Summary and Reflection

“What’s the Biggest Challenge for Colleges and Universities?” is an article that contains the opinions of different professionals regarding significant problems faced by universities and colleges. The experts, whose views are presented in the journal include Jean M. Twenge, Eric J. Barron, Michael R. Bloomberg, Kay Rothman, and Khalil Gibran Muhammad. Twenge, for instance, outlines that addiction to smartphones and other electronics is the main problem affecting college and university students.

Barron, on the other hand, believes tuition fee increases and weak state support are the significant problems learning institutions face. A similar opinion is offered by Muhammad, who explains that high tuition fees compromise the mission of access and affordability. Barron adds that outdated research infrastructure is affecting innovation and research institutions that lack strong state support. The challenge can be solved by make innovation a priority as well as encouraging wealthy donors to sponsor scholarship programs.

However, Bloomberg argues that division over whether emphasise on career preparation or focus on getting students accepted to a 4-year college program is the primary challenge that affects colleges and universities. The philanthropist champions for the idea of focusing on both. Additionally, according to Bloomberg, many students are unprepared for college. Therefore, states and districts need to invest in a new, higher-quality course, which can train learnersto fit a broad range of industries.

Moreover, Rothman holds that anti-intellectualism, fueled by social media is the primary problem faced by universities and colleges. Goldrick-Rab, on the other hand, cites that most students lack a safe place to sleep or sufficient food to eat.Consequently, many undergraduates are struggling to learn because their basic needs remain unmet. Thus, to solve the problem, Goldrick-Rab recommends for stakeholders to try to increase access to food and housing as well as emergency aid for students.

However, as a multilingual student, addiction to electronic devices has been my most significant challenge. Just like my peers in the university, I realize that I spend most of my times on my smartphone and laptop instead of reading course materials and paying attention to instructions. In general, I can attribute my current smartphone addiction to content and technological-related features in this form of electronic device. Several technological features, for instance, improve the portability, accessibility, music and video player capabilities, easiness of operation, user interface, connectedness, anddesign of smartphones.

Similarly, modern cell phones have numerous content-related features, which make smartphones addictive. For example, nearly all smartphones are equipped with social networking services. The pleasing experiences offered by these functions as rewards increase the addiction risks. Further, students are often lured to play smartphone games in class instead of paying attention to instructions from their teachers. I have found myself in this problem several times. The game-addiction is inevitable especially for students who love to interact with their colleagues via social networking apps.

However, smartphone addiction has had a few impacts on my academic performance. First, excessive smartphone use results in impatience, poor concentration, and withdrawal. These behavior forming factors impact academic performance directly. Thus, as Twenge advises in the article, we as students, need to avoid multitasking. We should develop the habit of putting our electronic away during lessons to avoid the temptations of social media.

Works Cited

“What’s the Biggest Challenge for Colleges and Universities?” The New York Times, 5 June 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/05/education/learning/biggest-challenge-for-colleges-anduniversities.html.

 
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