Gaps in Faculty-Student Relations: Real and Perceived

While a professor's primary responsibility may be to serve as a vehicle for the edification of students, some would argue that it is equally important for a professor to be able to relate to students on a personal level. With many aspects of youth culture constantly changing, one might wonder how a professor who grew up in the 1950s can relate to college students - especially freshmen - born in the 1980s.

According to Beloit College's annual Mindset list, students in the class of 2007 will have a vastly different understanding of popular culture than their professors.

The Mindset List, which can be found at www.unt.edu/benchmarks/archives/2003/september03/mindset, included some examples of lingo that students born in the mid-1980s use regularly, but are nowhere on the average professor's vocabulary list. Words like "bling bling" and "peeps" are uttered by students daily but may leave older professors baffled.

Some students believe generation gaps could pose a problem in faculty-student relations.

"Students have a hard time going up to a professor and carrying on a regular conversation if they believe that the professor cannot relate to them," said Titilayo Fagbenle, a junior management major. "Students are less likely to want to go to class if they feel as though their professors cannot relate to them."

Christopher Brown, a senior majoring in African-American studies agreed that how a professor relates to his or her students plays a big role in the student's success in that class.

"Education is not just about giving someone a book and expecting them to learn. It is also about making a connection," said Brown.

While some students view a professor's age as a major factor in his or her ability to relate to students, Kush Bhardwaj - affectionately referred to by his students as Professor B. - teaches Hip Hop and Social Issues in the African-American Studies department, said age does not have much of a bearing on a professor's ability to be effective in the classroom.

According to Bhardwaj, what matters is a teacher's grasp on the role of the instructor.

"How a teacher perceives the material is going to affect how the teacher presents the material, and that in turn is going to affect how the students receive the material," said Bhardwaj.

Tony Conrad, a professor in the Media Study Department who has been teaching at UB since 1976, said when the issue of effective teaching arises, younger does not necessarily mean better.

"More and more universities and colleges are trying to offer instruction using temporary faculty for lectures rather than hiring professors, this is done to save money and a lot of them are young," said Conrad. "If you think young is good that might be a good thing. On the other hand, the older faculty members aren't known for being bad people, and some of them are the most excellent faculty."

According to Conrad, being surrounded by college students on a regular basis and being willing to incorporate what he witnesses into his area of expertise keeps him up to date on what his students need to know.

"I try to keep up with what's the latest in my area," said Conrad. "And keeping up with the latest means that I have to be in touch with younger people and the fact that I'm a university teacher means that I am already in touch with young people."

According to Bhardwaj, students may not necessarily be more receptive to a professor closer to their own age because there are many professors who are young and unapproachable.

"A generation gap is not an issue of age, but an issue of wanting to relate to your students," he said.

Mary DiMarzo, a nutrition professor, said she believes successful relations between professors and students depends on more than the professor's age and that students should play an active role in creating and maintaining a good relationship with the faculty.

"The more students show a desire to learn, the more professors will be receptive to communicate to them," said DiMarzo.

According to Michael Farrell, chair of the sociology department, factors other than age create a divide between professors and students.

"The distance - if there is a distance - has much to do with the increasing diversity of the student body," said Farrell. "The majority of people in college are women and the majority of faculty are men. The student body has become increasingly more Latino, African American Caribbean... while faculty tends to be predominantly white. If there is distance it probably has more to do with that than age."

While some debate the effects that faculty members who do not take an active interest in youth culture have on students, Conrad urges students to put more effort into learning about the past and making sure they get the best of what their professors have to offer.

"If a professor doesn't know who J-lo is, that's not a problem," he said. "Maybe they're teaching math or English Lit and they don't have to know all that stuff."

"But on the other hand a lot of students don't understand how much their past is a part of history and their history is a part of a present. So if you don't know about the Vietnam War, and if you don't know about President (Richard) Nixon, then it's harder for you to get a sense of what the dangers are in politics and in your country today."