuses
The second important topic that has to be presented in the spring semester workshop is veteran friendly universities. I chose this topic because there are many veterans who think of transitioning from their duties to education. They need friendly campuses, which can accommodate them and make them feel comfortable. It is very vital to note that the transition from being a soldier to becoming a student is always hard for the veterans. They face many bureaucratic conditions, which they have to fulfill in order to get this education. Furthermore, the environment of school can at times feel alienating and foreign to a veteran.
Veteran friendly campuses refer to universities that are quite supportive and offer mentoring services to veteran students. Such campuses have created support groups to assist these veterans and do offer courses oriented to the soldiers. These campuses also perform something special aimed at welcoming the new veteran students into their community (Ventrone and Hollis, 2016).
This topic is very important because this college has to also start to tapping into the growing list of veterans who are yearning to advance their education. It has become a boom market for the modern universities as they seek to offer courses such as military science to these veterans. However, this type of students cannot be treated like their traditional counterparts. It is the reason I chose this topic so that deliberations can establish the best ways of accommodating the veteran students. Through presentations on this topic, the university can identify some of the special activities that it will be engaging in as a way of welcoming the soldiers into the university community. With the current habit of ranking campuses in term of how best they treat veteran students, discussions on this topic must be considered and presentations focusing on ways of attracting more of these students.
The presentations should also look at some of the existing veteran friendly campuses. Various researchers have been able to conduct surveys and ranked the most veteran friendly campuses across the world. This ranking helps the veterans who plan to transition into the field of education to select the best campuses.
References
Biddix, J. P. (2015). Understanding and addressing commuter student needs. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) (2011). Trends in higher education. Vol. 1. Enrollement 5. Ottawa: AUCC.
Ventrone, J., & Hollis, A. (2016). From the Air Force to college: Transitioning from the service to higher education . Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
