Illuminating illiteracy

According to a recently conducted survey, 69 percent of college students and graduates do not fully understand this column, this issue of The Spectrum, or the novel they're currently reading in class.

It's true that not every college student can be defined as the brightest crayon in the box, but the sad news of our dropping literacy rates is still a shocking surprise to our university and to every other higher learning institution across the country.

That recent survey, polling 19,000 people, confirmed that the country's literacy rate is slipping lower and lower. It said literacy has already fallen 10 percent among college graduates since 1992. This startling statistic was published by Pew Charitable Trusts, an organization dedicated to academic and political studies for government agencies to inform the public on key issues and trends.

The survey found that far fewer college graduates are leaving their undergraduate careers with the skills necessary to comprehend routine data and graphs, follow basic instructions and tasks through reading, or interpret complex texts. In fact, it's only a mere 31 percent of graduates who are classified as proficient in these tasks.

Clearly this doesn't mean that the other 69 percent of graduates are utterly illiterate; they did take tests and write papers during school. What it does mean however, is that you're more likely to walk into a dorm room and find students reading a copy of "Green Eggs and Ham" than something that might actually require a little thought.

What the study really confirmed is the trivial status that reading holds in our country. We grew up in a generation where reading books was replaced by watching television, surfing the net, and playing video games. The dropping literacy rates, while extreme, do somewhat accurately demonstrate the effects of growing up in a world that refuses to read.

In addition to poor reading skills, the survey also revealed that more than 50 percent of students at four-year colleges and over 75 percent enrolled at two-year institutions are unable to perform basic tasks that are essential to the modern world. When it comes to balancing a checkbook or managing a budget these students are out of luck.

What is so ludicrous about this situation, and what should have every single college faculty member and student furious, is that we are paying thousands of dollars for an education that apparently doesn't prepare most of us for the real world. In order to keep up with today's ever-changing economy, it is necessary to have at least a bachelor's degree. We, as students, are counting on the university to deliver us a decent education.

To discover that two-thirds of the people across the country at schools like ours can't even read a book is ridiculous. Someone clearly isn't doing their job, and it's either the students or the universities.

Students need to work hard to get the most out of their higher education experience. Slacking off on schoolwork and partying for four years doesn't do much to help with reading proficiency. We're only cheating ourselves by not working to potential.

On the other hand, professors and administrators need to ensure that they are providing the services needed to students, and not simply dishing out passing grades to students who cannot complete basic tasks.

Now, obviously not everyone is blessed with an IQ of 140, superior science skills, or the ability to solve complex math problems. All one really has to do to understand this concept is look around. We've all witnessed the equivalent of the drunken idiot crushing beer cans against his head, worked with the group member who just wasn't up to par, and at some point in our college careers we've all been forced to question the intelligence of some of our peers.

I still hope however, that UB has a much higher than average percentage of students who are proficient readers, but a lot of work needs to be done to fix this national problem. Being a part of the large university we are, we need to work to ensure that we stand above this.

More Americans than ever before may be applying and graduating from college, but the reading proficiency of college graduates has still significantly declined with no apparent reason from literacy experts and educators.

We can't stand by as the nation stays dormant and our own education becomes compromised.