Alan Finder, Richard Just, and David Leonhardt’s articles all discuss reasons for change amongst the modern college campus. David Leonhardt talks about the recent increase in college dropouts. Alan Finder talks about how much more religious that college campuses are becoming, while Richard Just talks about how there is a political dominance amongst ivy league campuses. These are three of the main changes that are occurring across campuses in America. Each author has their own unique stance in regards to their topic. However, other than the fact that they discuss changes occurring within college campuses, they have no relevance towards each other in regards to topic. On the other hand, all their stances centralize around the overall improvement of the education for our students.

David Leonhardt talks about how certain students today are more likely to drop out of college. He keys in on one specific group: the poor or working class students. He points out that “Only 41% of low-income students manage to graduate within five years,” and even though many more people are graduating in four years, the fact is that graduation statistics for students with low incomes are decreasing incredibly. The gap that separates the graduates of people with high incomes and low incomes is increasing in favor of the people with high incomes. He blames the low graduation rates for low income students on high schools, who “Do a poor job of preparing teenagers for college.” How do people succeed at the next level with a sub-par upbringing?

Alan Finder discusses how religious campuses are getting nowadays. According to a professor at Harvard University, “There is probably more active religious life now than there has been in 100 years.” There are many reasons to why this wave of religion has hit campuses. Some blame the war in Iraq. Others think that it was just an event that made one realize that they should become more spiritual. My opinion is that Finder is siding with the people who just let a self-realization allow for ones new found view towards religion and spirituality. \

Richard Just talks about the liberal conservative division at most college campuses. In all of the Ivy League schools, liberals run campuses, and sometimes discrimination will occur to the ones who think differently from the liberals. He also discusses how apathy is a current issue towards most students because many students really just do not care about where they stand in politics. I am included in this group of apathy. Humor is the best way to treat the apathetic according to Just. However, Just’s main concern is the lack of activism in most college campuses. There needs to be more groups because it “Mobilizes so many more people.”

All authors are trying to discuss how to improve life in college campuses. The recent influx of spiritual people, the division of liberals and conservatives, and the increase of college dropouts are all controversial and affect college life in one way or another. There needs to be a new strategy or plan to help out the college dropouts with low income. They need to be prepared better throughout high school so they can have better results in college. People need to be less discriminated when it comes to political stances, and people should be persuaded to have some sort of political belief. Campus life is always changing, and these changes are ones that will always continue to alter.