Residential Life vs. Commuter Life

Stephanie Winters

Literature and SocietyDr. Sherry

ProblemThere are two different cultural groups present at college. I found in my research that the college culture for students who reside on campus was different than the college culture for students who commute.

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QuestionMany people say that college is a life changing experience. Is this experience the same for all students? I collected data to get a closer look at the different experiences that students have at college.

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BackgroundThe CLUE project required me to take a deeper look into the college life of these two different groups of students.

I used many different ethnographic techniques which included: Interviews Observations Time diaries Photos

My freshmen Year

Rebekah Nathan was a cultural anthropologist who did similar research to the CLUE project (Nathan, 2005, p.1).Nathan states, “I wanted to see what life was like as a student” (Nathan, 2005, p. 6).She enrolled herself in her university to get a better look at college life.

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Nathan’s Research

Nathan’s research mainly focused on student’s who live on campus. She did not gain much information on the student’s who commute to campus.

One reason for this may be because commuters usually leave campus after class. This would prevent Nathan from gaining any information on students who commute to school.

Nathan’s Findings Students tend to stick to small groups of friends.

Nathan states, “I could see clusters of people in each room eating and drinking as they watched the game together on their own sizeable TV sets” (Nathan, 2005, p. 54). This was similar to some of the things I found throughout Bloomsburg University

Insert-picture of student studying in room

Ethnography

Ethnography is the study of other cultures. Ethnographers try to understand the daily routines and activities of the group of people who they are studying.

The CLUE project required a lot of ethnography work. One statement about ethnography says, “Both are about constant learning. Both depend on observing, comparing, reflecting, assessing, and coming to “feel” certain stages of achievement in knowledge and skill that do not easily translate into words” (Heath & Street, 2008, p. 2). This statement summarizes the CLUE project.

Methods Time Diaries- provided an account of the daily

activities students did in a 12 hour time period Interviews- directly got answers for various

questions about college lifeBoth of these methods allowed me to get a insight view on the two college cultures present on campus.

Findings The following slides contain time diaries from six

students that I interviewed. Three of the diaries are from students who commute and the other three are from students who reside on campus.

I used these diaries to find out the daily activities of these two groups of students.

Findings cont.Time Diary #19:45am Wake up9:50am-10:00am Shower10:00am-10:45am Get ready for class10:45am-11:00am Go to Class11:00am-11:50am Class12:00am-12:50pm Class12:50pm-1:00pm Back to dorm1:00pm-1:05pm Clean room1:05pm-1:50pm Homework1:50pm-2:30pm Lunch2:30pm-2:45pm Get ready for class2:45pm-3:00pm Walk to class3:00pm-4:15pm Class4:15pm-4:30pm Walk to class4:30pm-5:45pm Class5:46pm-6:00pm Go to dinner6:00pm-7:00pm Dinner7:00pm-8:45pm Hang out with friends8:45pm-10:00pm Meetings10:00pm-12:00am Hang out with friends12:00am-9:45am Sleep

Time Diary #1 is the daily schedule of a student who resides on campus. We can see that this student spends a lot of time in class and in their dorm room. It seems like they go back to their room after each one of their classes. They talk about hanging out with friends later in the day. These friends are probably other students who live in their building. This student also mentions going to club meetings. This shows that they are an active part of the Bloomsburg community. Another thing we see is that this student does their homework in their room and does not mention going to the library. The student interviewed did not mention having a job.

Findings cont.Time Diary #27:00am Wake up8:00am-9:00am Shower and get ready9:00am-10:00am Class10:00am-11:00am Breakfast11:00am-12:00pm Class12:00pm-1:00pm Lunch and studying1:00pm-3:00pm Studying/Homework3:00pm-4:00pm Watch TV4:00pm-5:00pm Talk/hang out with friends5:00pm-6:00pm Research for class6:00pm-7:00pm Watch Tv/go to the Rec Center7:00pm-8:00pm Play soccer at the Rec Center with friends8:00pm-9:00pm Quick snack/Shower9:00pm-10:00pm Watch a movie and the Phillies game10:00pm-11:00pm Watch TV11:00pm-12:00am Homework and sleep

Time Dairy #2 is a 12 hour report of a student who resides on campus. The student spends a lot of time in class and hanging out with friends. We can see that this student does homework and studies in their room. They seem to get this work done between classes. The end of the day consists of relaxing and hanging out with friends. This student talks about watching TV and going to the Rec Center. We can conclude that the student like to relax at times but also likes being active. The student seems to enjoy hanging out with friends who are most likely fellow residential students.

Findings cont.Time Diary #39:00am Woke up9:30am-10:00am Got a shower10:00am-10:45am Put make up on/ got dresses/ did hair10:45am-11:00am Walked to class11:00am-11:50am Class11:50am-12:30pm Cleaned my room 12:30pm-1:30pm Lunch1:30pm-2:00pm Picked up package from post office/ Library 2:00pm-4:50pm Biology Lab4:50pm-6:00pm Dinner6:00pm-7:00pm Hung out in friends room7:00pm-8:00pm Football game8:00pm-12:00am Study/ computer/ listen to music12:00am-9:00am Sleep

Time Diary #3 is the daily schedule of a student who resides on campus at Bloomsburg University. The student spends a lot of time walking to and being in class. This student also seems to spend a lot of time in their room. It is a place for them to go between their classes. They mention cleaning their room between their classes. The student likes hanging out in their friend’s room. This shows that they have friends who live on campus like them. This student also talks about going to a university football game. They seem to be an active part of college life on campus.

Findings cont.Time Diary #48:15am-9:30am Wake up, shower, get ready9:30am-10:00am Drive to school10:00am-11:00am Abnormal Psychology11:00am-12:00pm Childhood Development12:00pm-1:00pm Eat lunch1:00pm-2:00pm Statistics2:00pm-4:00pm Drive home, homework4:00pm-5:00pm Eat dinner5:00pm-10:00pm Go to work10:00pm-11:00pm Watch TV11:00pm-8:00am Go to sleep

Time Diary #4 is the daily schedule of a student who commutes to college. This student talks about driving to school and must find the time that they must leave their house in order to get to class on time. Commuters are not right on campus and it takes them longer to get to school. They must drive to the campus, park their car, and walk to class. This forces the student to fit this time into their daily routine. The commuter student also mentions having a job. They get out of class, eat dinner, and go to work. This shows that the student probably has a very busy schedule and not much free time. Many student who commute have job which the must balance with their school work.

Findings cont.Time Diary #57:50am-8:30am Wake up/ get ready for class8:30am-9:00am Drive to class9:00am-10:00am Class10:00am-11:00am Class11:00am-12:00pm Class12:00pm-1:00pm Class1:00pm-1:30pm Drive home1:30pm-2:00pm Eat lunch2:00pm-5:00pm Work5:00pm-6:00pm School Work6:00pm-9:00pm Watch TV9:00pm-7:50am Sleep

Time Diary #5 is the time diary of a commuter. This student also shows the time it takes them to get to school. They must factor in traffic and weather conditions. The drive to school forces them to get up at an earlier time than students who reside on campus. The classes of this student are back to back. This may be so there is no time in between where they must sit around. Students who commute do not have a room to go back to and must find somewhere to go if they have a break between classes. One place students who have breaks might go at Bloomsburg University is the commuter lounge. This is a small room that is there for student who do not want to drive home between their classes. This student who commutes mentions having a job. This seems to be a trend in students who commute to school. We also do not see any time spent with friends in the time diary of this student.

Findings cont.Time Diary #66:20am-7:15am Wake up, shower, eat breakfast (cereal)7:15am-7:45am Drive to Bloomsburg7:45am-7:50am Get to Bloomsburg and walk to class 8:00am-8:50am Class8:50am-10:50am Break/go for coffee10:50am-11:00am Walk to class11:00am-12:00pm Class12:00pm-3:00pm Work at Anthropology Office3:00pm-3:50pm Class3:50pm-4:20pm Drive home4:20pm-5:30pm Gym/Class Work5:30pm-6:30pm Dinner6:30pm-9:00pm Work9:00pm-10:00pm School Work10:00pm-11:00pm TV11:00pm-6:20am Sleep

Time Diary #6 is of a student who does not reside on campus. The student mentions the time it takes to drive to school. They also mention going to get coffee during their break. Not many of the students who commute talked about going to the commuter lounge. This student also talks about working on campus along with working off campus. The student seems to have a very busy schedule that does not leave much time for friends. We do not see any time taken out of this student’s day to socialize with fellow students. This is a big difference when comparing it to the students who reside on campus.

Interpretation After looking at the data that I collected, I found that

the experiences for commuters are very different than the experiences for students who live on campus.

It seems like there are two distinct cultural groups that are present on campus. Students who commute have their own college culture that is different than the college culture for students who reside on campus.

Interpretation cont. Students who live on campus…

o Reported hanging out with friends in their time diarieso Reported that they tend to study and do homework in

their dorm roomo Spent the time between classes cleaning or relaxing in

their roomo Seemed to be more involved with campus activities and

clubso Being a student who resides on campus, I can relate to

many of these findings.

Dorm Rooms Many student who reside on campus tend to go back to

their room between their classes. They reported doing their homework and studying in their

room. Below are pictures of the room’s of students who reside on

campus.

Interpretation cont. Student who commute to college…

o Did not mention hanging out with friends in their time diaries

o Reported extra time spent waking up for class and driving to campus

o Made their schedules so they had back to back classeso Many reported having a job o Commuter lounge was an area for them to go to in their

down time between classes.

Commuter Lounge The commuter lounge is a place for students who commute to

campus. It is an area where students can go to relax, do work, or socialize.

This is a place where commuter students go to since they do not have the luxury of going back to a dorm room.

Conclusion cont.There are many reasons for these differences between commuters and students who reside on campus. Students who commute did not report hanging out with friends. One reason may be because they do not go out of their way to hang out with friends during the week. Students who reside on campus may spend more time hanging out with friends because it is convenient. Many of these students have friends who live next door or one floor down.

Conclusion cont.Students who commute to campus reported waking up at earlier times than student who reside on campus. Commuters must wake up and have enough time to drive to campus and walk to class. Student who live on campus are closer to their classes and do not have to wake up as early. Students who commute also seem to schedule their classes back to back. This is so they do not have time where they have to sit around. Students who dorm have the luxury of going back to their room to relax. Students who commute do not have this, they a commuter lounge instead.

Conclusion cont.Another thing I noticed when looking at my data was that many of the students who commute reported having a job. None of the students who reside on campus mentioned spending any time at work. I live on campus and do not have a job. Many of my friends who also live on campus do not have jobs. One reason for this may be due to transportation. Students who commute to school have the luxury of having their car at all times. Students who reside on campus park their cars in a lot that is not close to the building that they live in. This makes it difficult for them to travel to and from a job.

Do all students have the same experiences at college?

I believe that there are two distinct cultural groups present at college. This data and information collected showed that there are many differences among commuters and students who reside on campus.

These two different groups have different college experiences which are unique to their college culture.

This research was done for Bloomsburg University, but seems to be something that may be present at many different universities.

Works Cited Heath, S and Street, B. (2008). On Ethnography:

Approaches to Language and Literacy Research. New York: Teachers College. Print.

Nathan, Rebekah. My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student. New York: Cornell University Press, 2005.

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