The "Benefits" of Living on Campus

When one thinks about the basic constructs of attending a university of higher learning, living in a dorm with a roommate on campus is one of the first ideas to pop into his or her head.  Many schools want students to live on campus for a multitude of reasons such as a lack of places to live off campus, to promote school spirit, or to allow its younger students to get the "full college experience".  UNCC has, throughout the duration of its existence, become known as a "commuter school" in which students live in off campus apartments and come to school via car, bus, etc.  On campus, many types of media, specifically signs, promote on-campus living and in some cases attempt to bribe students with DB and more meal swipes in order to promote living in a dorm.  While financially more strategic to live off campus, the school still wants students to live on campus for reason of promoting school spirit as well as eliminating the commuter tag that is associated with UNCC.  The media on campus can be seen in the slides below:

A Sorta Silver Lining: The good and the bad of How High

My original Blog posted thought of the movie How High in a binary way. I focused on all of the bad in the movie and missed out on the silver lining. Not to discredit the fact there is a lot of bad. I originally claimed movies like How High affected the perceived idea of college through stereotypes and holds back society from equality. Even with all of the political incorrectness and subconscious racial inequalities present in the movie How High, positives messages are also conveyed. I have done some research on the topic of racial differences in the classroom and I found two articles. These articles are what helped open my eyes to the positives in the movie.

 Originally I wrote on racial stereotypes inhibiting getting a full college experience related to my idea of what college should be. I tied this into How High by pointing out the stereotypes present in one scene from the movie. I expressed how future college students, current college students, and parents would perceive this and how it could negatively impart bias upon them for thinking how college should be. This is all true, but the articles I found when researching add to this claim.

The first article “University of Hartford Panel Reflects on Civil Rights Act” by Suzanne Carlson noticed that here the United States is 50 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act and “subtle bias persists in the classroom”. Yes subtle bias DOES persist in classrooms from Kindergarten to beyond; although the panel also noticed young African American students as well as members of the public see these students’ futures as dead end streets leading to lives of crime (Carlson, 2014). How this pertains to How High is apart from all of the stereotyping and racism it portrays two African American students going from rags to riches ending up at America’s premier Ivy League university -the best of the best. This story of rags to riches may imprint the idea of upward mobility and personal success to a child who identifying with Jamal and Silas might otherwise not realize the actuality of this ever happening. It is the silver lining to an otherwise terrible movie (judging on political correctness).

Another silver lining can be found in How High coming from another article, “The Significance of Cross-Racial/Ethnic Friendships: Associations with Peer Victimization, Peer Support, Sociometric Status, and Classroom Diversity” by Yoshito Kawabata. Kawabata’s article focuses on a study himself and colleague worked on at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities that studied how racially diversified classrooms lead to less violence and stereotyping when taken from the perspective of less bullying and name calling from a childes level to an adults level in society. The way in which this applies to How High is the plot of Jamal and Silas making it into and attending a predominately European American college adds diversity to the classrooms. The movie also includes diversity in the college setting including several African American students and professors and an Asian American student. This is not a lot of diversity but it is better than nothing encouraging diversity (Kawabata).

However these articles bat both ways when applying them to How High and furthering the argument of its negative effects on the idea of college through stereotyping. Based off of what is said in the article “University of Hartford Panel Reflects on Civil Rights Act” the acts portrayed in the movie How High affiliated with illegal drug use condoned and imposed by the two African American students who are the lead characters gives the reverse effect on young African American children possibly conveying the idea of drug use being acceptable creating a way to identify. By this I mean it could send the message, “if they are doing it and they are in Harvard then it is okay for me to do it or I should be doing it”. This is a terrible influence to be subconsciously pushing on imposable minds (Carlson, 2014). Using the article “The Significance of Cross-Racial/Ethnic Friendships: Associations with Peer Victimization, Peer Support, Sociometric Status, and Classroom Diversity” to show the downfall in the movie is how How High spoils Kawabata’s idea; even though the movie portrays diversity it does not show any benefits but instead leads to Jamal and Silas pushing their habit of drug use on the other students of differing and similar ethnicities. Examples are even though the movie shows the diversity there is still stereotyping bullying, name calling, and heavy disapprovals of culture between the cross-racial/ethnic groups (Kawabata).

As mentioned earlier there is good in this movie. How High can be utilized for good in another manor when viewed from the point of view of satire. A point of view can be taken in which the viewer sees the film as a call to action in which the film recognizes and through satire points out ugly truths about colleges such as racial inequality in and out of the classroom, stereotyping, and drug use. In my opinion this movie is a cheap comedy which uses these situations to its advantage for laughs, but it is notable to say someone else may see it as satire. Regardless, not everyone will view it this way especially younger audience members (college students or potential college students) and the negativity in which was supposed to be satirical is now destructive as mentioned above.

The importance of recognizing all of this through analysis is understanding what the movie How High or any movie related to any topic means –what it is saying about the topic. In this scenario it is important to recognize and understand the negative effects How High has on the idea of college and a college education. The most important thing is action needs to be taken.  In all honesty I enjoyed the movie and got some laughs from it; however, this does not make the movie right especially if it is not taken in as satire, sadly it is acceptable in today’s time. For the students, future students, or parents this movie effects it is an injustice. Even with the silver linings present, the bad outweighs the good –end of story.∎

-Forrest Roberts

Works Cited:

Carlson, Suzanne. “University of Hartford Panel Reflects on Civil Rights Act.” Hartford Courant 22 September 2014. Web. 1 April 2015

Kawabata, Yoshito, and Nicki R. Crick. "The Significance of Cross-Racial/Ethnic Friendships: Associations with Peer Victimization, Peer Support, Sociometric Status, and Classroom Diversity. "Developmental Psychology 47.6 (2011):1763-1755. PsycARTICLES. Web. 1 April 2015.

What Happens Next?

            My original blog post revolved around the idea that people view college and especially the male population in a stereotypical way that influences people’s views on what a “higher education” is really all about. I focused my opinionated view on the movie “National Lampoon’s: Van Wilder”.  On the other end, my topic and research centered around whether or not today’s national curriculum at the college level is up to par and whether or not certain courses, particularly liberal studies classes, should even be required. Are these classes really helping to expand student’s minds and open them up to new ideas? A student who is going to school for a medical or engineering degree might not find a class such as theatre relevant to his/her cause?

            Two articles stood out in finding the information needed to decide between whether or not liberal studies classes should still be required for all students and if today’s curriculum is an effective way to prepare students for the rest of their lives. Roger Marples in his article “Aims of Education” speaks about how important liberal arts courses are in developing quality social skills more so than actually learning and regurgitating information for classes we believe we are actually going to have to remember in the future. Marples also mentions how these liberal studies courses we all mostly find mundane and irrelevant are actually very positive in building great critical thinking skills. In a way I believe this is definitely true. Marples argues that liberal studies courses do the things other classes throughout your college education cannot. In your core math, chemistry, history classes you don’t have the time or the chance to develop a way to communicate your ideas, or to express yourself because all these classes are set in stone with answers, information, etc. and there is not as much room to expand. Liberal Arts classes are designed so that students, primarily freshman, are able to begin college with the full experience of what it means to be a college student. As a college student there is an unspoken ideal that you should express yourself, through your ideas and opinions you build your own character that you will carry with you for the rest of your life. These liberal arts classes hone in on that idea and you are sort of forced into building answers to questions not really specific. In this you also “think outside of the box” which is the essential part of critical thinking. Marples explains to us that while the things we learn from textbooks and power points in these classes might not be important ever again in our lives, there is a reason they are required and it is vital to a higher education.

            The second article that will be focused on in this blog post was “National Curriculum Assessments and Programmes of Study: Validity and Impact." Written by Dylan William. William focuses his claim around the idea that national curriculum is defined by the way students perform on assessments. He believes that the curriculum is centered around whether or not students can master information taught to them long enough to pass exams required for their diploma. William claims that the validity of higher education has taken a beating and is being tainted by standardized testing. National Curriculum just is not where it should be at the moment. I somewhat agree with what William is saying but I also believe that your education is what you make of it. Too often do students cheat, or go through short cuts in their work, and it shows in the long run. If a student wants to learn and is completely interested with what they are studying for then they will not only regurgitate the information but will master it.

            So you might ask how all his information correlates at all with Van Wilder? It took a while to draw any kind of comparison because the film does not focus on the academic aspect at all, but one crucial moment in the film is when Van must learn an entire semester’s worth of information to pass his exam and graduate college. Just the thought of accomplishing this is humorous, but surprising it is not just a movie scene. Some students actually attempt this simply because they do not know how to organize themselves or they just don’t take school as seriously as they should until the last minute. Van was a stereotypical guy, who partied hard, drank and enjoyed the social aspects of college and realized at the last minute he needed to get out. Somehow he managed to accomplish the feat and I personally was left wondering, ‘what now?’ What happens after you finish college and you’re considered an “educated man/woman”? Van Wilder basically made a joke out of the academic side of college and furthered the stereotype that students don’t take it as seriously as they should which is completely false. Everything in reality is much more difficult than depicted and honestly you really are forced to EARN your degree no matter what it is. Marples, William, and I would all agree that being a college student is a challenging time in which socially, mentally, and sometimes physically you are tested to see what you’re made of. Only the toughest make it out on top and with today’s world as competitive as it is, nothing comes easy, the only question is what happens after?

Works Cited:

William, Dylan. "National Curriculum Assessments and Programmes of Study: Validity and Impact."    (2009): n. pag. UNCC Library Database. Web. Mar.-Apr. 2015.

Marples, Roger. "Aims Of Education." (2007): n. pag. UNCC Library Database. Web. Mar.-Apr.        2015.

The Currency of Academia Rises

A growing problem in today’s college world is grade inflation. Grade inflation has various effects on college students, professors, and future employers. Many people do not believe this is a problem because they do not witness it firsthand. I was one of those people as well.  However, after many articles and studies, I leaned that this was not the case.  Although some scholars argue that the problem with grade inflation is that it causes laziness in students and professors, the real issue is that it negatively impacts not only the value of college education, but also student’s emotional stability. Grade inflation decreases the value of a degree and the professionalism of student’s post-graduation which ultimately leading to greater issues later in life.

Many people think grade inflation produces laziness in today’s young adults. Since grade inflation is known to make students work less it can lead to more time for fun. This was shown in my investigation of the movie “America Pie: Beta House”. This movie focuses on the lives of the brothers in the famous Beta House fraternity. The stereotype of Greek life is all play and no work. This was exemplified in beta house showing only the partying and social aspect of college education. During this movie I noticed how it never mentioned studying or anything about academics. The lack of academics gave the idea that college is one big party and can be completed without any challenge. However, all college students know this is not the case. This movie was merely made to produce comedic relief, but an argument could be made that students in the movie don’t have to work for their grades due to grade inflation. Because grade inflation makes high grades easy to obtain students don’t have to work as hard for their grades. This leaves time to have fun and not worry about school as much as you should. Grade inflation could be an underlying reason as to why college is known for partying and goofing off.

During my inquiry into grade inflation I found the article “Sliding through Means Sliding Down” by John Harding. This article focuses on the negativity of grade inflation. Harding’s primary purpose is to inform professors, college students, and industries about the effects of grade inflation after college. Harding proposes the idea that grades are increasing because they are the “currency of academia” and just like money inflates, so do grades (Harding, 21). He states that a possible reason for grade inflation is teacher evaluations. When professors grade harshly their students tend to do worse. If students make low grades they will rate a teacher badly on evaluations. When students go to register for classes they usually use a website called “rate my professor”, this shows the average grade, ratings, and general opinions about the professor. Although this is not a reliable website, many students use the ratings of their peers to determine the professor’s ability to teach. If a professor grades hard, the students will give them bad ratings. This, in turn, will cause the professor to have a low registration rate. Harding also states that grade inflation causes college degrees to become less valuable. When students are given higher grades than they deserve, their knowledge may not be up to par. Students are just handed degrees without actually having to earn the grades to get them. This causes college degrees to become worthless. If you can’t hire someone with a degree knowing they will be successful than why wouldn’t you hire someone and just train them yourself? College degrees do not accurately show proficiency.  Just like the inflation of money causes it to become less valuable, the inflation of grades does the same thing. This article also touches on the effects of grade inflation post-college. Harding says grade inflation hurts business because employees are not as qualified as the employer thought they were. This is unfair to the employers and essentially deceives them. If you receive a degree in a specific area then you should be qualified and competent enough to do it. Grade inflation makes being an expert in your field impossible. Employers that know what they are doing boost profitability, unqualified workers do the opposite.

In “Grade Inflation: The Effect on Educational Quality and Personal Well Being”, Clifford H. Edwards also focuses on the effects of grade inflation post-graduation. However, Edwards takes a different angle by making the claim that grade inflation not only hurts student’s ability to handle struggles in the future, but also negatively affects their self-esteem. Edwards speaks from the perspective of the effects on the students. He states that because of grade inflation students can pass easily and do not know how to handle challenge. Edward’s purpose of writing this article is to allow professors, school administrators, and students to see how harmful grade inflation can really be. Edwards makes the point that colleges allow students to withdraw from challenging classes. Instead of sticking out a difficult class, colleges allow us to withdraw instead of failing. Although this is beneficial to student’s grade point average in the short term, it is hurtful to the student’s problem solving abilities in the long run. Because students can take the easy way out they do not know how to tackle a problem. This causes students to fail more often. Not being able to succeed can affect students’ self-esteem. This article opened my eyes to other issues associated with grade inflation.

In the beginning of my inquiry, I only thought about the effects of grade inflation on your career later in life. However, after reading these articles I realized that grade inflation causes many problems that can easily be overlooked. I realized that low self-esteem as a result of grade inflation is a plausible idea. I also thought in the beginning that grade inflation was not a problem faced today. However, after researching I realized that grade inflation is a real problem with many real consequences. These consequences are physical as well as emotional. Self-esteem and future career readiness are the main problems impacted by grade inflation. These problems will only continue to get worse unless grade inflation is put to a stop.

Works Cited

Harding, John T. "Sliding Through Means Sliding Down." Phi Kappa Phi Forum. 92.1 (2012). Print.

Edwards, Clifford H. "Grade Inflation: the Effects on Educational Quality and Personal Well Being." Education. 120.3 (2000). Print.

It's All About Who You Know

Though my original blog post focused on the different gender roles and stereotypes that the characters in the film Neighbors represented in a specific scene within the movie, I am also able to notice themes in the movie that better correlate with my research conducted for the wiki readers guide, as well as my overall research throughout the semester about college as a whole, its depiction, and how much the social aspects of college affect the post graduate world. As previously stated, I originally focused on the segregation of genders in a specific scene of my chosen film in my original blog post, but my research, and subsequently, the articles I used, regarded the topic of racial segregation in the professional field.  My original thesis when beginning my research was “Does de facto segregation in schooling, among students, translate to the professional world?”  With the information I gained from my research on this topic as well as throughout the semester, I can further analyze and extend upon the topic through connection of my film research as well as my journal research by asking “what impact does the social aspect of college have on post graduate life and society.”  Through this synthesis of information and analysis, I am more capable of finding credible examples to my claim.  When attempting to understand the world around us, especially as we, college students, begin to transfer into the independent and professional world, it is important to see how the world is, what constructs make it up, and what was the original foundation of those constructs.   Since college and higher learning prepares students for employment in their designated fields, as well as prepares them socially, through analysis of college life, we can find the origin of many social “norms” today, such as de facto segregation originates from norms created in college. 

Though the movie has a greater focus upon gender segregation and the exploitation of gender roles in a specific scene of the film, de facto racial segregation is somewhat apparent as well.  Obviously the movie Neighbors focuses on what life is like when within a fraternity or living next to one, especially the social aspect.  Though not in a fraternity myself, I realize that during the selection process, both the selectors and selected, much choose a person or fraternity based on their social similarity and likeness.  Both Tatum in her essay and the authors of the academic journal, "Race and the Workforce: Occupational Status, Aspirations, and Stereotyping Among African American Children" that I used for research claim in their respected works, people of specific race are more likely to befriend others of the same race and socioeconomic background.  Stereotypically speaking, college fraternities are commonly depicted as a group of somewhat affluent, European-American males.  Though there are fraternities that are composed of mostly African-American members as well, the fraternity in Neighbors attempts to illustrate the media’s portrayal as well as the public’s stereotypical perception of fraternities, by having a mostly, all white fraternity with the exception of one black member of the fraternity in the film.  Though this somewhat counters my original hypothesis of different racial groups joining together due to deeper knowledge and empathy for each other’s live, I find it an extremely interesting note that could potentially depict an outlier variable within my research that extends across the whole evaluation, depicting that Tatum’s and others’ argument does not always apply.  However, within the film, the black fraternity brother is mainly a minor character, seemingly only there for comic relief, while not being part of any of the drama in the film.  As stated though, the demographics of the fraternity in the film are overall white.  The demographics even seem to remain this way in the new pledge class within the film, which is overall white as well.  A specific, interesting scene is when the fraternity is throwing a party and there is a black cop who watches the fraternity to make sure things do not get out of hand.  Though I could be over-analyzing a scene that is strictly meant to be humorous, the fraternity sends out their one black member to go speak to the black cop.  As the article "Race and the Workforce: Occupational Status, Aspirations, and Stereotyping Among African American Children" elaborates on, this action by the fraternity could potentially be because people of certain races are commonly more comfortable with members of the same race.

All of this can be refined to instances of expectation and aspirations that were held by the college students as children, as alluded in the article mentioned.  The journal, "Race and the Workforce: Occupational Status, Aspirations, and Stereotyping Among African American Children" notes that “the occupational goals of older African-American children may be influenced by their consciousness of racial discrimination within society” (Bigler), and the same could be believed about membership within social societies at college and by extension, social societies in post graduate life.  Events like that of the recent video released of the Oklahoma fraternity, collectively performing racist chants on the way to an event would definitely turn non-whites away from a specific fraternity and quite possibly fraternities as a whole at Oklahoma.  Though it is not apparent or focused on in Neighbors, discrimination can be a theme in Greek life and could potentially discourage non-white races from joining.  Again, this translates to the professional world in more ways than one.   Through deep analysis of the social segregation that the film is for the most part depicting, one can see a social trend that happens during school and can translate to the professional world.  Many times, members of a fraternity will pursue a job that has employees that are similar to the characteristics of past fraternity members.  Perhaps if one’s fraternity is either specific to one race, or more diverse, their social surroundings in college can come into play when applying for jobs and deciding rather or not to work in specific places. 

A great point made in both "Race and the Workforce: Occupational Status, Aspirations, and Stereotyping Among African American Children" and “Racial Segregation among Places of Employment” is that many times, people of different genders and races aspire to be in a field and socioeconomic status, both consciously and subconsciously, depending on the expectations and conditions in which they are raised.  Again, this can be connected to fraternity culture and overall social interaction that happens within the years spent by a student in college.  For the most part, people would rather spend their social and leisure time with those who are most like themselves and have the same aspirations in order to find social relatability and acceptance.  Aspirations that are cohesively made and shared among certain social groups, such as fraternities, within college are either achieved or attempted at upon entering the professional world or whatever happens after one graduates from college.  One example of this from Neighbors is Dave Franco’s character, throughout the duration of the movie, causes Zac Efron’s character to think about post graduate life and look for a job.   Furthermore, from the habits, discriminations, and social norms made early in life and specifically college, we can see them transferred into one’s post graduate life causing different interactions within society, as well as different social grouping.

Bigler, Rebecca, Cara Averhart, and Lynn Liben. "Race and the Workforce: Occupational Status, Aspirations, and Stereotyping Among African American Children." Developmental Psychology Copyright 2003 by the American Psychological Association, Inc. 2003 Vol. 39.No. 3 (2003): 572–580. Web. 15 Mar. 2015. <ephost@ebsco.com>.

Becker, Henry. "Racial Segregation among Places of Employment." Social Forces Vol. 58.No. 3 (1980): 761-76. JSTOR. Web. 1 Mar. 2015. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/2577183>.

Male Inferiority or Female Superiority?

Male Inferiority or Female Superiority?

            Are gender stereotypes, especially in college students, actually still prevalent? Gender roles play such an enormous part of our society and sometimes we don't even realize it. Since the beginning of human life, females have been expected to do their jobs as MOTHERS, watch the kids, cook, clean, while the men are the warriors who protect the women essentially. While this is just beginning to change in today's world with the push for equality between men in women, there is still a divide in what we perceive to be our gender roles. Movies only further this by the stereotypes portrayed in films, especially those trying to depict what "college is really like".  National Lampoon's: Van Wilder is one of those films. Van and Richard are the two main male characters who are basically in competition for Gwen, an attractive woman who is made out almost to be like an object. In the movie the two guys go back and forth, messing with each other's lives in what we perceive as them just not liking each other but in reality they are battling for who gets to date Gwen. Gwen is perceived as being a very intelligent woman because she is a reporter for the school, while Van is basically portrayed as some guy who doesn’t go to class and doesn’t have the intelligence to get his degree. At the end of the movie there is a scene where Van has to cram a semesters worth of work into 6 days and pass his exams to graduate. Somehow Van manages to get it done and graduates, celebrating with a huge party at the end of the movie. I think this was a low key stereotype of the typical guy in college. Guys in college are made out to look like they are less intelligent than females and are always partying instead of focusing on school. Females are looked at as being extremely studious and gentle, more focused on their future and education. Tannen sort of agrees with this, she talks about how female students are much more introverted when surrounded by males and how they pay more attention to the important details. Gwen is the school reporter, she has no struggles in school, and just her overall demeanor and the way she speaks would be considered thought out and intelligent. In comparison to Van who is vulgar and impulsive to say whatever he chooses. In reality and applied here to UNCC I don’t think that is always the case. While for the most part girls are a little more careful and think out what they’re saying, the dividing line between genders is not too far apart. Here the student body is pretty equal, whether that be academically or socially. Movies do a good job in building a stereotypical reputation for the male college student with these exaggerated and discriminatory portrayals. At the end of the day I believe we are breaking these stereotypes and gender is irrelevant to the modern day college student.  

Are ALL college boys the same?

College Education has many stereotypes associated with not only the academic aspect, but also the social environment of college students.  Producers create movies to entertain an audience by depicting certain characteristics of college. When movies attempt to depict college life they often include many stereotypes about the “typical” college students and their journeys through college.  For example, “American Pie: Beta House” includes numerous gender stereotypes about males.

The movie focuses on the fraternity Beta House. A fraternity is known as a “brotherhood”, meaning the boys spend all their time having fun and learning important life lessons together.  Because of all the time spent with one another, the boys all become best friends. Stereotypically boys become friends with the people they are with the majority of the time.  This is supported by not only “American Pie: Beta House”, but also Deborah Tannen’s article “How Male and Female Students Use Language Differently”. Tannen states that “For boys, activities are central: Their best friends are the ones with whom they do things with.” (Tannen, 345). In a fraternity you typically live with your “brothers” and spend a majority of your time with them. According to Tannen this is the reason the boys grow close to each other.

An essential part of “American Pie: Beta House” is the Greek Olympiad, a banned competition that is reborn between the legendary beta house and the new GEK house, where the boys compete in numerous events that test their manhood. The boys go against each other to decide which fraternity is better. Stereotypically, boys love competition and friendships are born through competition. Boys are expected to “seize center stage: by exhibiting their skill, displaying their knowledge, and challenging and resisting challenges” (Tannen, 346). In the Greek Olympiad, the boys challenge each other to show off their skills and prove their fraternity is the best.

A fraternity is a hierarchy. The president is on top followed by the brothers and then the pledges. The pledges are put through hazing by the older brothers. Once the pledges survive the hazing period they are initiated and move up to become brothers. This hierarchy is what draws boys to the fraternity setting, although they may not realize it.  Boys “tend to play in larger groups that are hierarchal” (Tannen, 345). Since the fraternity is a hierarchy, the brothers tell the pledges what to do and the pledges have no choice but to listen. In “American Pie: Beta House” the president Dwight gets his choice in the events during the Greek Olympiad. He chooses the best challenges to participate in and gives the rest to the lower ranked men.

These gender stereotypes make movies that depict college relatable. According to the gender stereotypes all boys are fundamentally the same, although this is not always true. Some boys do not like completion, but the majority does. Deborah Tannen’s article shows that these stereotypes are prevalent all through schooling, not just college. These stereotypes impact college education greatly. Many college classes have discussions and debates in class. Since boys grow through competition, girls are at a disadvantage in class. On the other hand some schools are geared toward the opposite side and hinder boys learning style.

Boys Play, Girls Say

While college is a place with a diverse population regarding the likes of ethnicity, religion, and many other differences among its attendees, the student population seems to always be specifically and stereotypically displayed most diverse when focusing on gender.  The reasoning behind this microscope on gender in college can perhaps be explained by the fact that, though there may be those who come follow different religions or differ ethnically, gender and the roles that society gives both genders can be commonly recognized, regardless of other characteristics of diversity.  Throughout history, men and women have achieved different stereotypes that were created by their separate roles in ancient society.  Commonly, men are thought to be less intelligent, emotional, and loquacious, as well as more care-free compared to women.  Men are also stereotypically depicted as tough and violent since in history they were the soldiers and protectors of the home.  Women, due to bearing children, are stereotypically seen as being much more emotional, talkative, and maternal since throughout history they would tend to the homes and speak to other women for their entertainment.  The film Neighbors exploits these stereotypical gender roles, during a scene when Seth Rogen and his wife end up partying with their fraternity neighbors. 

            In the particular scene, Seth Rogen and his wife attend a party, are separated from each other, and hang out with peers of the same gender.  This scene specifically emphasizes stereotypical gender roles during the party as male and female are separated and participate in different ways of partying.  The way that Seth Rogen and his wife respectively enjoy the party exploits gender roles and characteristics that have been created throughout history.

            When Seth Rogen is shown at the party with the fraternity boys, he is participating in the consumption of alcohol and drugs, specifically the psychedelic drug, mushrooms.  Rogen consumes handfuls of the mushrooms in attempt to achieve the most extreme effects of the drug.  The rapid consumption of the mushrooms by Rogen displays the way that men are stereotypically more carefree than women by showing that Rogen has no worries regarding what the drug could do to his body.  This is a common theme regarding consumptions of drugs and specifically alcohol during college for males.  Many males attempt to display their “manliness” and toughness by the competition of who can consume more alcohol.  In stereotypical college culture a male is better at being a male if he can consume more alcohol without getting sick or passing out.

            Rogen’s wife in the movie is shown participating in a different party scene that could be classified as more “toned down” compared to her husband’s form of partying.  His wife is shown with the other females dancing together and sharing stories about how she met her husband.  This part of the scene illustrates the generalization that women only talk about “their man” and their romance with him.   A major emphasis on the female side of partying is that Rogen’s wife has to stay in a certain area while dancing in order to hear her baby monitor, which displays the stereotypical maternal aspect of being female.  The greater amount of talking as well as the restriction on the females’ ability to dance displays stereotypes that are made about womanly characteristics. 

This party scene correlates well with the argument made in Tannen’s essay, specifically how young boys and girls make friends.  Tannen claims through her observations that boys, when making friends, find companionship in doing activities and being in competition.  This theory is expressed when the boys partake in the activity of consuming drugs.  However, Tannen claims that girls make friends by talking and sharing emotions with each other, something that is again displayed in this scene. By isolating the two genders in the specific party scene, Neighbors is able to express two generalized roles that Tannen agrees with in her essay.  

Civil Tyranny and College

CIVIL TYRANNY AND COLLEGE

Media including the film being studied, How High, affects the perceived idea of college through stereotypes and holds back society from equality. Thoughts from Beverly Daniel Tatum’s article “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” helps to justify the negative effects society can have on young minds and can be applied to societies acceptance of media, specifically the film being How High’s, effects on the idea of college through stereotypes.

What are stereotypes and how do they form?

Comparative to the size of a person the world is a rather large space which is occupied by persons whom vary from groups of persons and among the individual them self. There are infinite combinations of beliefs held by the peoples of the world and when individualized almost every single person has their own particular opinions and beliefs on any given aspect of life even if there opinion is impartial. Yet somehow, amongst all of these infinite combinations of differences groups of people find a way to set themselves apart and form groups of peoples. These groups of peoples sometimes form a type of culture seen by other groups of people as unique. Now with groups of peoples now associating other groups of peoples with certain aspects they begin to form stereotypes about the other groups of people. What this means is now everyone who might seem to fit into a certain group of peoples is now assumed to having all of the aspects of everyone who they are being assumed to fit in with.

What does all of that mean?

The roundabout gist of that being said is ridiculousness. Is it not ridiculous to think in that manner? Is it not ridiculous to think that among the infinite possibilities of beliefs and opinions that each individual hold special, another person can look at someone and stereotype them into being someone they very well may not be. Not only is it ridiculous and nonsensical it can be viewed as discriminatory and is unfair.

How does this apply to college?

College is a very diverse idea –an idea where people from all over the world coming from different walks of life, of different cultures, race, gender, sexual orientation, religions, financial backgrounds, and social classes can come together to gain an education. The beauty of the idea is to diversify the individual in the walk of education and to broaden not only their wealth in the great disciplines of the academic world but to also broaden their horizons past those from which they came pertaining to culture, religious beliefs, etc. College is liberal by tradition yet it has been infiltrated by the blinders of stereotypes and discrimination. Even at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte certain stereotypes are present and can be noticed. For an example taken from “Yik Yak”, a social media application which uses anonymous posting, people express the stereotypes of Indian students all smelling like curry and being radical Islamic terrorists. Of course neither one of these stereotypes is true; these stereotypes are offensive and create an atmosphere in opposition of the idea of college. Likewise Tatum expresses in her article several ideas about racial stereotypes. Tatum speaks of how ethnicities and races naturally separate in high school cafeterias, although it happens not only in the cafeteria but in every venue of life. Tatum believes this “segregation” happens because of societal points of view that focus on race. An African American student is identified by society not by their personality but as a young black person. They are pointed out by the color of their skin instead of other attributes. African Americans do not need to be reminded they are African American; race is not something that just happens it is something an individual is born with, it does not change so there is no point in reminding someone.  Tatum also speaks about the point in life which usually comes during a young adolescent age in which an individual begins to identify themselves. Society identifying a young person by race can lead to that person identifying themselves as a person whom should fit in with other people of similar race. This is not necessarily problem. Yet, a person should be free from bias to choose to be a part of any group they like. This idea Tatum brings about can further itself into manifesting people to identify themselves with stereotypes given to races they are supposed to identify themselves with according to society and can be made to believe this themselves.

How does this relate to movies about college?

“Yik Yak” is not the only media output in which stereotypes about the people attending college are expressed. Movies which debut nationwide and sometimes worldwide about the U.S. college atmosphere also include stereotypes which are against the idea of college as a whole and can create scenarios unconducive of diversifying the individual and may even restrict learning, especially leaning pertaining to cultures and whatnot other than that of which the student came from. This is not saying all students will be affected by these media outputs; however, it will affect some and is unjust. Tying this back to the movie How High, many stereotypes are presented in this film which is seen by college students, parents, and future college student’s worldwide potentially affecting their way of studying different cultures, races, religions, etc. One scene in the movie portrays a Halloween party thrown by the lead characters Silas and Jamal. In this scene they are evidently doing something non-kosher to Harvard –throwing a raging party. In this scene Jamal and Silas being among the few African American students at Harvard are being stereotyped into a category of African American’s being trouble makers as well as drug users.   There is a clear separation between the Caucasian students who seem knew to this idea and the African American students and friends invited by Silas and Jamal. It is portrayed as something white people are not accustomed to. Using Tatum to support the idea of these stereotypes being unjust, a person who sees this film can be influenced into identifying themselves with the stereotypes presented and feeling a sense of this scene from How High being the way things should be. It can leave a bias impression especially upon a young mind. This shows a failure of society. Society should not accept this oppressive ways of thinking much less idolize it by “loving the film” even if it is a comedy. It hurts not only the idea of college but also adolescents who are trying to identify themselves.

Bringing it all together

In simple, stereotypes are unfair, unjust and discriminatory. College is a place that should be free of the diversity strangling affects stereotypes and discrimination create. Society has made it allowable for media even movies which are featured nationwide and sometimes worldwide to display stereotypes and discrimination that abolishes the principles of college being a place to culturally diversify. It is an unjust act for society to allow these actions and imparts a biased mindset of the feature civilians of our nation as well as leaving a bad taste in the rest of the world’s mouth as to what goes on at U.S. colleges. The worst part is these stereotypes have creeped their way into this nation’s colleges and it is unacceptable, yet society allows it and supports it through films like How High. This is most likely due to a lack of being informed about the impressions it leaves which Tatum discusses as well as the incorrect perception of college. Change would not come immediately, just as Rome was not built in a day, but several decades from now what would the atmosphere of any given U.S. college as well as the minds of future students and the minds of students parent be like if society put an end to media presenting these stereotypes. This civil tyranny to the idea of college has tarnished the great halls of U.S. colleges nationwide with no help from movies such as How High.∎

-Forrest Roberts

More than Just a Party

Every teenager, especially those in their final year or two in high school are eager to enter college and start living “the best 4 years” of their lives. Give them 3-4 weeks into their first semester and they are completely engulfed in what being a college student is REALLY like. I guarantee the enthusiasm you get out of a kid entering college will not be the same a month in. They realize how much work you have to put in to keep up with all of your classes and the time you have to sacrifice to get high grades. The work begins to wear you down, you start to wish the semester was over so you could relax and you find yourself thinking, ‘this is what I signed up for?’ And then the next question that usually comes to mind is, ‘why did I want to go to college so bad before?’ We, at this age, just crave independence. We find ourselves yearning for a chance to leave the house for good, no longer having to listen to anyone, doing whatever we please whenever. Or so we think? Yeah, you have the freedom you have been waiting for but it’s not what you thought it would be like. The movies we watch give us a fantasy-like perception of what our college experience will be like. The movies we watch depict college as this place where you go and just get as drunk as possible, get involved with drugs, have sex with random people, and party every day. Everybody’s dream right? Probably not, but because we see it so often we begin to believe it. The stereotypes in movies portray college in such a socially exciting place that we have the wrong mindset most of the time coming in. As a team we talked about four very similar movies in aspect to what they are trying to express about college. We chose to analyze How High (2001), National Lampoon’s: Van Wilder (2002), American Pie: Beta House (2007), and Neighbors (2014). All 4 being comedies depicting what life COULD be like in college. Almost always, especially with these comedies, what happens in the film is not even close to the things that really go on in universities, especially here at UNCC.  

In for example Van Wilder, Van, the main character played by Ryan Reynolds is the big man on campus. Van has spent 7 years at Coolidge College, enjoying himself, partying, hooking up with random girls, doing everything that a guy wants to do. But as Van’s father finds out how his son has not been taking school seriously, he decides to stop paying for his son’s tuition. A girl named Gwen enters the plot of the movie by being asked to write an article on the famous Van Wilder for a school newspaper, which Van perceives as a romantic advance on her part. Van finds out that Gwen actually has a boyfriend named Richard who Van very much dislikes. Richard and Van go back and forth pulling pranks on each other until Richard sets up Van at one of his own parties by reporting some very underage drinkers to the police. After almost being expelled for this, Van proposes that Coolidge College punish him by making him complete the entire semester’s worth of work in a week and to graduate, which is approved. Gwen is impressed by how Van seems to be maturing, while also finding out that Van was set up by her boyfriend, who coincidentally cheated on her. Gwen ends up getting back at Richard by putting a laxative in his drink before he goes to take his medical school exam, which basically ruins his chances of getting into medical school because he ends up leaving the exam early and defecating into a trash can in a room of medical school committee members. Van Wilder meanwhile, crams an entire semester’s worth of information with the help of a couple friends in a matter of 6 days and miraculously passes his exam. He ends up celebrating his graduation with one more party, where his romance with Gwen is realized with a kiss to end the movie. The movie makes college honestly seem like one giant joke. How can someone learn an entire SEMESTER’S worth of work in less than a week? It is impossible, especially passing with a high final exam grade. So much work goes into college academically that goes unnoticed, now a days you cannot just read a book and automatically understand everything, there is practice work, notes, visual aids, lectures, etc. and you have to be present and attentive to everything if you hope to pass a class with a high grade. The movie completely blows the academic side of college out of proportion.

How High is similar to National Lampoons: Van Wilder on the aspect of education. All four films portray college and emphasize on the party life with American Pie, and Neighbors focusing on frats and Van Wilder, well he is just his own party. How High puts a special partying emphasis on drugs and the stereotype of college being a time to experiment. Drugs are not everybodies thing and a little bit of experimenting might just ruin a future career. As far as education goes, How High at least gives the notion Silas wants to do well in school, specifically botany, but this is also drug related. The only reason he wants to do well in botany is so he can grow better pot. It is like doing something good but for a bad cause. His intentions are good but the application is bad. It almost puts a spin on it that a college education is a joke. After all, these movies are comedies, and cheap humor at that. A stereotype of immaturity is also displayed through these movies. In How High Silas and Jamal think they can just do whatever they would like around campus, tearing down statues and blowing things up, literally. This gives college a bad rap. College is supposed to be a place to mature. These movies give a false sense that college is going to be easy. College is not easy, not even getting a major in business. Future students will get the impression of work easy play hard, when in reality it only leads to academic suspension and failing grades. Maybe Van and Silas and Stifler do put a lot of time towards school but the movies do not show it.  The problem is not necessarily with the movie though. In today's culture we accept this. The public loves this kind of humor, and even more so teenagers and young adults love to do the things these feature films are centered around. It has become socially acceptable and the mindset of teenagers and young adults is often times just like that of Silas or Van. “Partying is more important than academics”. They are living for the now.

Coming from a different point of view, maybe teenagers and young adults have these mindsets because of media. Media influences a large portion of things in life so why not college? The stereotypes present in these movies become stereotypes in the minds of high school students. The music on the radio and the things seen on television and movies like How High as well as the others are why things are the way they are. So how does this reflect back to education? It is a slap in the face to high education. It is society and culture saying, “we do not care about academics”. Teenagers love to be rebellious. They love to party. Although college is a transition into the real world it IS the right time to party. A healthy balance of both social life and academics must be found. If anything this is the biggest flaw in the movies noted. Due to this lack of balance in the movies, it gives a very negative spin on the outlook of academics and that is not what the college students of tomorrow need to look forward to. Even as a student that cares very much about academics and that has always been very competitive in the classroom, I too had this party outlook about college coming in as seen in these movies. It is almost as if every point of view about these films has a good rebuttal. Because even though future college students see these movies it still does not change the fact future college students care enough about their education to go to college. Regardless, the underlying truth to take away from this is these movies give a negative spin on education and are centered around partying and  social life in college.

College is a time for self-exploration, fun, adventure, and most importantly getting ready for your life. Joining clubs and organizations is one of the best ways to find yourself. When you leave home and come to college you are by yourself and often this can be lonely. Many college students want to have a sense of belonging. Because of this they often turn to fraternities and sororities known as Greek life. These organizations give you a “family” while encouraging academics, philanthropy, and a social life. Movies tend to focus on the Greek life, but they only show the social aspect. American Pie: Beta House is a great example of how movies over exaggerate partying. Beta House focuses on the Greek aspect of college. The main character Erik Stifler chooses to attend the University of Michigan because of the legendary Beta House fraternity his cousin belongs to. The whole movie is centered on Stifler and his best friend Cooze as they go through pledging the Beta House Fraternity. To become brothers they must work with the other pledges to accomplish a board of challenges before semesters end. Their final and most difficult challenge is to steal something from their know-it-all rival, the GEK house. After stealing the geek’s most prized possession, the geeks declare war. They challenge Beta House to the long banned Greek Olympiad. The two fraternities battle in embarrassing challenges. The winner gets both fraternity houses. This movie depicts an extreme version of the social life college students have. I believe a social life is very important to have in college. Spending time with your peers helps you grow as a person. However, the social life typical college students have are not what is depicted in the movies. Movies show outrageous parties with excessive drinking, sex, and drugs. Partying and drinking happens, it is a part of life. Participating in consuming alcohol and partying is seen as having the “college experience”. I believe this is due to the freedom college gives you. When you are at home you have someone stopping you from making the “bad decisions”. When you move to college you can choose how to spend your time. This freedom that many students did not have before can lead to an excess in partying and bad decision making. However, there are many college students that choose not to participate in these activities.  Partying is much different than how it is depicted in movies. The students that do participate usually only “party” on the weekends, not every day. The parties are also not to the same scale. Although there have been some parties that are large and wild, the majority of the parties are small get togethers. In Beta House, the parties are hundreds of people creating chaos. Having been to both Greek and non-Greek parties, they are not as chaotic and wild as the movies lead you to believe. In college you do not have a lot of free time after class, homework, and other obligations. This allows very little time for partying, unlike you are led to believe with these movies.

Another movie that focuses on depicting Greek Life and its culture is Neighbors.   The movie Neighbors, featuring the humorous Seth Rogen alongside the likes of  Zac Efron and Dave Franco, attempts to illustrate a portion of college that is more commonly displayed than any other aspect; Greek Life.  The exaggerated portrayal of Greek life in films commonly depicts what young adults do when they are finally on their own with no authority over them.  For this reason, the film industry usually shows its characters indulging in events regarding extreme excess when depicting college especially in the categories of sex and alcohol consumption. Neighbors does a good job at this specifically as it illustrates classic stereotypical Fraternity life.  The comedy shows Seth Rogen and his wife trying to live in peace while a fraternity moves in next door.  Throughout the duration of the comical pranks and sabotage of each other between Seth Rogen and Zac Efron, many different stereotypes of how the media portrays college and especially Greek Life in college are shown.   

As the fraternity settles into its new house, Zac Efron and Dave Franco, who are the Fraternity’s president and vice-president call a meeting in the basement.  Zac Efron begins explaining what the fraternity hopes to achieve that semester regarding parties.  As he goes into the history of parties that the fraternity has done in the past he explains how their predecessors came up with different party themes through accidental occurrences like that of a toga party and beer pong.  Through the pride that is displayed by Efron’s character by being a part of something that started the likes of toga parties and beer pong, the drinking culture that is commonly associated with college is exploited.  In arguably every depiction of college by the media, alcohol is a major part of the “college experience”, especially so in fraternity life.  The reasoning behind this recurring theme in depictions of college life is perhaps because, in most cases, alcohol is a major part of the college experience.  It is a symbol of the freedom of decision making that accompanies attending a university and “leaving the nest”.  Though there are many who choose not to consume alcohol, I feel as if many more choose to for the same reason that people stay up so late or skip class in college; because they can.  Before college, in many cases, young adults do not have the freedom to do all that they please because of parents or guardians making sure that they do not get into trouble.  Upon entering college, many realize that they no longer have anyone over top of them dictating what they can or can’t do and because of this alcohol consumption is prevalent due to a combination of independent decision making and even peer pressure.  Along with those who drank before college and had to hide it from their authority figure at home, there are also those who did not experience alcohol and the feelings that come with it at all.  Because of this, once these people come to college, perhaps join a fraternity or sorority, and begin divulging in excessive debauchery, they may believe that they have struck gold and understand “what they have been missing”.  It all comes back to the fact that college students are basically self-authoritarian.  Since those entering college are still relatively young, it takes learning the ropes.

 Another part of the debauchery, along with drinking, is sexual aspect.  It is no mystery that young adults coming to college are not only curious about alcohol, but also about sexual relations.  Most movies that attempt to illustrate college life show the characters partaking in physical relations with each other or alluding to sexual themes, usually through humor.  Neighbors has one scene in particular in which Dave Franco’s character and the girlfriend of Zac Efron’s character go upstairs while Zac Efron is distracted during a party.  Since Dave and Zac are best friends in the movie, this event shows how media depicts college students and how high on their priority list sex is by showing that even though it was Zac’s girlfriend, Dave still acted upon his own impulses and desires.

Another example of not having authority over oneself at college is a theme commonly associated with college fraternities which is the controversial act of pledging and the hazing that the pledges must endure to become a full member of the fraternity.  In the film all of the pledges of the fraternity wear foolish-looking, pink, cutoff shirts with vulgar names on the back of them in order to humiliate them.  On top of this, there are a few scenes in the film in which the senior members of the fraternity force the pledges to partake in humiliating procedures as they belittle them further. While not personally being in a fraternity myself I can make few valid claims to what the process of pledging is like and I also believe it varies with every university.  However my brother and close friend from home were both in fraternities at the University of South Carolina and have told me as much as they can about the unenjoyable experiences that they have had to endure.  Though not common everywhere, as I’ve heard that Charlotte for example is less tolerable of fraternity hazing, it and the creation of the hierarchy in fraternities that comes from it are other common themes when depicting college.  My meaning by the “hierarchy” is that through pledging and the hazing that accompanies it, members must earn their spots and respect within the fraternity through humiliation.  I have heard many times that this humiliation is put in place in order for one to show their dedication to the fraternity and by doing so, be able to climb up the ranks of the group.  In many cases, hazing is a controversial subject because of the effects that it can have on those who participate.  Neighbors does a good job at depicting those effects by showing a pledge become fed up with the humiliation.  This displays the side of the freedom that comes with college that is more commonly categorized as negative.  Since there is no central authority within the frat house except those higher up the chain in the fraternity, there is no one directly to tell the hazers what they are doing is wrong.  Furthermore, I feel as if even though this movie is meant primarily for comedic entertainment purposes, the studio also attempts to create an exaggerated image of what college is like. Though one may find it hard to understand how all aspects of college life are illustrated by media in this particular film due to the emphasis on the fraternity life, there is enough material to find media portrayal of stereotypical fraternity culture, social interactions, and even some academics.  While media does tend to exaggerate themes and common aspects of the college culture that exist, Neighbors has many parts in the film that, though amplified, can illustrate the basis of where such exaggerations in media originate.