The point of college is “transforming one’s mind.” Most college students never get this message.

Here is a taste of Wendy Fischman and Howard Gardner‘s piece at The Chronicle of Higher Education:

In our 1,000 hour-long conversations with students, we found that nearly half of them miss the point of college. They don’t see value in what they are learning, nor do they understand why they take classes in different fields or read books that do not seem directly related to their major. They approach college with a “transactional” view — their overarching goal is to build a résumé with stellar grades, which they believe will help them secure a job post-college. Many see nothing wrong with using any means necessary to achieve the desired résumé, and most acknowledge that cheating is prevalent on campus. In short, they are more concerned with the pursuit of earning than the process of learning.

This is not to say that the current state of affairs is students’ fault. Messages from secondary schools (and from family members) have helped form their narrow view of college. Their high-school experiences prepared them to get into college, but did little, it seems, to educate them about the purpose of college. As a result, most college students don’t appreciate the expertise of their faculty, nor value what these scholars do, nor understand what they are generally not prepared to do (for instance, why faculty members might not feel comfortable in the role of therapist or life coach). Students often feel that professors aren’t available to meet their needs. And yet those same professors report that students rarely come to office hours or take them up on offers to meet for coffee or lunch.

The state of affairs is sobering, and colleges themselves must share the blame. In an apparent effort to attract and to please future customers, admissions tours and information sessions are filled with information about dining halls, recreation centers, comfortable dormitories, as well as internships or junior years off campus. From one’s first encounter — and continuing throughout the course of one’s college experience and even in magazines directed toward alums — minimal attention is given to the intellectual mission of college.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, we find that students become more disenchanted with their college experience over time. In comparing 500 first-year students to 500 graduating students, more graduating students expressed feelings of alienation than did first-year students….

This deep-rooted alienation will not be easy to repair. But in our view, colleges can significantly enhance the prospects of belonging by promulgating a single, primary purpose of college — that it is a place to focus on learning and transforming one’s mind. Students need to be “onboarded” to this mission by faculty members, administrators, and staff members who model, support, and believe in it. Common experiences like core academic courses or service activities should help diverse groups of students forge connections with each other — and in doing so, reinforce the intellectual mission. If an institution wants to include a second mission — for example, a focus on religion, civic participation, or entrepreneurship — that ancillary mission needs to be carefully “intertwined” in class and across the campus with the primary intellectual mission.

Read the rest here. Unfortunately, it is behind the Chronicle paywall.