 Stephanie Winters Literature and Society Dr. Sherry

There 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. Webuyallhomes-use.com

Many 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. Davescampus.com

The 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

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. Barnesandnoble.com

 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.

 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 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.

 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 life Both of these methods allowed me to get a insight view on the two college cultures present on campus.

 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.

Time Diary #1 9:45am Wake up 9:50am-10:00am Shower 10:00am-10:45am Get ready for class 10:45am-11:00am Go to Class 11:00am-11:50am Class 12:00am-12:50pm Class 12:50pm-1:00pm Back to dorm 1:00pm-1:05pm Clean room 1:05pm-1:50pm Homework 1:50pm-2:30pm Lunch 2:30pm-2:45pm Get ready for class 2:45pm-3:00pm Walk to class 3:00pm-4:15pm Class 4:15pm-4:30pm Walk to class 4:30pm-5:45pm Class 5:46pm-6:00pm Go to dinner 6:00pm-7:00pm Dinner 7:00pm-8:45pm Hang out with friends 8:45pm-10:00pm Meetings 10:00pm-12:00am Hang out with friends 12:00am-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.

Time Diary #2 7:00am Wake up 8:00am-9:00am Shower and get ready 9:00am-10:00am Class 10:00am-11:00am Breakfast 11:00am-12:00pm Class 12:00pm-1:00pm Lunch and studying 1:00pm-3:00pm Studying/Homework 3:00pm-4:00pm Watch TV 4:00pm-5:00pm Talk/hang out with friends 5:00pm-6:00pm Research for class 6:00pm-7:00pm Watch Tv/go to the Rec Center 7:00pm-8:00pm Play soccer at the Rec Center with friends 8:00pm-9:00pm Quick snack/Shower 9:00pm-10:00pm Watch a movie and the Phillies game 10:00pm-11:00pm Watch TV 11:00pm-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.

Time Diary #3 9:00am Woke up 9:30am-10:00am Got a shower 10:00am-10:45am Put make up on/ got dresses/ did hair 10:45am-11:00am Walked to class 11:00am-11:50am Class 11:50am-12:30pm Cleaned my room 12:30pm-1:30pm Lunch 1:30pm-2:00pm Picked up package from post office/ Library 2:00pm-4:50pm Biology Lab 4:50pm-6:00pm Dinner 6:00pm-7:00pm Hung out in friends room 7:00pm-8:00pm Football game 8:00pm-12:00am Study/ computer/ listen to music 12:00am-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.

Time Diary #4 8:15am-9:30am Wake up, shower, get ready 9:30am-10:00am Drive to school 10:00am-11:00am Abnormal Psychology 11:00am-12:00pm Childhood Development 12:00pm-1:00pm Eat lunch 1:00pm-2:00pm Statistics 2:00pm-4:00pm Drive home, homework 4:00pm-5:00pm Eat dinner 5:00pm-10:00pm Go to work 10:00pm-11:00pm Watch TV 11:00pm-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.

Time Diary #5 7:50am-8:30am Wake up/ get ready for class 8:30am-9:00am Drive to class 9:00am-10:00am Class 10:00am-11:00am Class 11:00am-12:00pm Class 12:00pm-1:00pm Class 1:00pm-1:30pm Drive home 1:30pm-2:00pm Eat lunch 2:00pm-5:00pm Work 5:00pm-6:00pm School Work 6:00pm-9:00pm Watch TV 9:00pm-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.

Time Diary #6 6:20am-7:15am Wake up, shower, eat breakfast (cereal) 7:15am-7:45am Drive to Bloomsburg 7:45am-7:50am Get to Bloomsburg and walk to class 8:00am-8:50am Class 8:50am-10:50am Break/go for coffee 10:50am-11:00am Walk to class 11:00am-12:00pm Class 12:00pm-3:00pm Work at Anthropology Office 3:00pm-3:50pm Class 3:50pm-4:20pm Drive home 4:20pm-5:30pm Gym/Class Work 5:30pm-6:30pm Dinner 6:30pm-9:00pm Work 9:00pm-10:00pm School Work 10:00pm-11:00pm TV 11:00pm-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.

 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.

 Students who live on campus… o Reported hanging out with friends in their time diaries o Reported that they tend to study and do homework in their dorm room o Spent the time between classes cleaning or relaxing in their room o Seemed to be more involved with campus activities and clubs o Being a student who resides on campus, I can relate to many of these findings.

 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.

 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 classes o Many reported having a job o Commuter lounge was an area for them to go to in their down time between classes.

 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.

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.

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.

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.

 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.

 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,   