Do you want the good or the bad news first?

Minding The Campus reports.

College Students Now–the Good and the Bad

First, the good news: My undergraduate students here at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, are quite literate, contrary to all the bad press and fears. Every week I give them a 20-minute writing assignment in class, the sole preparation for which is having done the week’s homework. Turns out they write pretty well; arguably, in some cases, better than with at-home papers, which may cause them more stress. This despite the fact that whenever I enter the room at the beginning of class, most of them are on their iPhones or otherwise engaged with electronic devices.

Now the bad news: For about the past week I’ve been taking note of the announcements that come to me via email from the university. These relate predominantly to events in my particular areas of interest : Latin American studies; languages and literatures; women’s studies – now renamed, like most such programs throughout the country, Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, which at least makes their focus clear, in case anyone was wondering. But I also receive occasional emails about university-wide special events, as well as Five-College events (since UMass Amherst is part of the Five College Consortium), though these latter are often related to the above fields.