“What is the responsibility of the individual student and that of the institution for the quality of the education the student receives? And, how do institutions encourage and nurture student engagement in and responsibility for their own learning?” In his keynote address, “Student Consumerism and the Ivory Tower,” Roger Martin, president emeritus of Randolph-Macon College (VA) said that students, along with their parents, increasingly believe that the college bears full responsibility for students’ educational and social well-being. Faculty members and administrators, on the other hand, believe just as strongly that if students are to function in the real world they must take more responsibility for their own lives.

Martin brings a unique perspective to the examination of the responsibility of students and the responsibility of the institution for fostering student success. During a recent sabbatical, he was enrolled as an undergraduate student at St. John’s College (MD). He is now writing about that experience.

“Students bear a major responsibility for their education and also for their lives while in college—even if they have physical or learning disabilities. We are there to assist them, to give them encouragement and support, to teach them; but at the end of the day, they must take control of their lives and take the consequences if they mess up. College, after all, is a microcosm of society, a place where there should be consequences and rewards for student behavior,” Martin said, adding that college administrators must constantly communicate this fact to students as well as their “helicopter” parents.

His “freshman” experience at St. John’s gave him “a much deeper sense of what our responsibility should be for the students who come to our campuses.” He talked with many of his fellow students about their high school experiences. Most said they were not engaged in high school, that much of it was rote learning, and there was little debate or intellectual conversation. “And what happens to students like them when they get to college? Often, more of the same. Indeed, they are often subjected to what I consider to be the four key challenges to the way many colleges still do general education: passive learning (lectures or canned power point presentations), random distribution requirements (unrelated general education courses that bear little relationship to each other), overspecialization (faculty choose to focus on a narrow specialty rather than teach broader, interdisciplinary courses), and low expectations (to avoid bad student evaluations, faculty often give light homework assignments and grade generously, even for mediocre work.)”

Martin stressed, “It is our responsibility as educators to provide our students, especially freshmen and sophomores, with a rigorous and demanding academic program that begins early Monday morning and might even end—dare I say—on Saturday morning.” He also argued for “a general education program that isn’t just a mélange of random courses thrown together at the convenience of the faculty, but one that has direction and purpose and engages our students through active learning.”

Martin’s experience at St. John’s with the “Great Books” curriculum showed him that students appreciate a cohesive, demanding curriculum and an environment where teaching and learning take place in small-group, seminar settings. “The seminar is guided by tutors from different academic backgrounds, and tutors are required to teach across the curriculum thus moving away from the kind of academic overspecialization that, in my opinion at least, has compromised the ideal of a well-rounded liberal arts and sciences education.” In such a learning environment, he said, “students quickly see that human knowledge is not only related, but that scientists and social scientists and humanists can speak to each other about issues that really matter to our world.”

Institutions meet their responsibilities “by providing students with an educational experience that is demanding, that is engaging, and that is taught by a faculty willing to cross departmental lines and show students how human knowledge is interrelated,” Martin concluded, adding that students have a responsibility as well—“to show up to class, to do the readings, to ask questions and engage in critical conversation, and either to turn up for the final exam or write a final paper that is theirs and not bought online. Only in this way will meaningful education take place and our students be prepared for a very exciting but competitive world that awaits them.”

Martin’s keynote address is available here.