A new tradition for new priorities

Hey Day. Spring Fling. We should probably add one more Penn tradition to the lot -- resume drop. Tomorrow, hundreds of Penn students will log onto the Career Services Web site, hoping to see a list of companies appear, craving the chance to interview for that lucrative summer internship. Although this reality may fail to shock us, it highlights the astonishing findings of a recent annual survey of college freshmen around the country. The results of the 269,413-person study -- conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles -- warn of a shift of priorities away from political engagement and a focus on the world around us, and toward more inward-looking issues. Frighteningly, topping that list of introspective concerns is the desire to be financially well-off. When asked what reasons were important in deciding to go to college, 70 percent of the freshmen responded, "To be able to make more money," falling short only to two other criteria. In deciding upon a course of study, more men and women are majoring in business disciplines than in any other field. And when asked what objectives of higher education are viewed as essential or very important, only one response stands out with 73.4 percent in agreement -- "being very well off financially." So much for what Ben Franklin once hailed as the true goal of higher learning. The economic prosperity of the Clinton years seems to have produced a new generation of students unlike any of those before. College students in the 1960s and 1970s gave their energies to political rallies or social causes. And even the rise of Ronald Reagan and the capitalist spirit of the 1980s didn't cause such a concern for the bottom line as we see today. Despite this, I refuse to believe that a new collegiate class has emerged. We all love a buck or two. And we would all like to be financially secure at some point in our lives. The cause of this sudden change in viewpoint can be found in the very institutions that we attend. University and college tuition has risen to such astronomical levels that virtually all students, specifically those at top-tier schools like Penn, must pay more for one year of education than some elementary school teachers make over the same period. Students are forced to focus on monetary concerns, financial aid packages and job paychecks. Gone are the days when a free thinker can wander onto a campus to pursue the study of knowledge. Now we must endure accumulating debt that await us after graduation. No wonder freshmen start thinking about getting that high-paying job and accompanying signing bonus as soon as they get to campus. Other results of the survey report a lack of student involvement in political affairs, a number that generally spikes with election cycles. This year the level hit an all-time low, causing great concerns in many communities. At the same time, though, students have increased their support of gun control, shaped their opinions on the death penalty and become more liberal in many ways. To me, this indicates a level of activism much higher than the survey concludes. How then do we begin an even stronger discourse and spark debate? How can we replace some of the visions of dollar bills with those of insightful learning? The institutions of our society have begun to attach a pricetag to everything we do, including the pursuit an education. Let's try our best to tear the tag off. Princeton University recently announced that it will be dipping into its extremely successful endowment fund and passing along the benefits to the students. With $16 million headed for undergraduate financial aid, I applaud the fact that many Princeton students no longer must be significantly burdened with worries about tuition payments and living expenses. We're never going to get rid of the hopes and dreams of being rich. After all, it was only the third most popular reason for going to college. Thankfully, "To learn more about things that interest me" tops the list with 76.6 percent. Still, the statistic that scares me is that more freshman feel that the objective of higher education is to become well-off. Fortune may be the outcome of education but it should never be the objective. Academics are concerned over the recent findings of the study, and for good reason. I'm glad to see they're worried and hope changes to the system, like at Princeton, will be the result. But as students, we should be warned that should the desire to become learned not appear at the top of the college education objective list soon, we may become even more money-grubbing than we are now. Are you ready for resume drop 2002?

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