Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Research Blog #1: Initial Topic Idea

List of possible essay topics:
-College Stereotypes
-The Freshman 15
-The "RU Screw"
-Picking the "right" college for you
-State vs. Private school
-Dorm Life
I am most likely going to go with an essay about overcoming, going through and preventing the Freshman 15.  This topic is one that is relatable to many students and one that I find extremely interesting especially because it something that I have seen on a first hand basis.
Posted by at

4 comments:

  1. Michael GoellerSeptember 25, 2013 at 11:26 AM

    These are still a little vague. The one that interests me most, though, is "The RU Screw," which has a long history -- but my feeling is that it really took off with the rise of privatization in the 1980s. I could be wrong, and maybe it goes further back. My theory is that it mostly speaks to the experience of students in a large and bureaucratic system like a state institution. But it might also speak to feeling exploited by a school that seems to be out to make a buck at your expense. There are a couple of good primary research avenues here that could make this an interesting topic: (1) looking at old Rutgers newspapers (the Targum, Medium, Rutgers Review, Caelian) to see if you can identify some of the first uses of "RU Screw" as a phrase and to collect some examples of its use historically and (2) interviewing a number of students to solicit from them definitions of "the RU Screw" and their own RU Screw story -- or favorite RU Screw story. I bet everyone at Rutgers has an "RU Screw" story. They should be collected and archived. In fact, maybe someone has done that. If not, they should. Why not you? From the stories, you would look for patterns and, most of all, an interpretation of what the RU Screw means to people and what its larger historical and cultural meaning might be. You could also interview someone from American Studies like Professor Angus Gillespie to see if he could offer any thoughts. Once you collect the data, then you could look for some analytic frame to help you make more interpretive sense of it. This could be a very interesting and exciting project -- one that might even lend itself to some more extended research, as an Aresty Research Project for instance.

    The idea would be to understand the RU Screw as practically like an urban legend -- and, like all urban legends, it has real meaning for students and it is something others might learn from. For instance, I bet the Foundation office could learn a lot by listening to student RU Screw stories, which might explain why we have relatively low alumni donation numbers.

    The RU Screw might open up a lot of interesting doors and connect to a larger culture and history that is itself worth discussing. I also think it very likely is connected to the privatization of higher education in NJ.

    The Freshman Fifteen is a lot more narrow as a topic and does not lend itself to larger academic research. You would be in real danger of just reporting on what is known -- which is that the phrase "Freshman Fifteen" exaggerates the average weight gain of freshman year, which is mostly caused by the vagaries of college eating (especially midnight pizza) and drinking -- and irresponsible eating now that you are on your own for the first time. There is nothing surprising there to learn, basically. And I don't see how it would connect to the larger issues of college that we have raised in our discussion.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Michael GoellerSeptember 25, 2013 at 12:22 PM

    I just discovered that Michael Moffatt discusses the RU Screw in Coming of Age in New Jersey. I'll make you a copy, in case you are interested. He says the phrase came out of the student protest movements of the 60s, where campus radicals felt they were being "screwed" by the administration, but that by the 80s it had morphed into a critique of the impersonal bureaucracy of the state university, where you feel treated like just a number. I think my own RU Screw experiences (mostly with the parking office long ago) are related to that impersonal and unyielding bureaucracy, and that "state-worker mindset" among many who work here. Moffatt shows an example from the early 80s of a dorm decoration that features "RU Screw" with "3 Wrong Classes!" -- meaning that a student (likely a freshman) had gotten scheduled into three classes he did not want or need. So he is definitely right about it being a critique of bureaucracy, which was part of my initial feeling also.

    However, with increasing privatization, I wonder if the phrase has not morphed again into a critique of the expense of college and how Rutgers is "turning the screws" on the students. I'd be curious to hear if that were reflected in the RU Screw stories of students today. It would be interesting to find out.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Michael GoellerSeptember 25, 2013 at 12:39 PM

    One last comment: I discovered a radical way you could connect the freshman fifteen to the forces of privatization that have brought us Coke or Pepsi machines all around campus and Dunkin' Donuts or Wendy's or Burger King in the food court:
    http://www.decolonialfoodforthought.com/2010/05/decolonizing-university-food-courts.html
    I'm not recommending this option, but I see how you could make the connection to privatization if you really want to pursue this.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Samantha AbramsOctober 1, 2013 at 7:37 AM

    woah, thanks a lot. this is all very helpful.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)