Major Findings

Work
One-third of Holy Cross respondents reported that they worked for pay during the school year. Three-quarters of those who worked did so on-campus, with the remainder working off-campus or both on- and off-campus. The median number of hours worked per week was 8 and three-quarters worked between 2 and 10 hours a week. Students who worked both on- and off-campus worked more hours (14.2) than those who worked off-campus (11.8) and those who worked exclusively on-campus (7.6).

Student Groups and Organizations
To measure students’ involvement in student groups and organizations, we first asked if students currently were members of thirteen different types of groups, such as academic and professional organizations, the Student Government Association, performance groups, and service organizations. If they were members, we then asked if they had ever been a leader, helped organize a meeting, or been an officer in any of the groups. In general, Holy Cross students were actively involved. Eighty-six percent were members of at least one student organization; and 58 percent were members of two or more campus groups. Over one-half of the respondents reported membership in a service organization such as SPUD, Appalachia Service Project, or Purple Key Society. This was followed by sports or recreational groups other than an intercollegiate sport team (25%), religious groups (20%), social concern groups such as Amnesty International, Habitat for Humanity, and SADD (20%), performance groups (17%), academic or professional student groups (16%), multicultural or ethnic groups (13%), campus media organizations (13%), political clubs (11%), Student Government Association and residence life groups (9% each), gender identity groups (5%), and all others (9%). Of those who belonged to one or more student groups, nearly one-half reported that they had performed a leadership role. Finally, when asked to identify the group in which they were most active, students were most likely to report service groups, followed by sports and recreation groups, performance groups, religious groups, and media organizations.’

Three quarters of the sample reported that they had participated in at least one of three types of sports activities at Holy Cross: a varsity intercollegiate sport, a club sport, or intramural sport. One-third of the respondents were currently playing a varsity intercollegiate sport at Holy Cross; 24 percent had participated on a club sport team; and 46 percent had participated in intramural sports.
Varsity intercollegiate athletes were less likely than non-athletes to be members of student groups and organizations; they constituted 70 percent of the small number of students who were not members of any campus organizations. When a varsity sport team is counted as a campus group, 96 percent of the Holy Cross sample was a member of at least one group or organization.

Use of the Internet
Nowadays students spend a great deal of time on the Internet. The 2001 Pew Internet and American Life Project Survey of college students nationally indicated that Internet use is much higher among college students than it is among the general population; for example, 86 percent of college students as compared with 59 percent of the general population reported that they had ever gone online. In fact, most students reported spending as much time using the Internet as they did studying: about three-quarters used the Internet 4 or more hours per week, and about one-fifth used it 12 or more hours per week. By comparison, nearly two-thirds reported studying no more than 7 hours per week, and 14 percent reported studying 12 or more hours per week.

The HCSS indicated that Holy Cross students make greater use of the Internet than students nationally. When we asked students how often they went online to access the Internet or World Wide Web or to send and receive email, 99 percent reported that they did so at least once a day; 46 percent went online 2-4 times a day, and 41 percent went online 5 or more times a day. Nine in ten students reported that they went on the Internet every weeknight, often to use Instant Messenger. Students went online primarily for email correspondence and instant messaging, but very high percentages of students also reported that they went online to do class work (90%), get the news (82%), download music (77%), or for no particular reason, just for fun and to pass the time (74%). Relatively few students went online to play games or watch videos (31%), and very few said that they had taken part in “chat rooms.”

Mundane Activities
We used three different time frames (past month, past week, and weeknights) to ask how often students performed several everyday activities. Within the past month, for example, the majority of Holy Cross students had gone to a meeting of a campus club or organization and had traveled to a town or city at least 20 miles from campus. Within the past week, the vast majority of students also said that they had worked out at the gym or fitness center, watched television, and had read a daily newspaper, although few students (17%) read the paper every day.

Much of students’ time involved their interaction with friends and family. Besides using email and instant messaging for this purpose, virtually all students talked with roommates and/or friends every weeknight. One-third of the students had spoken with friends on the telephone almost every night; and over 80 percent reported that they had made a long-distance telephone call within the past week, the majority of all students having made three or more such calls. In addition, the majority of students had written and received personal letters other than email during the past month.
Weeknights, Sunday through Thursday, between students’ evening meal and when they went to sleep, were filled with numerous activities. Virtually all students talked with friends and roommates as well as studied during this time, the majority on a daily basis. But nine in ten students also went on the Internet every weeknight; 85 percent of the students listened to music 3-5 nights; a similar percentage ate a snack 3-5 weeknights; nine in ten students watched TV one or more weeknights; the majority of students read a newspaper or magazine and exercised; and smaller numbers of students attended a meeting of a campus organization (39%), attended an evening class (37%), and played video games (19%) at least one night during this period.

Other Social Activities
Students also engaged in various other social and recreational activities to a lesser extent. Table 4.1 shows the percentage of students and the average number of times per month that students watched movies on a VCR or DVD player and frequented movie theaters, restaurants off-campus, campus sporting events and theater performances, bars or taverns, and off-campus parties. The timing of the survey is likely to have affected reported attendance at sporting events, as students were asked about the period at the end of the basketball season when both the men’s and women’s teams were playing for in-season and then post-season league championships, and attendance was the highest in years. Still, students’ favorite pastimes appear to be watching movies on a VCR or DVD player and attending off-campus parties, followed by eating off-campus and visiting a bar or tavern.

Table 4.1. Percentage of students who, and average number of times per week that students engaged in, various social activities.

Note: Students were first asked if they engaged in activities 1 - 5 “in the past month”; if they had gone to a night club, bar, or tavern “within the past week”; and if they had ever attended off-campus parties. Then they were asked how often.

Attendance at Religious Services
The spring 2002 HCSS showed that Holy Cross students attend religious services at a much higher rate than other students nationally. The spring 2003 survey replicated this finding. Besides their significant level of involvement in campus religious groups, many Holy Cross students attend religious services regularly. Over a third of the respondents in the spring 2003 survey reported that they attended at least once a week and two-thirds said that they attended once a month or more.

Intellectual Activities Outside the Classroom
To assess intellectual engagement outside the classroom, we asked students how often they had done each of several activities during the current semester: very often, often, sometimes, or never. The most common of these activities, reported by nearly one-half (48%) of the students as occurring “very often” or “often,” was having serious conversations with students with different religious beliefs, political opinions, or personal values. This was followed by discussing ideas from readings and classes with others outside class (45%), having serious conversations with students of a different race or ethnicity (41%), and studying with other students (37%). Relatively few students reported that they had read an academic book or article that was not assigned in one of their classes (19%) and tutored other students (15%). All told, nearly three-quarters (74%) of the respondents reported that they very often or often had serious intellectual conversations--about readings or classes and/or with students of differing views and/or a different ethnic group.

Satisfaction with Life Activities
Given their active lives, we wondered how satisfied students were with different areas of life. On a scale from 1 (none) to 7 (a very great deal), students reported that they derived the greatest satisfaction from their friendships, followed closely by their family, and then by their leisure activities outside class and coursework, social life on the weekends, and classes and coursework. That students expressed relatively less satisfaction with classes and coursework than with other areas of their lives does not indicate, however, that they are discontent with their academic experience. In fact, nearly two-thirds said that they were satisfied either “a very great deal,” “a great deal,” or “quite a bit” with their classes and coursework. Also, fewer than one in five students reported that they were often bored with schoolwork--attending class, studying, reading, and so forth.

Interest in Politics and Political Participation
Surveys are snapshots; they depict populations at particular moments and reflect important events of the times. One momentous event that coincided with the spring survey and no doubt affected some student responses was the launching and first few weeks of the U.S. attack on Iraq. The War was especially likely to affect questions regarding “politics and national affairs.” In fact, its effect is apparent in students’ responses to a question asked both in the fall 2002 and spring 2003 surveys: How often do you watch world or national news programs? Table 4.2 shows that respondents in the spring survey reported that they watched much more often than students in the fall; twice as many, for example, reported watching national news programs every day or almost every day.

Table 4.2. Percentage of students who report that they watch world or national news programs
never, rarely, a few times a month, once or twice a month, three or four times a week, or every day or almost every day.

Two other questions also may have been affected by the War: How interested are you in politics and national affairs? Do you ever discuss politics with others, such as whether one should vote for one of the parties or candidates during an election or why people should favor or oppose government policies? In answer to the first question, 35 percent of the respondents reported that they were “very interested” and another 42 percent said that they were “somewhat interested.” Similarly, 27 percent of respondents said they “often” discussed politics and 49 percent said that they sometimes did so. In addition, 55 percent had voted in a civic election, 14 percent had worked for one of the parties or candidates in an election, and 77 percent had voted in a student election at Holy Cross. Except for the voting and election questions, men were more politically active than women; they were more interested in politics, discussed politics more, and watched world and national news programs more frequently. Three questions regarding politics produced differences across academic class: Fourth-year students watched national news programs more often than students in other classes; and voting--both in civic and student elections--increased with class year.

Finally, two other questions tapped students’ trust in the government and satisfaction with the direction the country is going at this time. The majority of Holy Cross students felt that they could trust the government in Washington to do what is right “most of the time” or “just about always.” Also, a majority (58%) was “somewhat satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the direction the country is going. This appears to reflect the pulse of the nation at the time of the survey. For when the same question was asked in an April 2003 IBD/TIPP poll, 62 percent of a national sample expressed satisfaction with the country’s direction.

Overview
The overall picture suggests that Holy Cross students are indeed busy; their lives outside the classroom are filled with myriad activities. But it does not seem appropriate to characterize them as candidates for “Future Workaholics of America.” While classes, study, organizational involvements, and other “goal-oriented” activities clearly take up much of their time, they also find ample amounts of time to watch television, listen to music, exercise or work out, and especially interact with friends--face-to-face, on the telephone, and via email and instant messaging. Not surprisingly, they express a high degree of satisfaction with their friendships as well as their leisure activities outside class and their social life on the weekends.

What seems to be missing, in short, from Brooks’ depiction of the “organization kid” is the substantial amount of time that students spend in informal activities with peers and the importance that students attach to this aspect of their lives. Indeed, the data resonate with anthropologist Michael Moffatt’s description of “college life” at Rutgers University in the 1980s (Coming of Age in New Jersey: College and American Culture). Aside from the formal curriculum and extracurriculum, college from the Rutgers students’ perspective was about “friendly fun.” For Holy Cross students, like students at Rutgers, this includes going to dinner with friends, hanging out in the dorm, watching a favorite television show or sport event, renting a movie on VCR, going to an off-campus party or bar, and interacting with friends on the telephone and Internet.

Comparison of Holy Cross and Clark Students
Holy Cross and Clark University, located less than 2 miles apart in the city of Worcester, are private colleges that emphasize liberal arts education. Full-time undergraduates at Clark, which also enrolls students in over 20 graduate programs, number about 1950; the number of students at Holy Cross is about 2750. Both institutions are residential colleges, with an estimated 76 percent of Clark students and 80 percent of Holy Cross students living on campus. Both draw about a third of their students from Massachusetts and a large percentage of the remainder from New York and other New England states. Beyond these common features, however, the student bodies differ in many ways.

Table 4.3 compares Holy Cross and Clark respondents on various background characteristics, activities, and attitudes. Notice, first, differences in the backgrounds of students who matriculate. The parents of Clark students are lower socio-economically: both parents are less likely to have completed college and tend to have a lower annual income than the parents of Holy Cross students. Clark students also are more diverse religiously and in terms of nationality. The vast majority of Holy Cross students are Catholic, whereas Clark has sizeable numbers of Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and students claiming no religious affiliation. When asked to identify the countries or parts of the world from which their ancestors came and then to identify which of these countries they felt closer to, almost two-thirds of Holy Cross respondents, as compared with one-quarter of Clark respondents, said Ireland and Italy. In general, Clark students’ national identities were not only more widespread; Clark students also were more likely to say that they had no identity at all, suggesting perhaps that they tended to be later-generation Americans than Holy Cross students.

In general, the survey results suggest that Holy Cross and Clark students have very different lifestyles. These differences are reflected in the areas of work, campus groups and organizations, sports, and leisure activities:

• Clark students are more likely to work for pay during the school year, and they work an average of 2 hours per week more than Holy Cross students. Holy Cross students are more likely to do volunteer work.
• Holy Cross students are more likely to be involved in campus groups and organizations, especially service organizations and sports and recreational groups, and they are more actively religious.
• Holy Cross students are more interested in and more involved in sports. Nearly three-quarters of Holy Cross students compared with less than half of Clark students played either an intercollegiate, intramural, or club sport. Also, Holy Cross students are far more likely to attend a sport event on campus and to watch sports on television.
• Holy Cross students watch more television, attend off-campus parties more often, and consume more alcohol, whereas Clark students are more likely to watch films on a VCR, go to a theater production on-campus, and eat at a restaurant off-campus.
• Holy Cross and Clark students are equally likely to discuss and express an interest in politics and national affairs and to vote in civic elections. But Clark students are more liberal, less satisfied with the direction the country is going, and less likely to trust the government to do what is right.
  

Despite these differing patterns, students at both colleges express a high degree of satisfaction with their leisure activities outside the classroom and their social lives on the weekends. They also are equally likely to say that they get a sense of belonging or community from their campus community and dorm residence, although Holy Cross students are more likely to gain this feeling from the organizations or groups to which they belong and from their religious community such as a parish, church, or synagogue. Finally, aside from working for pay, it appears that Holy Cross students have more extracurricular commitments and engage in more and in a greater variety of activities than students at Clark. Within this normative framework, it is perhaps not surprising that Holy Cross students are more likely to find college life stressful and to feel exhausted from meeting all their obligations.

Table 4.3. Percentage of Holy Cross (N=175) and Clark (N=226) students with various characteristics.