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This is to certify that the
dissertation entitled

PARENT-CHILD MYTH IN UNIVERSITY AND COMMUNITY
RELATIONS

presented by
DANIEL RAY KITI'LE

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for the

DOCTORAL degree in HIGHER, ADULT, LEARNING
AND EDUCATION

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PARENT-CHILD MYTH IN UNIVERSITY AND COMMUNITY RELATIONS
By

Daniel Ray Kittle

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTORATE OF PHILOSOPHY
Department of Higher, Adult, Learning and Education

2005

ABSTRACT
PARENT-CHILD MYTH IN UNIVERSITY AND COMMUNITY RELATIONS
By
Daniel Ray Kittle

This study seeks to understand the dynamic relationships between students and
permanent residents in university communities (relationships oflen characterized by
frustration, anger and conflict). The purpose of this research is to more deeply
understand the way community representatives (i.e., local government officials,
community leaders, and long-term residents of university communities) have come to
know what it means to be a college student.

Using a depth psychological framework (specifically the work of Carl Jung), this
dissertation hopes to contribute to a better understanding of community representatives’
beliefs and assumptions that provide the rationale and context for their opinions of, and
actions towards, college students (Pietikaninen, 1999). A semi-structured interview
protocol with symbolic and phenomenological approaches provides meaningful
qualitative data to begin to uncover the life experiences and individual sense-making
processes that relate to community representatives’ understanding of college students.

The data reveals three themes (family, their own college experience, and their
own socio-economic context) that serve to mediate how the participants have come to
know college students. It is also argued that in addition to this conscious process of
meaning construction, unconscious elements of the psyche are also influencing how
participants understand college students. An interpretation is offered that argues that

these unconscious elements are evoking a structured set of beliefs and assumptions that

come together to form a mythology of the college student. Finally, it is claimed that this
evoked myth can be placed within the larger parent-child myth (Jung, 1954; Singer,
1994). This study points to a largely unconscious process of mythology in which the
participant (and community) is parent, while the student is child. I speculate that their
style of “parenting” (masculine versus feminine) is in conflict as a reflection of our
society’s struggle with the emerging feminine voice versus the established patriarchal
structure (Bondurant, Donat, & White, 2001; Fine and Carney, 2001; Maraecek, 2001;

Woollett and Marshall, 2001; Singer, 1994).

Dedicated to my parents, Gary and Jean Kittle and

In loving memory of my brother, Nick Floch

iv

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My first thanks go to the men and women who shared their stories with me. You
were gracious with your time, insightful with your comments, and passionate about life.
Thank you for providing the narrative of this dissertation.

I am grateful for the advice and counsel of my advisor, Dr. John Dirkx. Those
who embody wisdom engage the gifts of the mind to better understand the pull of the
heart. You are truly a wise person.

I am thankfirl for the guidance and care of my faculty and dissertation committee.
You provided me with an intellectual home that valued my individual gifts. You have
made me a better scholar and person.

A special thanks to Becky Tothero, who provided the essential humor and
motivation to keep going. BT, you are the best “dissertation buddy” I could have ever
asked for. I truly don’t know if I would have made it without you. Thanks.

Dr. Patricia Enos values her inner voice, and brings it out in others. Thank you
Pat, for your mentorship and friendship.

A heartfelt thank you to my family. You gave me the freedom to attempt the
impossible. I always knew that failure was okay, and on the roughest days, that
acceptance was powerful. I share with you the satisfaction of completing this dream.

Many people are not blessed with one loving family. I was blessed with two. To
the Golias family, you are my mother, father, brothers and sister. The process of writing

this dissertation challenged me. Thinking about you, and our times together, got me

through it. A special thanks to Brent. May Kayla be blessed to find as good a friend as
her father has been to me.

I would like to acknowledge the fiiends, teachers, and mentors I had at
Heidelberg College. Thank you for believing in me. Like only the best colleges do, that
experience gave me the opportunity to discover who I was and who I wanted to become.

I would also like to acknowledge the boys and girls I have coached at MacDonald
Middle School. Your energy, sense of humor, and kindness provided me with a needed
reminder that there is so much more to life than this dissertation. I believe in each of you.

Finally, special thanks goes to Marissa Burack, who was my most valued editor,
friend, coach, and companion throughout. You were there through every peak and valley
of the process. You were with me to celebrate the small Victories, and pull me up from
the weekly setbacks. I appreciate your kind heart, active mind, and loving way. Thank

you, my love.

vi

PREFACE

Understanding Ourselves Through the Relationships and Stories of Our Lives

The crisp, cool, restless air touches my nose. The dancing leaves float to their
swan song, while my love ’3 bright red mittens swing to the beat. We walk where the path
leads us. Not far from home, we feel confident in the direction the trail takes us. “I think
that ’s the way home, ”my companion says, pointing as a reminder that home is within the
senses. Although the towering trees obscure our view of home, we trust the path. We
trust those who walked before us.

Like the sun, we grow tired. We feel crowded by those who were here yesterday.
They have knocked down the barriers of our journey, flattening the grass, and carving
around trees; they have cleared our path, making it easier to see what lies ahead.
Pushing aside the branches and the prickly vines we push deeper into the forest. Our

senses heighten, and our hearts beat just a little faster as we become those to lead.

I never met the person who carved the path my girlfriend and I followed that day.
We noticed that parts of the trail were wide and well worn with tractor tracks, while other
lefts and rights were more narrow and only crossed by the feet of strangers. Who was the
first to walk this path? Even though I had never met that person, we were intricately
woven in some larger tale. Somehow, we were part of the same story.

In much the same way that I never met the person who made my walk possible
that day, I have never met the people who influenced those who inspire me. Mentors
create paths for us. Sometimes we find them marching before us clearing the most

dangerous branches and vines. But slowly, sometimes without us even noticing, we

vii

begin to walk our own path. Growing more confident in our direction, we find ourselves
pushing aside the challenges and moving away the heaviest branches. Then, we glance
back and see others following us, walking cautiously, along the path we have just laid

down. We are all part of one tale.

Wander, there is no path, we lay down a path by walking.

Antonio Machado

Author, teacher, and activist Parker Palmer (1998) writes about educators as
caregivers, those who work to understand themselves and who are called to a vocation
that helps others embrace the world through their authentic selves. Throughout his
teachings there is a clear understanding of the interconnectedness that shapes who we are,
what we teach, and how we teach it. It is this bond, between educator and student, which
is of interest to me. Just as we often don’t understand the relationship we have with those
who came before us, mentors and trailblazers alike, we also miss the links to our past that
shape who we are. This piece of writing attempts to help us uncover those links, and in
doing so, giving us a better understanding of how we have come to see the world as
children, parents, friends, and teachers. As Pahner (2000) would suggest, we can only
understand others better by growing closer to ourselves. One way to understand and
appreciate who we have become is to reflect on the forces that have shaped us (Jones,
1960). Another way is to slow down, glance over our shoulder at the paths behind us,
and come to understand the beautiful web of people, places, and events that everyday

shape both us and the paths that lie ahead (Bateson, 1983).

viii

This is, because that is.

Thich Nat Hanh, from the teachings of Buddha (l 999)

Buddhist monk Thich Nat Hanh (1999) has spent his adult life meditating, writing
and living in community with others trying to live life deeply. He writes, “When you are
capable of touching yourself deeply, and touching others deeply, you touch the other
dimension, the dimension of the ultimate reality.” As a reader, you are probably
skeptical, as I was, thinking it is easier for one to fully live each moment of the day where
traffic jams, unanswered e-mails, and voicemail messages don’t exist. But as we come to
know Hanh, we find that he is a man who has endured a life of wars, persecution, and
more than thirty years of exile. While living the life of a seeker of the way, he has
authored more than one hundred books of poetry, fiction and philosophy. He was
nominated by the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. for the Nobel Peace Price in
recognition of the extraordinary gifts he has offered the world. If we can understand
some of his teachings, we may come closer to understanding who we have become.

Buddhism seeks to grasp the relationship between one phenomena and another.
They call this the world of dhannalakshana, and the practice of looking deeply into one
thing to find that is made up of all others. Allow Hanh (1999, p. 4) to explain this

fundamental relationship through a story.

Let us visualize the ocean with a multitude of waves. Imagine that we are a wave
on the ocean, and surrounding us are many, many waves. If the wave looks
deeply within herself, she will realize that her being there depends on the presence
of all the other waves. Her coming up, her going down, and her being big or

ix

small depend entirely on how the other waves are. Looking into yourself, you
touch the whole, you touch everything — you are conditioned by what is around
you.

Whether it's an ocean filled with chopping waves, or a well-worn path strewn
with leaves, the interconnectedness of the patterns of our life are intricate and
complicated (Bennet, 1961). Thich Nat Hanh’s story allows us to see that the flow of
your life is continually spilling over to others’; we come to know ourselves through an
ever-changing landscape of people, places, things and events. The pattern of our life,
who we are in some sense, is like an artist's canvas that is never quite complete. We are
always adding a little color here, or a touch of paint there. What is difficult, yet of great
value, is to step back and view our own evolving canvas, bringing to life those who first
splashed life onto it. To understand the colorful strokes of parents, teachers, mentors and
fellow students that have brought the shape, depth and character to how we engage with
the world.

Of course, like any metaphor, ours can only take us so far. Hanh's waves‘of
dependency do not reach into the past to tell the story of the winds that stirred the seas,
and our canvas inaccurately illustrates a life that is framed by some sense of boundary.
Although these stories have limitations, they open the door to who we are just a bit, just
enough to peek in and find stories that smear shades of color across our canvas and
provide a compass along our paths.

The thesis of this writing rests on the belief that one way to understand our place
in the world, is to better know ourselves. I believe that if we can come closer to
understanding the complex patterns (the brush strokes of our canvas so to speak) that

have coalesced over time and space to shape our being we can open our eyes a little

wider to the world around us (Bateson, 1983; Jung, 1963/1989; Pietikaninen, 1999; see
also Schwartz-Salami, 1995). Through our stories, and others, we can come to understand

the past that has laid our paths and the stirring ocean that we are a part of each day.

There is nothing to be overcome in making him your friend; he and you join like
raindrops on a window.

08. Lewis

Relationships are unavoidable. We are constantly in relation with others, whether
it's in a passing nod of the head, a rhythm from the radio, or a warm kiss from a
companion. Our community is easily noticed in the conversations we have, emails we
exchange, and friendly hellos among neighbors. Ofien, what we miss are the intimate
relationships we still carry with us of those in the past, those we have never met, and
those with whom we will never speak. The books we read, the pounding messages of our
parents, the passing glance of a stranger, all have the potential to touch us deeply in a
way that is not obvious or distinguishable to us, or others. It seems reasonable to assume
that we are complex creatures, with many layers that peel back like an onion to expose
themselves at different times with different people, all the while subject to those
curiously silent influences (Von Franz, 1997).

Following that logic, I ask you to open your mind and heart to my work. The
layered nature of this study requires more than just the eye of a researcher; it requires the
kind of personal reflection that is ofien pushed to the side as "soft" or, at worst,
irrelevant. In addition to questioning how I go about my study, including whom I've
selected to work with, how I engage them, and what I chose to highlight, this research

requires that you think just as deeply about what you bring to this work. Because the

xi

further you read, the more this becomes our work. What I write is intricately woven with
who you are. We are engaged in a dialogue, albeit over extended time and space, that
may lead you in certain directions. As you identify with particular cases in this text, ask
why. When you find yourself tuning into particular stories, question why that might be.
The intended tone, content and style of my writing are offered as guides, but it will be
you that assigns meaning to what I write. You will find pieces of yourself in these
stories. They will call you to think more deeply about the ways in which you interact
with college students.

As members of a university town we interact almost daily with students. We wait
with them in line for coffee, we nudge them out of parking spaces, and we talk with them
about what’s in the news. Often, we find ourselves in front of them discussing concepts,
theories and formulas. Others of us meet with students to talk about their future, their
goals, and their resume. Some of us sit with them to talk about academic probation,
parking tickets, or problems with their landlord. On rare occasions a few of us will join
them for lunch and talk about their passions and what they love. All the while, these
students are taking something away from our conversations. They are finding what to
talk about, how to posture, and what needs to be left unsaid.

Most college educators would agree that a student’s time at a university is filled
with small decisions that are molding who they are. They are vulnerable to peer
influences, they look for models of behavior, and at the best institutions they examine
their opinions, beliefs and values (Evans, et. al., 1998). Sometimes these conversations
are marked by epiphanies, “ah-ha!” moments that lead to career decisions, spiritual

awakenings and engagement proposals. Those days are indelible, but rare. More often

xii

we search for the small educative interactions that are less assuming. They happen in
meetings and classes that are otherwise banal and routine. But, the best of us search for
educative epiphanies, those moments of emotion and substance. Those times where our
life’s work, be that teaching, administration, or city services, beautifirlly intersects with a
student’s personal development. In all these interactions we expect students to be
truthful, engaged, and forthright. We look for them to scratch a bit deeper into who they
are to be present and whole in our conversations. When we advise them, we try to create
environments that are safe for them to bring all of their identity to the table.

Over time I have been able to witness a number of these interactions between
educators and students. I vividly remember many as a student, and they surround me as
an administrator and graduate student. All the while, I’ve noticed something. Something
is missing. We are not present in these conversations.

I don’t think we are being fair to our students. As we invite them to the table for
personal conversations, we have not invited ourselves. We sometimes present a facade of
ourselves that is fragmented, misrepresentative, and, at worst, manipulative. Surrounding
us is a complex nature of interconnectedness that revolves around fear, anxiety, and
failure that handicaps our ability to bring all of ourselves to these conversations. In turn,
we often lead students to believe that we don’t struggle with our work, that our family
life is always perfect, and that there are “right” answers to all the questions out there. By

doing this, we may make them feel inferior, incomplete, and lost.

As I walk in from school I notice my mother's feet. I quickly open and close the

backdoor (we certainly don 't want to let the nicely cooled air to seep out). I catch a

xiii

glimpse of mom 's swollen feet, propped up and dangling over the edge of the couch. My
mom is a petite woman, maybe 5 '2" on a day with high heels, so her swollen feet seem to
take up an inordinately large part of her body. Her ankles are bright red, irritated by the
heat and sweat that has punished them for almost 30 years. She has spent the day
standing in Packard Electric, manufacturing electrical harnesses for General Motor's
vehicles. After having only sat down for about 20 minutes, she will slowly make her way
into the kitchen to stand on another stifif unforgiving floor.

Closer to evening, my father arrives home. I hear his truck as he backs into the
garage. He pats me on the head as he asks about my day at school. He rinses out his
lunch containers, drops something in the trash, kisses my mother hello and goes to
change his clothes. Little time passes before he’s out the door again, going to the shed to
fire up the tractor and start the yard work. As always, not much is said about the ten-
hour day he just spent on his feet at the production line at the General Motors
manufacturing plant. Surprisingly energetic, he spends the remaining hours of daylight
outside lifting, pushing, cutting, and otherwise maintaining the space on this earth that

decades of aching legs has provided for our family.

Each morning we get up, slip the straps over our shoulders and carry it with us all
day. From the coffee shop, to the classroom, we have personal baggage that can weigh
heavy on us. The previous story illustrates simple moments in a family that all told
would combine to spend over 60 years working in assembly plants. Only now have their
beaten bodies shown wear in the form of carpel tunnel syndrome, throbbing backs, and

aching legs. Although their bodies remind them of their time served, their spirits have

xiv

seen a rebirth. Within one week after my mother retired she was a different person.
Energized. Funny. Strong. Sarcastic. It wasn't that you hadn't seen those qualities while
she worked, but it was as if they were truly unearthed after she retired. It was as if each
day of retirement was enough to shed a year’s worth of layers of soot and sweat; she was
relieved and refreshed. My father has taken his energy, too long controlled by someone
else, and thrown it into hobbies, projects, and traveling. I wonder how often they think
about the days when they left home before even the sun had begun it’s day? Do they
know how often I think about those days served?

This type of story provides the lens through which I see the world. Experiences
like these provide a foundation of norms and values that frame the expectations I have of
myself and of the students with whom I work (Whitmont, 1969). What are the stories,
myths, motifs, and images that bring the color and character to your interactions with
college students? How have you come to know students through your experiences? Are
past experiences, maybe as a student, parent or educator shaping how you see yourself in
connection with the students with whom you work? Is there a backpack of emotional

baggage that you carry everyday that is going unexamined?

XV

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter One
The Tension Between Community Members and Their Student Neighbors............1
University Neighborhood Unrest: Early Conflict ....................................... 2
Communities and Universities: Equal Partners? ......................................... 3
Landmark Events ............................................................................ 5
Looking to the Future ....................................................................... 9
Chapter Two
Jung’s Conception of the Human Psyche ..................................................... 12
Theoretical Framework .................................................................... 12
The Links that Run Through My Life ................................................... 14
Myth .............................. _ ............................................................ 16
What is a Myth? ............................................................................ 17
How Depth Psychology Informed the Study ............................................ 18
Chapter Three
About the Research ................................................................................ 21
Research Problem and Questions: Using Symbolic Motifs to Understand the
Conflict ...................................................................................... 22
Empirical and Emotional Foundations .................................................. 23
Why this Approach? ....................................................................... 24
Context and Participant Selection ........................................................ 25
Why Community Representatives? ...................................................... 28
Background for Methods of Data Collection ........................................... 29
Data Collection and Analysis .............................................................. 33
The Role of Technology in Capturing and Representing the Data ................... 37
Purpose and Structure of Interactions .................................................... 38
Role of the Author ......................................................................... 40
Summary ..................................................................................... 43
Chapter Four
Participant Profiles ................................................................................ 45
Connecting the Method with the Findings .............................................. 45
What’s to Come ............................................................................ 47
Participant Profiles ......................................................................... 49
Joe .................................................................................... 51
Elizabeth ............................................................................ 54
Rene ................................................................................. 58
Anna ................................................................................. 63
Ray ................................................................................... 66
Mark .................................................................................. 71
Jackie ................................................................................ 75
Summary .................................................................................... 77

xvi

Chapter Five

How Participants Have Come to Know College Students .................................. 79
Frame of Reference ......................................................................... 79
Summary of the Frame of Reference .................................................... 84
Understanding the Frame of Reference ................................................. 84

Family ............................................................................... 86
Their Own College Experience .................................................. 89
Their Own Socio-Economic Context ............................................ 92
Limitations .................................................................................. 96
Summary ..................................................................................... 99

Chapter Six

Interpretations ..................................................................................... 100
Arguing for the Presence of the Unconscious ......................................... 100

Defining the Unconscious ....................................................... 101
Evidence of the Unconscious ................................................... 103
Evidence of Myth ................................................................ 109
Parent-Child Myth ........................................................................ 114
Defining the Parent-Child ...................................................... 115
Rising Feminine Voice vs. The Established Patriarch ...................... 118
Dropping the Jargon ...................................................................... 119
Ethic of the Inner Voice: Practical Implications ............................. 119
Personal Reflections ............................................................. 124

Appendix A

Interview Protocol ................................................................................ 126
Overview ................................................................................... 126
Protocol .................................................................................... 128

Appendix B

Pilot Interview ...................................................................................... 143

Appendix C .

Participant Consent Form ...................................................................... 144

Bibliography ....................................................................................... 148

xvii

CHAPTER ONE: THE TENSION BETWEEN COMMUNITY MEMBERS AND
THEIR STUDENT NEIGHBORS

This study invites you into the conversations I had with seven people. Each in a
different way, these individuals educate students. They are neighbors, administrators,
city leaders, and police officers. They have agreed to open their lives to us, and bring
forth the chapters and stories that provide the context and content of their lives. Through
my conversations with them we find the often-subtle interconnectedness that Thich Nat
Hanh (1999) writes about. I ask questions and have a dialogue that uncovers these
peoples’ life experiences that mediate their relationship with students. Sometimes, we
discover connections that are not obvious to those I interview (Bennet, 1961). These
emotionally buried links help us understand how their stories have created the
assumptions and expectations that fashion the policies they draft, create the punishments
they dole out, and generally understand the way they interact with students. Do they use
their college experiences as models for what others should be like? Maybe they have
children in college, and look to treat the students they work with as one of their own
family members. Or, do we find that their assumptions and characterizations of college
students come from what they see in the media? More than not, it is a complicated
intervening of several factors; nonetheless, it is my thesis that the past and present will
fold together. In the end, we will find our students and ourselves in these stories.

This study uses a variety of methods, particularly symbolic approaches (the way
people explain and understand themselves and their relationship with the world through
emotional symbolism), to gain a deeper knowledge of these individual’s sense-making

processes as they relate to understanding students (Von Franz, 1997). The theoretical

framework that shapes the process of understanding is Jungian in approach in that the
individual’s unconscious processes are key in understanding the origin of their beliefs,
and thereby the everyday behavior of their lives (Pietikaninen, 1999; Whitrnont, 1969).
Furthermore, the study is based on my belief that the relationships between students and
community representatives are characterized by tension and discontent (Von Franz,
1997). This lack of positive interaction results in anger and frustration that has an
impact personally and professionally. I’m seeking an emotional understanding of this
problem, whereas in the past, meaning has been attributed to only empirical dynamics. In
that sense, past research has not been disciplined and intentional in their use of theoretical
frameworks. Worse yet, their approach has not worked. The unrest in university
communities is growing. Students and their community neighbors are not getting along

(Burton, 2003; Sand, 2003). I hope this study provides a new lens to an old problem.

University Neighborhood Unrest: Early Conflict

The university can be a place of engagement, exploration, and learning around
those issues and ideas that frame personal choices and institutional contexts. A student’s
time at the university can be an important time to cultivate a commitment to citizenship —
an engaged, thoughtful perspective of their place in the community. An outgrth of this
desire is the way universities have embraced the practice of service learning. Service
learning has become one active tool in seeding a sense of responsibility that hopes to
extend the web of learning at the university beyond the walls of the campus (Bringle,
R.C., Games R., & Malloy A. (Eds) 1999). Therefore, the laboratory of learning is not

bound by the traditional classroom walls, but reaches into towns and cities across the

world. The practice of service learning has been one place of interaction between
universities and their surrounding communities, but the Town and Gown relationship has
a colorfirl history that has produced the likes of service learning, student unrest, legal

battles, outreach activities, and community partnerships.

In 1775, when Columbia University was still King’s College of Wall Street, a
mob of local townspeople marched on the campus seeking the neck of the college
president, Miles Cooper, a known Tory sympathizer. While undergraduate
Alexander Hamilton kept the angry crowd at bay, Cooper in his nightshirt
scurried out the back window and down to the Hudson River. The next day he
boarded ship for England, never to return. Columbia and its presidents have had

problems with the city ever since.
George Nash (1973) p. 95

In that year (1200), after certain students had been killed in a town and gown
altercation, King Phillip Augustus issued a formal privilege which punished his
prevot and recognized the exemption of the students and their servants from lay
jurisdiction, thus creating that special position of students before the courts which
has not wholly disappeared from the world’s practice, though generally from its

law.
Alexandar DeConde (Ed.). (1971). p. 27

When a new University was founded, it was sometimes taken for granted that
these conflicts (between students and townspeople) must arise, and that the
townsmen were certain to be in the wrong. Thus, when Duke Rudolf IV founded
the University of Vienna in 1365, he provided beforehand for such contingencies
by ordaining that an attack on a student leading to the loss of a limb or other
member of the body was to be punished by removal of the same member from the
body of the assailant, and that for a lesser injury the offender’s hand was to be
wounded.

Alexandar DeConde (Ed.). (1971). p. 37
Communities and Universities: Equal Partners?
University and community conflict is not an invention of the 21S” Century.
Universities and their local communities have battled over land, taxation, student unrest,

and housing since the establishment of universities (DeConde, 1971). What have framed

these interactions, thereby leading to particular approaches and outcomes, have been the
working assumptions of university and city leadership.

University communities have continually worked to define their political and
legal relationships with university staff and students. Today we talk about students being
subject to ordinances tailored to alter their behaviors (e. g., noise ordinances and zoning
policies), while past generations bestowed social and judicial privileges upon students.
Today we talk about universities collaborating with communities to meet the service
needs of the people, while university leaders in past generations viewed their
communities as only serving the residential and service needs of its students and staff
(Clavell, 2001; Hull, 2000; Rodin, 2001; Teather, 1982). Each of these policy decisions
have been based on a set of assumptions. First, how does the university view its role in
society? At times, when universities have seen their role as being to directly respond to
the needs of society, they have tended to engage their local communities more. For one,
during these times, the universities have been afforded the federal dollars to pay for these
interactions, and two, university priorities have reflected a sense of obligation to reach
beyond the campus boundaries (Bringle, R.C., Games R., & Malloy A., 1999). The
second assumption is based on the universities’ understanding of the community’s role.
Are communities equal partners to be engaged in a spirit of cooperation? Or, do local
communities require university experts to define community needs (primarily with
university stakeholders) and implement a set of treatments (often based on generalizable
theory, not local data)?

In general, past relationships were framed around university outreach (the

university defining the needs of the community and providing the expertise to meet those

needs), but today we talk about collaboration and cooperation as tools for creating a
relationship that is based on recognizing the strengths of both parties (Bringle, Games, &
Malloy, 1999). Universities and communities that have healthy relations generally
acknowledge the assets and resources each brings to the table, as well as their vested
interest in meeting the challenges together. In the past it was believed that the university
“must lead, not follow, the community that they serve”, while today it is generally
understood that the university must partner with the community to capitalize on the assets
of collaboration — thereby becoming the change they want to see in society (Teather,

1982, p. 213).

Landmark Events

To provide some historical context for these assumptions, it is important to
mention several significant events. In the United States, the establishment of land-grant
colleges (authorized by the US. Congress in 1862) redefined the relationship between
universities and communities (Teather, 1982). The land-grant universities were to assist
the rapid expansion of industrial and agricultural development through teaching, research,
and outreach. This was the beginning of a movement to locate universities in small
towns and rural areas in an effort to more directly link the university with the daily lives
of more people (Nichols, 1990; Teather, 1982). In some sense, the community and
university were an arranged marriage by the federal government — tasked to create a
lifelong partnership of mutual benefit for its family (the people of the country). The call
of the federal government, backed by federal money, spurred universities to more directly

engage local and regional communities (WK. Kellogg Foundation, 1988; Teather, 1982).

As the age of agriculture gave way to the industrial revolution, colleges and
universities were again called upon to respond to the needs of society. For example, as
World War II came to an end, the GI. Bill afforded thousands of service men and women
with the opportunity to attend college (Adams, 2000). This infusion of people and
federal money was accompanied by an expectation that the university should support the
needs of the society. Although the societal pressure was to react to the issues of the day
(e. g., educating former GIs, and later, responding to the breakthrough of Sputnik), the
universities and local communities often did not work together to meet the needs of an
expanding college student body. Local communities were not prepared for the exploding
student populations, and were unable to provide the infrastructure, public transportation,
and property zoning plans to meet the growing needs (Nicholas, 1990). Conflict between
universities and communities arose around policies aimed at meeting the needs of this
growing population. At the same time as these regional planning and economic issues
challenged the relationship between universities and communities, universities were
being called upon to assist in reversing the urban decline that characterized many large,
urban US cities (Mitchell, 1974). Therefore, universities were often deeply engaged with
communities, just not their local community (Nash, 1973).

During the late I960S and the early 197 Os public confidence in universities
suffered (Teather, 1982). People felt that universities were not meeting the needs of
society, while university faculty withdrew even firrther from local issues over concerns
about academic freedom and rewards (Teather, 1982). As the public watched student
unrest on campus, and faculty retreated deeper into the university, community relations

were strained. In addition to these pressures, this was also a time when universities

experienced large geographic expansion, often bleeding well into the boundaries of local
communities (Teather, 1982). This era became defined by these conflicts and missed
opportunities.

In the 1980s the federal government again had a major impact on university and
community relations. As federal deficits ballooned, university budgets shrank.
Universities withdrew off-campus allocations, and higher education was once again a
“thing apart” fiom society (Organisaton For Economic Co-Operation and Development,
1982, p. 10). Although universities were by and large disengaged locally, technology had
begun to redefine the concept of community. Personal computing technology allowed
faculty research to more easily reach beyond the region of their home university. These
technological advancements influenced universities by orientating them toward
international, not local goals (Teather, 1982). The lack of institutional support for
academic work of the local nature further pushed local opportunities for collaboration
aside (WK. Kellogg Foundation, 1988).

Even when university administration and faculty engaged local communities, their
practices were based on university-centered approaches. The assumption was that the
university was well equipped with a variety of expert tools, and the task was simply to
identify the appropriate tool (be it a theory, or generalizable practice) and apply it to the
local context (Nash, 1973). As university leadership applied these models, and they often
did not work, it became evident that community collaboration was required in order to
better define and understand the challenges. As opposed to past assumptions, community
representatives had their own level of expertise that was necessary to meet the issues at

hand. The dynamics of the relations also unearthed institutional racism and prejudice that

had resulted in unfair and unethical university practices. For example, cleaning and
restoring surrounding communities (a laudable goal in itself) often meant removing
minority populations. At times, university projects were centered on improving their
image at the expense of displacing disadvantaged populations (Nash, 1973).

The 19903 signaled a series of changes that moved university and community
relations in a positive direction. University departments, such as social work, education
and urban studies led the way (Elliot, J ., Francis H., Humphreys R., & Istance D. (Eds),
1996; Bringle, Games, & Malloy, 1999). They provided models of interaction with local
communities that were based on reciprocity and respect. In turn, local communities, now
often armed with professionalized city staff (e.g., career trained city managers, planners,
and developers), were better prepared to join in local partnerships. The dynamics of the
relations were also moved forward by the insurgence of new voices. Minority
populations, while often ignored and unwelcome by universities in the past, were
growing on many campuses across the country (Bringle, Games, & Malloy, 1999, p. 9).
Their presence provided a more representative perspective that aided in servicing the
needs of local communities.

The assumptions that framed university and community relations were shifting.
Unilateral university action was declining, powerful linkages were developing, and
collaborative constituencies were leading the way. The capacity for Cooperation was
ready to meet the complexity of current issues. The complexity of issues came in large
ntnnbers. That is, more and more students were moving off campus, the price of local
housing was shooting up, and local service needs were on the raise (Nichols, 1990). As

the 19908 spilled into the 21St century, the difficulty of these issues became clear.

Looking to the Future

Even what might appear to be a relatively minor dispute between noisy students

in a rented house and next-door neighbors can quickly escalate to involve local

police, university officials, parents, and lawyers depending on how the issue is
defined and the investment of stakeholders in the outcome.
Warfield (1995) p. 64

Local university communities have become grounds for lifestyle conflicts. I have
seen the effects in my work. Students disproportionately hold the late shift, working late,
studying into the wee hours, and sometimes noisily partying into the moming. All the
while, permanent residents of the community get up early to head into work, and put the
kids to bed shortly after the sun goes down. The conflicts are organized within city
blocks where the lifestyle choices of students and permanent residents are bumping into
one another. The conflicts call for a different kind of approach.

Certainly, the same collaborative, constituent-based approaches are required in
order to provide the institutional support and structure necessary to live peacefully. Local
police must work with campus police. University leadership must prepare students for
the responsibilities of living off campus, while local communities must work to provide
adequate housing and services for students. While in the past universities and
communities engaged around similar issues (land use, resource sharing, and taxation), the
focus of issues has shifted to put the needs of students and local community members at
the center (Nichols, 1990). In addition, the practice of tackling these issues now
recognizes that communication, planning, and mutual decision-making must be central to

the process. Communities can no longer “be viewed as pockets of needs, laboratories for

experimentation, or passive recipients of expertise” (Bringle, Games, Malloy, 1999, p. 9).

Instead, the academy has to develop meaninng partnerships with the community.
Practitioners of community development have recognized that people, not faceless
institutions, hold the potential for success.

Research has also shown that “the intensity of a conflict is heightened or lowered
by how parties feel core values are being affected” (Holton, 1995, p. 66). Those core
values are shaped by our unique epistemologies in how we have to come to know
ourselves, how we interact with others, and where we find meaning in the world
(Boulding, 1962). The potential for emotive responses dramatically increases when
issues touch upon these core values (Holton, 1995). Therefore, community members’
personal experiences with issues such as noise, parking congestion, and poor housing,
may manifest themselves in strong feelings of tension, frustration, and hostility (Nichols,
1990)

This research project recognizes the importance of macro approaches to these
issues. I believe community ordinances, special task forces, and public forums are
necessary to facilitate asset-based approaches to meeting challenges of living together.
But, the thesis of this research rests on the macro approach not being sufficient to meet
the needs of our university communities.

In summary, the series of events over the past several centuries demonstrates the
volatile nature of this work. We kicked things off with violence in the 13th century, later,
we ushered in the 19605 with student unrest, and in recent years we have brought in the
21St century with student riots (Burton, 2003; Sand, 2003). A theme throughout all of
these conflicts is the strong emotionality of the events and relationships. People seem to

have blended their emotions into their times in ways that have manifested themselves into

10

shared patterns. How can we understand these actions? How can we understand the
actions and beliefs of people in the community? This study explores the tension between
students and community representatives by applying Jung’s principles of depth
psychology. We can elicit the life biographies of people in dynamic ways that unearth
the symbolic and unconscious expressions of ourselves. It is the intuition and
unconscious, energized by the scientific and rigorous, that this study blends in order to

better understand ourselves and thereby others (Whitrnont, 1969).

ll

CHAPTER TWO: JUNG’S CONCEPTION OF THE HUMAN PSYCHE

Theoretical Framework

It is important to let the unconscious have its say.

Singer (1994) p. 26

The human psyche is shy and illusive. You pick up your flashlight to uncover its
mysteries, yet it slowly slips away into the shadows (Chodorow, 1997). Carl Jung (1958)
has found that sense-making processes, particularly depth psychology, can be an effective
tool in drawing the psyche out from the shadows. Depth psychology can be an approach
(it is more than a method because it incorporates several methodological approaches,
including ethnography, and postmodern interviewing) used to understand the connections
people have with the past that are not always based in rational, empirical practices
(Bateson, 1983; Bennet, 1961; Library of Analytical Psychology, 1980; Rohrbach, 1967;
Whitmont, 1969).

Depth psychology, of which I’m blending several perspectives, is based on a
number of assumptions (Whitmont, 1969). First, it has parallels to the doctor and patient
relationship in that the practice requires a relationship of trust, openness, and honesty
between interviewer and subject (Jung, 1963). It calls for honesty from the subject to
engage their entire person in the process with a willingness to work at making
connections that feel intuitive, but often remain unspoken (Bennet, 1961). In order to
form a successful partnership, the interviewer must also be reflective and disciplined in
their approach. In this case, I had to be conscious and willing to guard against projection,
and serve as a guide and diligent witness. Horowitz (1991) illustrates this mutual

engagement as a process of awareness, insight, and new decisions. For example, before

12

therapy and/or some level of introspection, people often have psychological reactions to
situations that they don’t understand. They may have a sense of uneasiness, but can't
seem to pinpoint a potential cause. The process of psychotherapy is tasked to uncover
unconscious feelings and emotions, and thereby making conscious insights into
previously untapped parts of the psyche (Chodorow, 1997; Hall, 1986). Horowitz’s
process of awareness (uncovering and recognizing) and insight (realizing and
understanding) frame the process through which I engage the participants of this study.
Understanding and applying this process, rooted in psychotherapy, has the potential to
unearth and unleash an unconscious wealth of human potential that can be poetic and
beautiful - that can facilitate true and meaningfirl relationships with our students and
more importantly, with ourselves (Hall, 1986; Horowitz, 1998).

What does it mean to understand ourselves? Jung (195 8) calls this self-
knowledge. How do we discover that knowledge? As individuals surrounded by
complexity, how do we engage in a process of introspection to tap the poetic beauty of
life? I know when I am able to tap that energy of life. I feel it when I coach. I sense it
when I teach. I come to know it when I lead. What common threads of my unconscious
life coalesce to bring about that happiness? Through therapy, reflection, and deep human
interactions, I have to come to identify some of those threads. I have unearthed some of
those buried links to my past that connect me so powerfully to those experiences I enjoy.

The goal of this research is to use the theoretical framework of depth psychology
to reveal some of the links that color community representatives’ understanding of
college students. Why do many of them talk about absorbing such energy from living

near college students? Why do they sometimes feel disappointed and angry when the

13

behaviors of college students do not meet their expectations? How do they come to
decide what those expectations are?

In approaching these questions, the study echoes the work of people like Parker
Palmer (2000) who believes that we must invest in the process of knowing ourselves in
order to more deeply connect with those with whom we work. My goal was to guide this
engagement, by providing the methodological tools to bring Jung’s depth psychology
methodology alive for my participants. Like psychotherapy, the power of this research is
its ability to explain what is only sensed (anger, disappointment or happiness) (Hall,
1986). One who is skilled in these practices is able to develop a heightened level of
awareness of cues that bring about states of feeling and emotion. They are able to
develop an ability to recognize repetitive maladaptive cycles in order to alter those inner
identity experiences to maximize desired states and open up doors to new possibilities
and behaviors (Horowitz, 1998, p. 32-35). Jung (1968) flamed this type of personal
growth as the process of humans moving toward individuation, that is, realizing their
innate individual potential (Hall, 1986; Library of Analytical Psychology, 1980;
Schwartz-Salant, 1995). More simply stated, they will learn to understand themselves

(Singer, 1994).

The Links that Run Through My Life
Although I 've since moved from the state in which I grew up, life’s irony has
followed close behind. Each morning, on my way to my white-collar job at the university,
I pass by a General Motors assembly plant. As I drive by, I feel a little guilty...like I

should be punching my time card there, rather than continuing my commute to an office

14

job. I also know that even though I might be going in "early, " those men and women I
pass have been laboring for at least an hour while I was still sleeping. Often, they ’11 still
be there when I drive by on my way home. Although I don 't need it, my daily journey
provides me with a reminder of who I am.

Somehow when I'm at meetings with professors or administrators, I'm an
imposter. I have not developed skills to contribute to the proceedings; instead I’ve honed
my ability to look "smart" in the face of people much brighter and well versed than me.
It’s an elaborate inferiority complex that has landed me only a small step away from a
PhD...each day I’m working to be good enough... working to feel deserving of not having
to punch a time clock at the assembly plant.

My parents didn 't want me to work in a plant all my life, and from most of what I
knew about it, neither did I. I initially embraced going to college to ensure a diflerent
lifestyle from my parents. I wanted to avoid the thankless work, the long hours, the
physical labor that beats on the body. Only later have I realized that, although I am
thankful for not having to labor on the line for a living, I often still feel more comfortable
surrounded by the men and women who do spend their days building, standing,

stretching, and lifting.

It took me several years to recognize and reconcile the emotional buried links that
exist between my childhood and my current career path. Through recognizing the
inferiority I felt, to understanding its relationship to my life experiences, to finally
accepting it as part of who I am, the process has been Jungian in nature (Whitmont,

1969). I have come to know who I am in relation to a specific complex. Although only

15

one piece of my psyche, it helps me understand who I am in relation to what my parents
did for a living. Of course, it does not answer all the questions of my mental being, and it
does not fully explain the numerous connections, confusions, flustrations, and joys that
are the hallmarks of living. The process of gaining knowledge about oneself through
recognizing complexes can be a powerful and liberating process (Jacobi, 1959;
Whitrnont, 1969). The depth psychological process is convincing in its ability to
associate feelings and behaviors with specific conscious and unconscious complexes,
thereby identifying and providing opportunities for understanding and reconciliation
(Library of Analytical Psychology, 1980).

Similar to my self-study of unearthing an inferiority complex specifically related
to growing up in an assembly line laboring family, this study has aimed at understanding
how community representatives come to know college students through making relevant
connections to personal and social behaviors (Jacobi, 1959). As stated, the goal of this
study is to reveal each participants’ unique life biography as it relates to their
understanding of college students (Bateson, 1983). That is, the study attempts to
understand the buried emotional links that influence how participants have come to know
what it means to be a college student. The prompts, questions and reflections I offered
were an attempt to discover and delineate the ideas and emotions that color community

representatives’ interactions with students.

Myth
One way of structuring and understanding these emotionally buried links is

through the concept of the myth. Joseph Campbell (1988), author of The Power of the

16

Myth, finds myth to be a meaningful concept that holds significance and direction while
transcending mundane existence (Tatge, 1988). For Campbell (1988), a myth is
explanatory in the way of poetry or metaphor; it captures the imagination of individuals
and societies. Myths reflect “truth” as the teller knows it. Myth reflects and shapes a
reality for those who are part of the story. In that way, myth is like the narrative of our
lives. The narrative does not reflect what actually happened in our lives, but more
importantly, reflects how we remember it to be. It attaches meaning to our experiences.
The narrative, like the myth, holds its power in its ability to provide structure and order to
how we understand the world and ourselves. In that sense, myths are adapted to current
needs and realities. As you will see, that is what I see happening in this study. The
participants are evoking a student myth. Where the conscious and unconscious bleed
together, and where current reality bumps into suppressed memories, the participants

have given shape to a student myth.

What is a Myth?

In preliterate cultures the myth was born as a story that had deep explanatory or
symbolic resonance that preserved and cherished the wisdom of elders (Groothuis, 1989).
It was carried with creative prose, a touch of creative fiction, and on the tongue of a
grand storyteller. Its significance was not measured by its correspondence with truth, but
by its symbolic value. Could the audience hear the lesson in the words? Could they grab
hold of the wisdom? If so, the myth had power.

The myth is conjured with a mix of experience and imagination. Like the concept

of myth in depth psychology, it combines empirical evidence, and narrative, while having

17

subjective pull and social power that is not solely based in empiricism (Tatge, 1988).
The myth reflects both personal content and the influence of timeless, archetypal

energies.

How Depth Psychology Informed the Study

Although researchers have never “discovered” or delineated a student complex or
myth, Jung certainly left room for one. Jung (1959) spent several essays describing the
mythological elements that groups of people share (e.g., myth of the mother, hero myth,
or the God myth). Through the nature of this type of work he was able to demonstrate
both the broader power and application of his theory. His studies demonstrated, as have
the subsequent work of others, that the principles of complexes and myths are not
embedded in specific issues (e.g., inferiority or power), but have applications in
understanding various feelings and ideas that are structured by powerful self-concepts
that define a particular piece of the psyche (Dyer, 1991; Jacobi, 1959; Stein, 1995;
Whitmont, 1969). More simply stated, Jung (1954) believed that our strongest feelings
about people, events, and situations are not by happenstance, but are centered in
experiences that come together in a recognizable way — in ways he called complexes and
myths.

Jung (1954) also believed that each of us has a human potential that is waiting to
be discovered. His depth psychological tools are useful in treating the dysfunctional and
misunderstood pieces of our psyche that obscure our process of individuation (revealing
that human potential and thereby finding happiness in the world) (Schwartz—Salant,

1995). The assumption is that our sense of happiness in the world has to come flom

18

within. While most would agree that our perspective of the world has an undeniable
effect on our level of happiness (e.g., the most depressed of us will find fault in most
everything), we also appreciate the influence and push of the world around us. While
Jungian research looks to the individual for explanation and change, fields such as
sociology and anthropology lend credence to environmental pressures.

While social group theories (see Wyer, 1997; Roese & Olson, 1997) do not
discard depth psychology as irrelevant, they might argue that communal rights and
standards are more important in flaming human beliefs and actions. For example, role
theory recognizes individual perspectives and the need for self-evaluation, but believes
that people come to understand themselves through social bases of judgment (Horowitz,
1988). Humans become who they are not through looking within, but by others placing
them in a cultural role. Take Karl Marx (1969), for example. He believed that social
class was the defining human characteristic that ordered and gave meaning to who we
are. Following that logic, to understand human beings and their interactions, it is most
important to know their socioeconomic, cultural, or even religious background.
Although, as the argument goes, we exist in an increasingly interconnected world, social
and cultural prejudices continue to define who we are as individuals.

From yet another perspective, philosophers have approached the role of self in the
context of individual’s attempts to clarify moral issues involving rights and duties within
a community (Adler, 1994). Broadly speaking, foundational philosophy was “rooted in
the individualism of the Utilitarians but sought to show how the individual might find his

fleedom, self-realization and truest self through morally significant social

19

responsibilities” (Holland, 1977, p. 123). Similar to depth psychology, the goal is to
more deeply understand human nature and its implications for living in the world.

James Hilhnan (1996), author of The Soul ’s Code, speaks to the ethos of the work
in depth psychology in recognizing that the mind needs to be nourished “not only by
means of logic and mathematics, but also by addressing its ethical character and
imaginative powers” (p. 157). He believes that despite the efforts of philosophers,
scientists, sociologists, and the like, human feelings cannot be understood using
traditional binary logic. That is, his work struggles with “long-established and
comforting habits of thinking in opposites that say: If behavior is not fully genetic
inheritance, then what’s left over can be accounted for only by environmental influences,
and vice versa” (p. 129). He finds his truth in the murky middle, saying, “something else
intervenes in human life that cannot be held within the confines of nature or nurture” (p.
129). The crux of academic, religious, and scientific debate comes in identifying and
trying to describe what that “something” is. What best describes our being in the world?
What offers the most fluitful path to happiness? What personal behaviors best support
the values and morals that are the foundation of our society? How do we shape these
standards in a way that creates a livable community for all? As we explore ourselves, we

begin to understand the web that connects us to others.

20

CHAPTER THREE: ABOUT THE RESEARCH
Thinking bring forth only thought,

But feeling is with living flaught.
Goethe (from Reik, 1973, p. 7)

Quality researchers are specific about their intentions, explicit and rigorous
regarding their research methodology, and have a clear vision for the structure and
implementation of their research. Equally challenging, good storytellers are creative in
their approach, accessible to their audience, interesting to read, and passionate about what
they write. This study hopes to work at the intersection of those two artistic approaches.
That technique is not just appropriate for the theoretical flamework (depth psychology), it
is necessary. The powers of these theories are their ability to embrace logic and emotion
while shedding light on the rational and counterintuitive (Rohrbach, 1976). These
theories rely on methodologies that are emotionally laden and intellectually rigorous to
reveal pieces of the psyche to the expert and novice alike (Whitmont, 1969).

Coming to understand a sliver of the psyche is similar to making a new friend.
The process takes time and patience. Trust and rapport must be established (Jung, 1963).
The psyche can also be a bit shy, and require a different context, set of questions, or
general approach to feel comfortable to engage. And, like a good fliendship, the story is
never complete.

This study invites you into the conversations I had with seven people. Each in a
different way, these individuals educate students. They are neighbors, administrators,
city leaders, and police officers. They have agreed to open their lives to us and bring
forth the chapters and stories that provide the context and content of their lives. Through

my conversations with them, we find the subtle interconnectedness that is buried in the

21

psyche. I ask questions and have a dialogue that uncovers these peoples’ life experiences
that mediate their relationships with college students. These emotionally buried links
help us understand how their stories have created the assumptions and expectations that
draft the policies they create, the punishments they dole out, and more generally

understand the way they interact with students (Bateson, 1983).

Research Problem and Questions: Using Symbolic Motifs to Understand the Conflict

At the center of this research study is the marriage between theoretical and
methodological assumptions. The theoretical grounding, including the problem
statement, thesis, and literature all lead to a particular set of methodological decisions and
assumptions, specifically a set of research questions and planned interactions.

What is the problem that is the node flom which the questions, strategies and
overall method arise? Given the problem statement, what particular methods are best
suited to support the work at hand? With a clear problem statement, a specific set of
research strategies can be developed that guide the nature of the interactions between the
participant and the researcher (Becker 1997). Although this process, including the
research questions and strategies, remained somewhat fluid to allow refinement and
enhancement as the research evolved.

In this research study I am interested in the relationship between college students
and members of the East Lansing community. As described in Chapter One (see,
University Neighborhood Unrest: The Problem and How We Got Here, pg. 14) the study
of university and community relations has been narrowly defined, university centered,

and largely unsuccessful in creating positive university community environments.

22

Overall, the barriers to establishing appropriate personal intimacy and community
cohesion have been stymied (Hall, 1986). This research study hopes to offer a new
perspective, enlightened by emotional and symbolic motifs that can offer guideposts to

strengthening university communities.

Empirical and Emotional Foundations

The beliefs and values of individuals are a complicated melding and outpouring of
experience and observation that impact an active and always-evolving sense-making
process (Pietikaninen, 1999). This process, informed by an empirical flamework, results
in behaviors that are in some way rationally connected to a person’s prior experience
(Nye, 1992; Whitmont, 1969). While I agree that these powerful forces, based in a
positivist perspective of the world, help drive human behavior, I disagree that they are the
only sources of influence shaping an individual’s sense-making process. The theoretical
flamework of this research is centered around a sense—making process that incorporates a
psychodynamic perspective on culture that understands the beliefs and behaviors of
individuals to be informed by more than empirical observations (Hall, 1986;
Pietikarrinen, 1999; see also Young-Eisendrath & Dawson, 1997). Beyond disciplined
experimentation and prediction, powerful unconscious and symbolic forces play an
important role in shaping our understanding of the world (in this case, what it means to
be a college student) (Stein, 1995; Whitmont, 1969). Therefore, depth psychology
methodologies rest on the assertion that “although unconscious phenomena successfully
defy causal-scientific explanations, they are none the less amenable to a process of

comprehension” (Pietikaninen, 1999, p. 350).

23

This research seeks to explore if and how inner conflicts filter and distort
community representatives’ understanding of what it means to be a college student. This
assumption lends itself to a base of literature (depth psychology and the sense-making
process) that claims the filters and distortions of humans are couched in structured and
emotionally charged elements of the psyche that can be identified and discussed using the
tools of depth psychology (specifically, symbolism, and Carl Jung’s work in areas like
active imagination, unconscious interpretation, and individuation) (Chodorow, 1997; see
also Jung, 1963/ 1989; Schwartz-Salant, 1995; Young-Eisendrath & Dawson, 1997).
Therefore, depth psychology, with an emphasis on the emotionality of symbolic forms,
provides this study with structure, a broad foundation of literature, and a primary lens
through which the stated problem can be viewed (Hall, 1986; Whitmont, 1969).

Given the depth psychological theoretical flarnework, how do community
representatives come to know what it means to be a college student? Are there ways in
which these individuals’ inner conflicts filter their understanding of college students?
How does the complexity of their life experiences mediate their understanding and
relations with college students? And, are there collective unconscious complexes that

reveal themselves across participants?

Why this Approach?
Although there are a variety of ways one could research the dynamic of these
relationships, including reviewing quantitative data (e.g., charting community behavior
indicators, such as noise, vandalism, complaints, etc.), researching public policy (e. g.,

ordinances and laws), or conducting a comparative study (comparing points of data

24

between on and off campus students, or comparing residential versus nonresidential
campuses), these methods do not speak to the needs of this study. The interactions
between students and community representatives are not easily bound by the nature of
those studies. They interact in very personal ways, whether across lawns, in meetings, or
during times of conflict. Their relationships (whether positive or negative) are couched
in issues that do not lend themselves well to quantitative or comparative data collection.
This study researches how emotional and symbolic motifs have informed community
representatives’ understanding of college students. There are gaps in the research of how
community representatives come to know and interact with students. We research the
community policies that impact students (McDonald, 2002; Spitzberg & Thorndike,
1992; Strange, 2001 ). We have invested ourselves in the study and practice of
community standards that offers structure to their experiences living in a residence hall
(Magolda & King, 2004), but we haven’t come to know the members of the community
that work with college students. There is a need for a methodological perspective that
invites psychoanalysis as a tool for a depth psychological characterization of the
unhealthy relationship between students and community representatives. This research
values the sense-making process and works to more deeply understand the people
involved, and thereby understand the actions they take. The study is interested in how
the individual becomes intimately bound within a social context, and how that broader
culture takes on meaning through the personal lens that each participant has created

(Adler, 1969).

Context and Participant Selection

25

Over the past four years I have worked with a neighborhood Community
Development Corporation (CDC) called the Community Relations Coalition (CRC).
Following student riots in 1999, members of the East Lansing and Michigan State
University (MSU) community formed a MSU Alcohol Action Team to clarify the issues
and make a series of recommendations. Recommendation “Five” flom the MSU Alcohol
Action Team called for the creation of a community relations coalition “to improve
relations between the MSU and East Lansing communities, and improve communication
between the MSU administration, students, and the City of East Lansing” (CRC Vision
Statement, 2003). The Community Relations Coalition was formed to provide a
constituent-based community action group that could build positive relations among all
members of the East Lansing community. Specifically, the CRC “was formed to create a
more integrated residential community in East Lansing in which students and permanent
residents could grow and benefit” (CRC Vision Statement, 2003).

Since the creation of the Community Relations Coalition at Michigan State
University, I helped supervise the Neighborhood Resource Coordinator program. This
project, a key initiative of the CRC, employs MSU student interns who live in East
Lansing neighborhoods with a high concentration of both students and permanent
residents. These neighborhoods, within walking distance of the university and the city’s
downtown, have traditionally experienced personal tensions that were the focus of the
project’s efforts. Students and permanent residents in these neighborhoods were oflen
seen to be at odds about a variety of issues, including noise, trash, and property
maintenance. The conflict around these issues reinforced a culture that was filled with

tension and a lack of personal relationships. The student interns were paired with

26

volunteer permanent residents and charged with building community in these areas --
block-by—block, house-by-house, and individual-by—individual.

I mention this project because my interest in this research study has grown out of
being a part of and observing interactions around community development issues. In
addition to serving as coordinator of the student internship program, I also served as
president of the CRC for one term (2002-2003). These two experiences have personally
connected me with the East Lansing community in a way that would not have been
possible otherwise. Through these experiences, I have worked closely with the
“community representatives” I speak of in this research study. I have witnessed their
perspectives of students, and have seen their behavior result in tangible impacts on the
feelings and actions of students. I have also witnessed the lack of positive, open
relationships between student and community representatives that I believe would help
thaw the cold, conflict-laden relations that exist.

Given my background, I bring knowledge and personal contacts that aid this
study. As I worked to understand how these community representatives interpret the
behavior of college students, I was in a position to ask questions that dug a little deeper. I
was also able to select individuals who had potential to make for an informative and
interesting research study. On the other hand, having worked with the selected
participants professionally, it is important I am clear that this research is entirely separate
and private flom my work in the community -- specific individual identifiers will be kept
private, and every effort has been made to accurately represent the feelings of

participants. Given these reassurances, the participants offered a diverse and interesting

27

perspective on how community representatives understand what it means to be a college

student.

Why Community Representatives?

It may interest some readers to know a little more about why I have selected
community representatives, rather than professors, student affairs practitioners, or even
members of the state and federal government who are involved with postsecondary
education. I believe that community representatives offer a unique perspective in a few
key ways. First, they are all neighbors to students, interacting with them in a personal
and on-going way. Secondly, although each of their roles and jobs involve working with
students, their primary goal is not the education and development of students. For
example, one of the participants is a senior level administrator in the City of East
Lansing. Although many of the policy decisions she helps make directly affect students,
she has a broader constituency to which she must appeal. Also, these community
representatives have not been trained in the areas of student affairs or higher education
administration. They have not become facile with the values and language that
characterize these fields of study. In that sense, they do not necessarily feel an obligation
(be it genuine or driven by political correctness) to be a student advocate. Their opinions
are informed by other experiences that I believe are more relevant to this study. Those
include powerful unconscious and symbolic forces that have been unearthed using a
depth psychology approach (Adler, 1968; Whitmont, 1969).

Finally, these participants were selected based on my personal and professional

relationships with them. That history of interaction, forged through over four years of

28

working with them in the local community, facilitated a level of trust between the
participants and myself that would have otherwise been very difficult to establish. It also
resulted in a willingness on their part to commit the time and emotional energy necessary
to richly discuss their personal lives. Given the emotional nature of this study, that

foundation of trust resulted in intense and emotional conversations.

Background for Methods of Data Collection

As stated, a semi-structured interview protocol with symbolic and
phenomenological approaches provided meaningful qualitative data to uncover the life
experiences and individual sense-making processes that relate to community
representatives’ understanding of college students (Hall, 1986; Whitmont, 1969). I
utilized CD-ROM and mini disc recording technology to collect data and present my
research (in partnership with transcripts and extensive notes). I believe these forms of
technology support my methodological goals to most accurately capture the lives and
stories of the participants.

As the facilitator it is my role to provide the prompts, be it questions or reflections
that bring participants closer to understanding themselves. Specifically, the research
questions of this study are directed at understanding the ways in which community
representatives make sense of themselves, the world around them, and thereby
understanding how their psyche mediates their relationship with college students.
Research in depth psychology, particularly the work of Carl Jung (theoretical
framework), demonstrates that the human psyche, and therefore an individual’s mental

construct of a college student, is informed by multiple sources of data. Broadly, those

29

sources become present in the psyche through personal (primarily defined by life history,
and what Jung (1968) called the shadow) and archetypal (understood by the collective
emotionality of the complex) dimensions (Jacobi, 1959; Pietikaninen, 1999).

A depth psychology methodological approach requires a variety of questioning
techniques in order to tap into the elements of the personal and collective unconscious.
The personal unconscious consists of lost memories, repressed ideas, and subliminal
perceptions, while the collective unconscious is comprised of those memories, repressed
ideas and subliminal perceptions shared by family, social group, race, etc. (Adler, 1968).
Jung’s work, and others who have followed, have demonstrated that these unconscious
elements are centered upon emotionally charged ideas, myths, memories, and intuitions.
These sparks within the human psyche are wrapped together in complex and irrational
ways that create a personal lens through which we embrace the world (Whitmont, 1969).

Our human experience bleeds together. Seemingly unrelated psychic experiences
have profound effects in subtle ways. Our childhood experiences blend with adult
perceptions, while the drive of our personality has roots in adolescence (Adler, 1956,
1958). Jung’s (1963) work even shows that an individual’s psyche is not bound by time
or place. Archetypes can reach through time and space via the collective unconscious to
manifest itself in personality defining behavior (Adler, 1968; Jung, 1963/1989; Library of
Analytical Psychology, 1980; Whitmont, 1969).

In the end, this study, following the lead of Jung (1954), is looking for the
symbolic expressions of these unearthed, unconscious psychic elements. The work is
made evident, that is, it is moved beyond intuition, by the organizing principles that Jung

(1954) provided, and others (Adler, 1968; Whitmont, 1969) have substantiated.

3O

Research has shown that there are themes and structures that allow us to access
and define elements of our personal and collective psyche (Adler, 1968; Hall, 1986;
Stein, 1995). The structures include complexes (personal and collective) and archetypes
that manifest themselves through the symbolic expression of emotionality (Library of
Analytical Psychology, 1980). These organizing psychic structures have been
characterized by several classic themes (mother, authority, and inferiority complexes,
personality factors, personification, and the shadow, just to name a few) (Adler, 1969;
Hall, 1986). Given that, how can I use these literary and experimental theories to unearth
the unique unconscious psychic elements of the participants in the study? How can I use
depth psychology as a theoretical flarnework to craft questions and interactions that invite
particular unconscious memories and ideas related to each participant’s understanding of
college students?

Tenants of Depth Psychology (Bennet, 1961; Reik, 1973; Whitmont, 1969)
Trust Intuition
Embrace Unexpected Psychic Patterns
Have Patience and Be Observant

Arm Yourself With the Literature
Understanding Comes flom the Conscious and Unconscious

9:59P?

These principles provide the basic guideposts for designing methodologies that
are grounded in depth psychology. They also call for the researcher to cast a wide net
looking for the emotionally sensitive areas that are central to the participants’
understanding of themselves, their world, and college students. Furthermore, in order to
understand an individual’s beliefs about a particular area (be it college students,
parenting, love, competition, etc.) it is imperative that the researcher understands how the

life experiences, personality characteristics, and myths (personal and collective) have

31

given birth to the lens through which they understand themselves and engage the world
(Pietikaninen, 1999). The research questions need to invite stories, myths, and artifacts
that reveal the psychic lens that manifests itself in behaviors — behaviors that further
reveal their ways of thinking and feeling. In other words, what currently shapes their
understanding of college students can only be understood by grasping the stories, myths,
and symbols that have shaped their personality, values, and self-image1 (Bateson, 1983;
Pietikaninen, 1999).

Within the depth psychology theoretical flamework a series of semi structured, in-
depth interviews structure the data collection (Denzin and Lincoln, 2000; Smith and
Manning, 1982). More specifically, within semi structured interviewing typologies, I
found an open-ended phenomenological, postmodern interviewing method was most
appropriate for my research questions (F raenkel and Wallen, 1990; Krieger, 1983;
Marcus and Fischer, 1986). Also, a “creative interviewing” sociological tool, as
described by Jack Douglas (1985), is another phenomenological, semi structured method
that is complimentary to the goals of this study. Each of these methods recognizes the
inevitable influence of the researcher in interviewing, collecting and analyzing data. But,
rather than seeing this influence as inherently counter to the research process, they work
to craft studies in such a way that recognizes and attempts to capitalize on the bias of the
researcher (Becker, 1997). For example, interviewing individuals about very personal
topics is bound to trigger some emotional response flom the researcher. Rather than
attempting to deny those feelings, or burying them within academic jargon, the

methodological approaches I have selected invite those feelings, recognize their

 

’ My story, including the roots of my inferiority complex, was provided earlier as an example of this work
(see Chapter One).

32

influence, and offer specific methodological approaches to manage them (i.e., researcher
reflection, oralysis, context inventories, observation, and mythological and symbolic
approaches) (Denzin and Lincoln, 2000; Hall, 1986; Pietikaninen, 1999). Most
importantly to my study, these methods attempt to unearth and give voice to the bias of
the researcher in order to allow those evaluating the research to draw educated opinions
about influences the researcher has had on the study. At times, the bias of the researcher
is negative, and efforts have been made to neutralize that influence (i.e., postmodern,
polyphonic interviewing which utilizes technology to more directly capture the words
and meanings of the participant) (Krieger, 1983). On the other hand, the personal stories
and background of the researcher can help create an open, empathic, inviting
environment that builds the trust and rapport necessary for in-depth conversation

(Bateson, 1983; Jung, 1963/ 1989; Spradley, 1979).

Data Collection and Analysis

The power of this research is its ability to explain what is only sensed (anger,
disappointment or happiness). As stated, one who is skilled in these practices will
develop a heightened level of awareness of cues that bring about states of feeling and
emotion (Hall, 1986). They will develop an ability to recognize repetitive maladaptive
cycles in order to alter those inner identity experiences to maximize desired states and
open up doors to new possibilities and behaviors (Horowitz, 1998, p. 32-3 5). Jung
flamed this type of personal grth as the process of humans moving toward

individuation, that is, realizing their innate individual potential (Hall, 1986; Schwartz-

33

Salant, 1995). More simply stated, they will learn to understand themselves (Singer,
1994)

How can we reveal and capture these emotional energies that form our beliefs and
opinions? Making it even more difficult, these emotive states are often found outside
conscious awareness. The final central assumption that provides a flamework for this
study is that these unconscious emotive states are structured and thereby revealed through
what Jung calls complexes (Horowitz’s comparable structure is the schema, while
Campbell embraces the concept of the myth) (Hall, 1986; Jacobi, 1959).

Complexes and myths are formed around what Edward Whitrnont (1969) calls
“energy configurations” or “energy fields” or “energic potencies” that become observable
through images, symbols and associations (p. 34). June Singer (1994), author and
practitioner of Jungian psychology, defined complexes as “constellations of psychic
elements (ideas, opinions, convictions, etc.) that are grouped around emotionally
sensitive areas” (see also Jacobi, 1959). Jung believed that these complexes are psychic
organizing principles that are sparked by highly charged emotional ideas (Jacobi, 1959).
Furthermore, these powerful psychic fields are able to surface into an individual’s
conscious because they attract a number of specific ideas, feelings and behaviors that
coalesce to reveal the complex (Singer, 1994, p. 46). For example, they may become
recognizable in forms that are more commonly referred to as an “inferiority complex” or
a “power complex” (Hall, 1986). In the first, that is the “inferiority complex,”
individuals would evidence the complex through behaviors and ideas that are very

personal and emotional in nature (Adler, 1969; Hall, 1986).

34

This interpretative research is steeped in Carl Jung’s theories of depth psychology.
My task as the researcher was to use that foundation of literature and practice to locate
the symbolic expression and meaning of each participant’s relationship with students.
The goal of the interviews and analysis is to use the guideposts of Jung’s practices in
depth psychology to unearth personal unconscious experiences and collective
unconscious myths that shape community representatives’ understanding of college
students (Pietikaninen, 1999). The goal is to withhold judgment in an effort to
understand how community representatives make sense of their action towards students.
That is, the goal is to understand the relationship flom the perspective of the community
representatives.

The tenants of the depth psychology framework allowed me to look across the
psyche of a participant to piece together elements that have bubbled up and interacted
within the web of their psyche (Whitmont, 1969). During the process of engaging each
participant I was in a position to analyze and identify themes and patterns in terms of how
community representatives have come to understand college students. In the words of
Jung (1954), I was witness to the participants’ struggle with the “process of
individuation” (Hall, 1986; see also Schwartz-Salant, 1995; Von Franz, 1997). As I
engaged them in this process I became self-consciously immersed in the theory and
practice of depth psychology. Although not in name, I used the themes and structures
flom the literature (e.g., idea of complex, persona, shadow, and collective dynamics) to
identify the participants’ inner conflicts and emotionally charged forces (Adler, 1968;
Bennet, 1961; Hall, 1986; Jung, 1963/ 1989; Sandner & Beebe, 1995). As those surfaced,

I utilized the research questions to disentangle relevant connections between their life

35

history and their mental construct of students (Pietikaninen, 1999). The process of data
analysis was ongoing and weaved throughout the interviewing process. As the research
questions suggest, the method is constructed in an open fashion to facilitate a process that
responds to the individual nature of each participant (Hall, 1986). For example, the
lifeline exercise is a tool that allows relevant life history to make itself present (Hall,
1986). But, it does not presuppose what that information will be, or that participants will
select the same material to highlight. For example, some participants spent considerable
time talking about mentors and work, while others explored their sibling relationships or
times of struggle. What they decided to talk about, and the emotional way in which they
spoke about them, acted as markers for data analysis. In the end, the method sparked
stories, symbols, and myths that manifested themselves into themes and patterns that
point to how community representatives understand what it means to be a college student
(Library of Analytical Psychology, 1980; Pietikaninen, 1999).

More simply stated, through open, but guided discussion I was able to work with
the participants to identify significant life experiences that facilitate the way in they make
sense of the world around them. Those experiences were sometimes as basic as family
values of honesty and hard work, or as complicated as the experience of drug
rehabilitation. Nonetheless, they were offered by participants as key experiences or
lenses that flame the way in which they understand and interact with others (including
college students). Finally, as the interviewing process matured, the methodology (e.g.,
questions and prompts) explored potential connections between those life experiences

and how they have come to understand college students.

36

After I completed interviewing all of the participants and drew some general
conclusions about each person’s understanding of college students, I identified a common
profile of college students that emerged flom the study. Although not central to the
study, it facilitates further analysis as to how they have come to form this mental model.
Three themes will be presented that seem to explain some of the origins of their
understanding of college students. These themes (family, their own college experience,
and their own socio-economic context) are then used to flame the interpretation of the
findings. The final chapter of the study presents the interpretations and implications of
the findings. The concept of myth is used to structure this presentation. These

interpretations are tentative and call for further research to substantiate the findings.

The Role of Technology in Capturing and Representing the Data

What is the best way to capture and represent the data of this study? The thesis of
this research is that images, stories and symbols play a particularly important role in how
we make sense of the world (Library of Analytical Psychology, 1980; Whitmont, 1969).
Therefore, I use technologies that facilitate my ability to capture the lives and stories of
the participants, and allow me to incorporate those images of art and creativity into the
final study. I believe these forms of expression (e.g., drawing, photography, and
storytelling) are much more powerfirlly presented via their intended audio or visual
format. Therefore, I used a mini disc recorder, personal computer (including software
that allows digitally data recording storage and manipulation), and a digital camera.

First, and most importantly, these tools allowed me to directly capture the voice

of the participants. Through drawings and audio clips the research comes alive in a way

37

that carries tone, color, and emotion that is not possible via traditional modes of
presentation.

Secondly, the mini disc recording technology enabled me to capture extremely
large amounts of information and easily transfer them to my personal computer for
organization. For example, early on in my data collection I divided my study by
participant, at which time I was able to comb through my data looking to identify and
classify themes (further dividing the data by those themes). The integration of these
technologies enabled me to have a folder with several different types of participant data,
including audio, drawings (not of, but by participants), and digital images (again, not of
participants) all categorized by individual participants (offering several categories under
each participant). These methods of collecting and analyzing data offered me the
appropriate balance and latitude to facilitate emotional and in-depth interactions with my
participants.

The research questions and planned interactions in this study offer creative
inroads to dig at, expose, and clarify parts of each participant’s unique unconscious
psyche. Only as we unravel that psychic web that defines who they are can I understand

their thoughts and actions in the world related to college students.

Purpose and Structure of Interactions
I met with participants over approximately an eight-week period. Over that
period of time I met with the each community representative at least four times for an
average of an hour and a half each time. I allowed them to choose the location of our
first interview, at which time I covered the basic procedures of the study (firrther

description of all the interviews to follow shortly). During that discussion I suggested we

38

meet in a private location where they would feel most comfortable sharing personal
information (most suggested their office or home). After concluding each interview, I
immediately found a quiet place to reflect and take notes. I used those notes, as well as
further review of the digital recordings, to identify themes that I used to structure
subsequent conversations with each participant.

Consistent with an open-ended, postmodern approach, the interview protocol (see
Appendix A) is not rigid but reveals the themes and streams of questions that will be of
focus that day. It also speaks to the variety of creative strategies to be employed.

Finally, given the importance of the participant’s rights as they relate to human subjects, I
have included the specific language that was read to participants regarding the guidelines
laid out by the University Committee on Research Involving Human Subjects. I have
also included the form of consent (see Appendix C) that was reviewed by each participant
and signed with full understanding and knowledge of their rights.

As I interviewed participants I was looking for themes, and what Denzin (1989)
calls “interpretive interactions”, those dramatic life experiences that help shape
individuals. As I collected those stories, pictures, songs, and artifacts, I looked for what
Carl Jung (1963/ 1989) calls “complexes” (others refer to them as a collective myth) (see
also Storr, 1983). As review, Jung characterizes complexes as ideas, opinions,
convictions, etc. that are grouped around emotionally sensitive areas (Singer, 1972). In
that sense, it was my hope to identify pieces of the participants’ life history that were
important in how they shaped their understanding of college students (Hall, 1986;
Pietikaninen, 1999). June Singer (1994), Jungian analyst and psychologist, wrote that, “a

list of complexes could be extensive, for it would cover every type of feeling-toned idea

39

that tends to create a highly charged atmosphere of thought or behavior” (p. 46). Given
the context of the interactions between students and community representatives (riots,
tension, and conflict), it was no surprise that I unearthed emotional linkages through
symbolic expression that began to explain how community representatives come to know
students.

Another challenge of the study that speaks directly to the nature of the
interviewing methodology involves my ability to tap the personal and collective
unconscious of participants. Singer (1972), in her description and analysis of Jung,
described two layers of the unconscious. Personal unconscious, which contains lost
memories, repressed ideas, subliminal perceptions and contents that “are not yet ripe for
consciousness,” and collective unconscious, which is not attached to anything personal
and is entirely universal, shared by family, social group, race, and so on (Adler, 1968;
Jung, 1954). Collective unconscious concerns the unspoken assumptions and sense-
making processes that are pervasive throughout cultures (Adler, 1968). The goal of my
methodological approach was to slowly unearth these emotionally buried links. In her
Jungian analysis, Singer (1994) said, “It is difficult for me to imagine that there can be
those who have failed to recognize that human beings are often moved by strange, mostly
inexplicable forces” (p. 105). My hope was not to unravel the entire human psyche, but
to take my small, dim flashlight, and shed some light on how community representatives

make sense of college students.

The Role of the Author

40

I have served to guide, prompt, and observe the process of exploring the psyche.
Supported by the theories and practices of depth psychology I shaped the interviews in a
way to elicit reflections, stories, and myths that helped me come to know the participants.
As the process matured, and I was able to come to understand pieces of how the
participants understand the world. I was also able to identify linkages and emotionally
charged areas (what I will refer to as myth) that explain their understanding of college
students (Hall, 1986). Armed with the organizing constructs of Jung’s theories, I offer
some explanation as to how these community representatives come to know what it
means to be a college student.

It is important to note that although well-read in the field of depth psychology, I do
not hold licensure or credentials that qualified me to structure my interactions with
participants as clinical counseling. I used the foundation of literature within the field of
depth psychology in a scholarly way, not as a diagnostic tool. As I have presented it, I
am using depth psychology to interpret and make sense of how community members
have come to understand college students. This approach had the potential to touch
participants deeply, and in very real, emotional ways. Given that, I was prepared with
appropriate counseling referrals, if they became necessary (they did not become
necessary).

Another consideration of which I was aware was countertransference (Singer, 1994,
p. 30). It was important that I worked hard to be conscious of the feelings and reactions I
had to the conversations (hence my immediate journal and reflecting after each
interview). What emotions were triggered for me in the conversations? How did I react

to the comments presented in the discussion? The more clarity I could have of these

41

issues, the more likely I was to weed out my personal issues and complexes flom those of
the participants. In that sense, I was attempting to inform myself to avoid the type of
projection (Jung calls it countertransference) of complexes that Jung warns (Singer, 1994,
p. 30; see also Hall, 1986; Machtiger, 1995).

One way I attempted to mediate that countertransference bias was by openly telling
my story (Hall, 1986; Jung, 1963/1989). My story is also provided as a model for the
depth psychological work the study aims to apply. Throughout the text you have noticed
the presence of my own stories and reflections. The placement and tone of these stories
are meant to serve as guideposts and examples to encourage the reader to think more
personally about this research. F urthennore, and most relevant to this discussion about
the approach of the research, these personal reflections are examples of the extra-rational
stories, myths, images, and psychodynamic complexes which provide a lens through
which I come to make sense of the world (Jacobi, 1959; Pietikaninen, 1999; Whitmont,
1969). Although the emotional character of these stories is meant to be transparent, the
reflective process of which they were a product has been hidden. The hours and days of
struggle with the meaning of these stories, although not obvious, is also at the heart of
this research study. It takes work to unearth and understand the unconscious forces that
move us. Over the past year and a half I have read more than 100 books and articles,
reviewed dozens of websites, and engaged in hours of reflective exercises. Just as
students learning a new language start with basic terminology, build up to reading books,
and eventually immerse themselves in a culture — I have invited a similar relationship
with the work of Jung and depth psychology. I have traveled in the relationship. You

meet as strangers, walk together as acquaintances, sit together as fiiends, and finally walk

42

away knowing each other. And, when one knows a language or fliend, that person can
act as a translator. You are able to take language and terms molded into thoughts and
feelings and translate them for others into a set of recognizable language and terms. I
have constructed that bridge and appreciated the opportunity to extend it to my
participants. The power of depth psychology is that it is deeply shrouded in research and
intuition, and despite a foundation of complexity in thought and terms, it can be rightly

embraced by everyone (Hall, 1986).

Summary

Depth psychology provides a flamework for peeling back the layers of the human
psyche to make connections between experience, belief and behavior. The research
questions of this study are directed at understanding the ways in which community
representatives make sense of themselves, the world around them, and thereby
understanding how their psyche mediates their relationship with college students. In
other words, what currently shapes their understanding of college students can only be
understood by grasping the stories, myths, and symbols that have shaped their
personality, values, and self-image (Pietikaninen, 1999). The work is made evident, that
is, it is moved beyond intuition, by the organizing principles that Jung provided, and
others have substantiated (Whitmont, 1969). Those themes and structures flom the
literature (e.g., the idea of complex, persona, shadow, symbolic motifs, myths, and
collective dynamics) provide the map for identifying the participants’ inner conflicts and

emotionally charged forces (Jung, 1963/1989; Library of Analytical Psychology, 1980).

43

As data surfaced, I utilized the research questions to disentangle relevant connections
between their life history and their mental construct of students (Pietikaninen, 1999).

A semi-structured interview protocol, with phenomenological and symbolic
approaches, provides meaningful qualitative data to uncover the life experiences and
individual sense-making processes that relate to community representatives’
understanding of college students (Whitmont, 1969). I utilized CD-ROM and mini disc
recording technology to collect data and present my research (in partnership with
transcripts and extensive notes). I believe these forms of technology support my
methodological goals to most accurately capture the lives and stories of the participants.

After I completed interviewing all of the participants and drew some general
conclusions about each person’s understanding of college students, I identified emotional
themes (symbolic motifs) that seem to run across the participants. This is presented in
the form of the participants’ collective flame of reference of what it means to be a college
student. Finally, these themes are interpreted as mythological representations that help

unearth elements of the unconscious.

CHAPTER FOUR: PARTICIPANT PROFILES
The seven participants in this study opened their lives to me. They spoke flom
the heart, and with a passion and commitment to the process that has provided a wealth of
stories and reflections. The process of interviewing has been like a funnel, starting with
broad questioning and get-to-know-you exercises, and moving deeper and deeper with
each session. The process has elicited an essence of each person, and an ethos for the

study. These findings are indicative of the method.

Connecting the Method with the Findings

I have built the study on the foundation of depth psychology. The method is
constructivist and interpretive and is an outgrth of research questions that call for
theoretical foundations that equally value feeling and conceptual knowledge. Depth
psychology provides a rigorous and purposeful approach that is a powerful conduit to the
beliefs, values and assumptions related to understanding the participants. The research
question, how do members of the college communities come to know what it means to be
a college student, provides a strategy by which I have interacted with the participants of
this study. That is, the research questions are both directive and nondirective, but always
addressing the desire to understand how the participants have come to know college
students. Within that structure, the interview sessions welcomed participants to allow
their own words and stories to direct the study. Entering the first session with each
participant, I did not know what would be most relevant for them. The method does not

assume what flameworks are relevant, yet assumes that they exist. The first session was

45

a broad exploration of the stories and experiences that shape the participant. As that
came into focus, the interview protocol became directive to bring to the surface those
stories which were most relevant. During the subsequent three sessions2 the interview
protocol provided different angles and approaches at the central research question. The
relevancies of the stories were always flamed by the research questions.

The stories provide themes and explanations around the research question. It is
my hope that these stories and reflections will be presented to the reader with as much
rich description as possible. Of course, decisions had to be made. Over forty hours of
digitally recorded data has been captured, as well as over 100 pictures, and seven artistic
renderings of participant lifelines. Despite the overwhelming amounts of data, fairly
specific themes emerged through the data analysis. That process was aided by the
participants’ self-identifying central markers.

These central markers were highly emotional areas within their lives. These
markers were structured around events, people or experiences. In that sense, they were
bound and identifiable. Although each participant structured the stories differently, they
were always characterized by emotions (e. g. pounding the table, getting out of their seat,
or raising their voice). For example, Elizabeth told very emotional stories about the
lessons she learned as a young person that provided a foundation (central marker) for
further exploration. In her case, her mother and father flamed those stories. They were

present in the stories she told about riding horses competitively as a young person, as

 

2 Due to time restraints, three of the participants asked me to combine two of the sessions.
No qualitative differences were noted between those that had separate sessions and those
that combined sessions.

46

well as the stories she told about her college experience. She would refer to “not wanting
to disappoint her mom and dad.”

Jackie provides an example where the central marker of her life was an
experience — an experience of recovery flom alcohol addiction. The process of recovery
is how she has come to know herself. She talked repeatedly about what Alcoholic
Anonymous has given her, most importantly a “spiritual life.” That process of recovery,
which emerged in our first session, provided a structure for our subsequent interviews.

These central markers call us (participant and interviewer hand-in-hand) to
explore those areas for significance related to how they have come to know college
students. Those emotive areas were explored with the depth that is the hallmark of the
method, and flamed by the specific research questions. The questioning and interactions
were not superficial. They were very personal and emotional, and most importantly,

fluitful for the study.

What’s to Come
As a point of reference, a summary of each participant will be presented. As the
findings are subsequently delineated, the individual cases provide a context for those
observations. The primary purpose of presenting the cases is for the reader to get to
know the participants. In that light, the purpose is not to present primary data in support
of the themes. That evidence will be presented during the presentation of the findings.
The cases will allow the reader to more fully understand the participants, and specifically

shed light on the differences between participants.

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Following those narratives, the essence of the stories and reflections of the
participants will be offered in the form of a collective flame of reference. The flame of
reference illustrates a cluster of beliefs, assumptions, and values the participants associate
with college students. It reflects the kind of lens that the participants use to understand
college students. For example, it provides a flame of reference for the participants’
judgments of students, as well as what they do or do not expect flom students.

Establishing this flame of reference is important because it represents a collective
meaning that the participants are attributing to college students. It is what they think of
college students; it provides the medium through which we understand how they have
arrived at that flame of reference.

How they have come to that flame of reference is the focus of the study. What
are participants’ using as the basis of these judgments? What is the lens they are using to
come to these conclusions? How do they come to these particular judgments or
interpretations of students? In the final three chapters, some answers to these questions
will be provided in the form of themes and myths.

In chapter five, several themes will be presented that provide some insight into the
sense-making process they are using to assign meaning to the college student experience.
Three primary themes will be offered as a way of beginning to understand how
community members have come to that flame of reference. These themes will be
supported with primary participant data.

Following the presentation of the findings, the final chapter will interpret the data

in terms of the emotional dynamics (myths) that have emerged. This analysis will not be

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conclusive, but will offer reasonable explanations based on the data and theoretical

framework of depth psychology.

Participant Profiles

This study is based on the stories of people. We come to know these people
through the narratives they provide. The narrative is performative, thus representing
action and reflection on behalf of the participant. It comes in the artifacts, lifelines, and
stories that the participant uses to give coherence and meaning to their experiences. The
narrative does not claim to capture history as it was, but reflect upon it as it is thought to
have been. In that sense, the narrative is a work of imagination that takes various points
of life experience and transforms it in a coherent story (Becker, 1999). Therefore, the
importance of the narrative process is that it provides structure and assigns meaning to
life’s experiences. In this study, the narrative has also been a tool for reflection.

The summaries are structured to present an image of the participant that is
representative of a larger whole. Pieces of participants’ more complete narrative,
including their stories, artifacts, and pictures are selected upon to paint a picture of the
participant that is representative and relevant. That is, it is representative of who they
were in the context of the study, and relevant to understanding how the participant has
come to understand college students.

For each of the participants, the lifeline drawings were used to flame our
conversations. In fact, the lifeline drawings were intentionally included early in the
protocol just for this purpose. For the exercise, the participants were given about ten

minutes to draw their lifeline. Most of the participants simply drew a straight line with

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bullet points. At each of the bullet points they would write a sentence or two that
described a significant event (e.g., marriage, graduating, tragedy, or something they were
proud of). Others were creative in their approach, and actually drew a lifeline that had
“ups” and “downs” that related to the highs and lows of their life. Again, these
participants used bullet points to denote significant events.

After each participant concluded their drawing I would ask them to “walk me
through” what they drew. The lifeline became a tool for them to tell their story. Those
stories provided the basis of the narrative I present in each participant profile. To further
support that story I used quotes flom subsequent interviews (including the session we
discussed their pictures).

It is important to note the emotionality that accompanied the participants’ stories
and overall participation in the research study. For example, they demonstrated the
emotional nature of their narratives through expressive and loud laughter, actively
pounding the table as they spoke, and by exhibiting facial expressions that led me to
believe they were engaged in the dialogue and experiencing emotional reactions to the
methodological prompts.

Furthermore, the participants displayed an emotionally engaged state through
actions. For example, they took more pictures than necessary for the photo elicitation
technique segment, and the sessions nearly always ran over the allotted times
(participants were eager to stay engaged in the dialogue).

The participants discussed the topics and questions of the research study with

family members and significant others, and often openly dicussed their involvement in

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the research project with co-workers and fliends. They used these outside conversations

to enrich and expound upon our structured interactions.

Joe
As Joe would tell it, his story is one of transformation. In his words, “I went flom
having no goal in life, to being goal driven. . .I went flom having no direction to directing
the live of others.” His undergraduate experience is just one tale that supports the larger

story. Joe describes his undergraduate experience as the first low point in his life.

I lived on campus in a dorm with my best fliend since kindergarten and at the end
of my sophomore year at (college) my grade point average was 1.9. I look back
on that year in the dorm (and) there was never a day where I had less than 3
drinks. . .flom Fall all the way to June. . .I mean it was just like a huge party. I
mean it was a good year, I mean, I had a blast, but I basically lost a year. I blew
off class a lot. I was working as the night manager (at a local fast food
restaurant). I’m working 40 hours a week, until 4 in the morning, bring my crew
home with me in the dorm, party, and so I didn’t make most of my morning
classes. Finally, I got the letter flom the Dean saying you know you’ve gotta
shape up, (and) you’re on academic probation. At that point, I quit. I thought that
I was going to be a (fast food restaurant) manager for the rest of my life. It
seemed like a good living, and I was having a blast and so that’s what the plan
was. And I say that was probably one of two low points in my life. I ended up
living with my fliends flom High School who were still in college, and they
basically are working hard, thinking about their future, (whereas) I’d come home
and party and just sit there. So, that lasted one semester, or term, back then it was
terms. I decided I gotta do something with my life - I’m not going to be 60 years
old, standing at that bin wrapping cheeseburgers, you know. And so, at that point,
out of curiosity, I took a Criminal Justice class over at (the local community
college), because (the college I had attended) wouldn’t take me. I ended up really
liking it and part of the class was to do a police ride-along. So, I’m kinda cynical
about that, I think cops drive around hassling people, and sticking people with
tickets, and you know, basically causing hate and discontent. But it was such a
positive experience. We stopped and helped some lady change her tire; someone
was looking for a dog, and we actually went around and found this thing and half
the people we stopped (for traffic violations) ended up getting warnings and the
other half I truly thought that they deserved a ticket.

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Joe decided he wanted to be a police officer. His professional life was getting on
the right course, but meanwhile his personal life was hitting a low point. “I was in a
marriage where our common thing was alcohol,” Joe said, “until I decided I’d had
enough and filed for divorce, and that was really a low point in my life.” Then, only a
couple years later, “out of the blue,” Joe says, “I met this girl who actually lived next
door to my mom and dad and we’ve been together ever since.” He went flom rolling out
of bed late, to getting up early. He went flom the black list of academic probation to the
honor roll. He went flom having no direction himself, to directing the lives of others. He
went flom a marriage drowning in alcohol, to one centered on love. All in all, his life has
been a story of development and maturation.

Joe grew up in what he called a “Beaver Cleaver” type family. He had a mother
who was a school teacher who quit to raise children. He had siblings who he played with
and battled with as kid, only to befliend them and love them as adults. And he had a
father who was a hard-nosed police officer.

Joe knew he would go to college, because, as he says “flom day one, it was ‘when
you are in college, son...’ and all of my peers and all of my fliends were college driven,
that’s how I ended up there.” But, he wasn’t ready. As he said, “my parents took a
laissez-faire type attitude; they had no idea what I was doing, and I probably could have
used an authority figure in my life saying, ‘what the hell are you doing?’” Joe found
himself at a very large public university that exposed him to more fleedom and alcohol
than he was ready to handle. As Joe says, “I wasn’t equipped to handle any decision

regarding alcohol.” He partied as much as he could, and drank as much as his body

52

would allow. He had 103 bottles of liquor at his college house. As he says, “I would
have hated to live next door to me.”

He wasn’t ready for the college experience, and within two years, quit. He was
working at a fast food restaurant where he earned enough money to maintain a lifestyle of
surviving to party. He continued that way of life for the next couple months. Eventually,
and with no specific prompt, he began to ask himself what he was going to do with the
rest of his life. This reflection started a steady rise toward a new way of life centered on
goals, accomplishment and happiness. Although, it did not all come at once. There were
struggles, including continued abuse of alcohol, a failed marriage, and stagnation in his
professional career. Out of this he truly turned a new page in his life. He built upon the
strong work ethic he learned at the fast food restaurant to graduate flom college. At the
same time he gained control over his drinking and began to make decisions that would
bring him a fulfilling job and a loving family. He became a police officer in the town he
attended college. He married and became a husband and father that takes pride in “seeing
things with the heart.” In the end, the transformation was like a circle. He went flom
living in a “Beaver Cleaver” family to creating his own version of the perfect family.

This journey is important in understanding how Joe has come to understand
college students. Like his life, his understanding of college students has experienced
change. This change is directly related to the life experiences that were just described.

As he says, “early on in my career as a police officer I understood and related to
college students.” He was on the midnight shift and would go to break up parties and
recognize the music they were playing. He could understand those students who partied

often and attended class occasionally. After a few years, and some lifestyle changes of

53

his own, he began to tire of the partying behavior of students. It became so that the lens
through which he saw students was through the windshield of a police car, including the
vomit, noise, and litter. He got sick of it.

As he became more driven professionally, he moved up the ranks in the police
department. He eventually took post as a senior level officer in the police department
(and currently holds this position). As his professional outlook changed, so did his view
of students. He started to form a more complex view of the university experience. Joe
summarizes it like this:

A lot of my views of students had to do with my life and job. Back when I was a

patrol officer, that’s all you run across, people that are a pain in the ass. And

now, as (a senior level administrator) the people I meet with are different. They
are probably the best of the best. They are the ones that give a damn.
He is referring to his interactions with university student journalists, student
government leaders, and civic-minded young people. These interactions have formed a
more multifaceted image of college students. He now sees them “as extremely helpful on

one hand, and purposively destructive” on the other. He understands the contradictions

exist both within the group and within the individual.

Elizabeth
Elizabeth grew up in a small town where, as she says, “it was community-oriented
and everybody knew what you were doing.” Another part of the community was a clear
expectation that you would go to college. Elizabeth explains that it was the kind of town

where,

54

It gave you as a kid a sense of responsibility because if you were doing something
wrong, you got caught, and your mom and dad were gonna know, your fliends
were gonna know, and your dad was going to yell at you for embarrassing the
family.

As Elizabeth described it, her family was her anchor. Her mother and father
provided a clear definition of right and wrong so that it was unmistakable when you were
about to cross that line flom right to wrong. She was instilled with what she would
describe as an ethic of responsibility and respect, as well as a healthy dose of fear. “I
never wanted to disappoint my family,” Elizabeth said. Even though that sounds like a

cliché, there is a depth of truth to it that is central to understanding Elizabeth. The

following is an example of how her “family anchor” runs throughout her experience:

If someone comes flom a family, and has a strong sense of family, that no matter
where you go, you carry that with you. And hopefirlly that helps you in your
relationships with those around you, whether they’re your roommates, or your
neighbors; that you recognize that they have family, and you’d want to treat them
like you’re hoping someone else somewhere is treating your family. And that in
the community sense; I mean you’re first time away flom home (college) of
course your experimenting so you don’t always stay on that very straight and
narrow path; I can’t believe anybody does, but hopefully through that
experimental phase that college allows you, your family, that knowing where you
came and your responsibility to those people gets you back on track, so even
though you’re not in the same town anymore, not under the same roof, what you
do in your new community certainly still reflects on them.

She got good grades in school, in part, because she didn’t want to let her parents
down. She went out during high school, but she would never consider coming home late
because it would disappoint her parents. She partied in college, but was always

conscious of never putting herself in a position that might embarrass her parents. That

mental construction, never wanting to let her parents down, provided a clear guide by

55

which she led her life. It is also important in understanding how she has come to
understand what it means to be a college student.

Elizabeth works for the city in a university town in a service capacity that requires
her to work closely with college students. She helps craft policies that affect students and
works with them so that they understand and abide by the regulations. In this role she
interacts with a variety of students, flom student leaders, to students who have been
arrested for rioting. In coming to understand the difference between these types of
students, she describes the way in which her life experiences provide the lens through
which she has come to understand college students. The following segment provides an

example:

I don’t think those students flom strong families feel a need to experiment as
much. They (come with a) cocoon. You don’t need to find yourself as much
(because) a portion of yourself is already anchored somewhere. Maybe you don’t
feel like you have to do what the other guys does to fit in, because that other guy
just went two steps too far for you - that you know your mom back home would
be going “whoa, I am so disappointed in you!” Not to say, I didn’t do tons of
stuff my mom would go “whoa!” but you just don’t have that same need to go as
extreme necessarily.

She also believes that college is generally a time during which students are
focused on themselves, and have little appreciation for the community in which they live.
In her own words, Elizabeth says, “a lot of times (in college) you are very much ‘me’
focused once again, kind of like when you were younger.” Furthermore, of those
students who do not meet the standards of the community (cross the line flom right to

wrong), she believes they have not been instilled with the same sense of right and wrong

that was key to her upbringing. By and large, she has noticed that many of today’s

56

college students do not have the same limits that defined her college experience. She
partied, but today’s students seem to take it to another level. They seem to drink heavier
and more often with little regard for the wake of noise and destruction that results.
Although she notes the complexity of causes at hand, we spent some time talking about
one in particular: affluence.

Like other participants, Elizabeth sees today’s students as having an increased
level of affluence. She took note of it in several ways. First, she notices it in the fancy
and expensive cars students drive. Second, she notices it in the number of parents who
are buying houses for their children to live in while they attend college. Finally, and
probably most disturbing to her, she has noticed that students seem to be less affected by
monetary penalties. For example, when students come into the city to pay tickets for
around $500 it does not seem to affect them.

The ones that come pay tickets they just say “I’m here to get my ticket — ok.” I

mean and they’re paying $500 to $1000 in fines and don’t seem to be batting an

eye. I would have been devastated, devastated! I would have been crying. I

would have been trying to figure out every which way in the world to get out of

this! Because it would have just been a huge amount of money. It doesn’t appear
to be for these kids - for most - I don’t know, they just pay it and go on. I think if
you have the resources to pay the money, and they don’t all, so you can’t
stereotype them, but you hear about them even (with) the party tickets and stuff
and they just pay them. And I think there’s something wrong, just wrong if you
can just fix everything by just paying them, especially at this young age.

She believes that paying a ticket is indicative of how students react to getting in
trouble, and she does not believe they take it seriously enough. Again, she believes that

students should feel most upset about the fact they are poorly representing themselves

and thereby their family and the community flom which they come. She believes

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students should come equipped with a sense of right and wrong that is imbedded by their
parents and community.
The worst part of getting in trouble, I gotta believe, to do this day I still believe,
wouldn’t be the experience of being arrested and being put in jail, it would have
been telling my mom and dad. They always wanted me to do the right thing - as
much as you can quantify that. If I let them down I would feel horrible! Huge

disappointment to them. I never did it again! I didn’t want to have them talk
about how disappointed they were in me. Spank me, God don’t talk to me!

(laughter)

She believes the students should feel the same way. She understands that students
party in college, she did the same, but she expects their parents and community to equip
them with a sense of right and wrong. She expects students to come with a greater sense
of respect for one another; instead, students have been given too much, earned very little,
and expect the community to fit their needs. Elizabeth summarizes it by saying,

I think most college students do party and are a little loud. I don t see that as a

huge Issue. I think that’s because of my personal experience partying, but I do

worry (because) they don’ t seem to have the same limits.
Rene

Rene3 would describe herself as grounded by family, faith and fliendships. As
she says, “I believe that the truly developed individual is one who recognizes the value of
interdependence.” Her story centers on family and her role as a mother of two sons.

“The family core is absolutely everything to me,” she said early on in our
interactions. All of the data collected supports that statement. Her lifeline was the story

of family, many of her pictures included members of her family, her artifacts were about

her family, and the process itself was shared with her family (she often recalled speaking

 

3 Rene was not listed as a participant in the proposal. Another participant was
approached, but declined participation (due to the necessary time commitment). In the
end, she proved to be a valuable member of the participant pool.

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with her husband and sons about the interview process). She is an involved mother who
takes her parental role very seriously.

Interestingly, she did not grow up with strong positive parental figures. Her
father drank a lot when she was growing up and was sick throughout her adolescence,
while her mother developed Alzheimer’s while Rene was still young. Overall, Rene’s
childhood was not filled with the kind of energy and joy one might hope for. As she put
it, her home “was not very festive.”

Much of her adult life has been committed to creating the kind of atmosphere she
wishes she would have had as a kid. She makes holidays a big event for her family. She
does not dwell on the struggles that touch her family, but brings optimism to her children.
She reads their school papers for them. As she says, when they are home flom college,
she tries to create an atmosphere flee of stress. In concluding our session, she offered a

poignant connection between her childhood experiences and her current behaviors:

I think people either block out or have a lot of guilt of how they are when they are
growing up. . .and whether they are kind or that kind of thing. . .I am one of those
people that has a lot of guilt about being selfish and narcissistic, self-advancing,
when I was in high school my dad was very sick and my mother had Alzheimer’s
although we really didn’t know it. . .I wasn’t very helpful. . .I am sure I didn’t
make his last years very pleasant and that does give me a lot of guilt. . .that’s
probably why I have such disdain for that kind of thing. I’m not saying I was a
bad person, (but) I was just not very considerate and not very understanding of the
whole situation that was going on. . .except how it effected me. . .I’ll be an orphan,
or what will I look like if I don’t have a dad. . .I remember thinking all those
things. . .and not staying home when I should have stayed home...

Rene has not had an easy life. In that sense, it has not always been effortless to be
that force of optimism. She has suffered flom a series of rather serious illnesses (lupus

and debilitating back trouble, to name two) but it did not shape her as an individual. As

59

she recalls, “my mother was a hypochondriac. I didn’t want to do that to our kids. That
sense of insecurity —- you just don’t want to grow up when somebody’s sick all the time. I
kind of had enough of illness!”

Her mother was the type of person who believed things happened to her. She
would say, “that got broke on me, or that got broke on us.” She felt like a victim of
circumstances. Rene, in the face of her own challenges, has intentionally shaped a life
centered on hope and creating opportunities for happiness.

To be fair, Rene’s recollections of her childhood were not without positive stories.
Rene recalled with pride having grown up the daughter of a coal miner (it was the first
thing she mentioned at part of the lifeline exercise). She valued the working class
background that her mother and father provided her. She believes that those experiences,
in a small, rural, backward town, gave her a heightened ability to appreciate different
people. It also gave her a respect and admiration for those who have to work every day
(particularly those who work with their hands).

I’ve had a really varied background. You know, I’m kind of fortunate in that

way. . .because I can kind of identify with a great number of people. I’m very

proud of growing up in that kind of (environment). It’s a like a different culture
when I go home (for the kids) - a real nice blend for them.

I’ve always maintained that in order to empathize and understand people you have

to be in a position where you’ve been treated the other way. You know, I was a

waitress, and it was amazing how different people treated me when they found out

I was in college or whether they thought I was just a waitress.

I’m kind of proud (because) I’m comfortable with different kinds of people. It’s

important to me that they (her children) know that they should be able to

communicate and respect those people who work everyday and you can talk to

presidents of colleges. I’ve always told my kids, never date a person who doesn’t
treat a waitress well.

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Her later work at a community college is an active extension of these values. She
enjoyed working with students who did not have privilege and in part identified with their
experiences. I can remember her saying, “give me a kid who works, and that has to take
care of things and that cares about something.” This is who she identifies with and this is
with whom she prefers to work.

Yet, her role in the community put her in contact with a variety of college
students. She is a rental property owner/manager who, with her husband, manages
several rental houses in a university town. She relates to college students both as a
mother and as the daughter of a coal miner. She is maternal in her relations with tenants.
She gets to know the students (e. g., major, hometown, birthday) and makes an effort to
look out for them. For example, on their 21St birthday she sends them a birthday card
with best wishes and a friendly reminder to be safe. She believes that college is too much
like “throwing somebody over a cliff and hoping that when they hit the water they swim.”
In her role as a landlord, she is there to help case that fall. “I do a lot of the relationship
building” Rene says, while her husband does most of the property maintenance. She
enjoys the job because it gives her an opportunity to have a positive influence on
someone else’s life, and as she says, “you never know when you touch someone’s life.
Something that you can do that is so trivial to you it can really make a turn in someone’s
life.” In that sense, it’s not necessarily the job, but the general opportunity to help
students in a time of need.

She has come in contact with students who are disrespectful and who don’t care
about the properties that she and her husband rent. She is saddened, hurt, and angered by

this behavior. In explaining this conduct she recognizes “that part of it’s a stage” or

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development that young people go through. But, she also feels the disrespectful behavior
is “exacerbated by very, very wealthy kids.” She admits to having a “real prejudice
against kids,” and feels “more and more leery of kids who come flom very wealthy
families.” She finds these young people come with a “sense of entitlement without any
merit, without earning it, except by birth” and it really bothers her. As other participants
have said, Rene alludes to a presence of affluence among today’s college students. She
describes this affluence as the “young people being sophisticated, but it is hollow.” As
an example, she pointed to the number of young people traveling to foreign countries, but
not truly seeing the value of the experience.

While holding that in one hand, Rene also expresses true empathy for college

students in the other. She believes they are under a lot of pressure.

They (college students) are under a lot of stress. I think we minimize. I tell both

boys (her college aged sons) that probably one of the traumatic experiences that

they are going to have is when they move away flom home and go to college - a

myriad of complexities that they have to adjust and deal with.

She holds this paradox. She believes students are going through a maturation
process, and that some transgressions are to be expected. She believes that they are
trying on personalities and coming into their own. The following story was prompted by
a picture she took of her son sprawled out on a grass knoll — it provides an appropriate
summary for the way she understands the life of a college student.

The picture shows the whimsical, fim-loving, spontaneous. I love that about them

(college students), but spontaneous can be impulsive and it sweeps them away -

lets events sweep them away as opposed to being in control. It’s growing up.

There is that inconsistency. They try on their different people that they want to
be; act awful in some respects. (They are) trying out their sexuality, try out

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different morals, different ethics, I didn’t do that, but I lived with my sister, so
I’ve always been conservative about my behavior. You wonder why so many of
them act so strangely or like they don’t have accountability. A lot of it is trying
on different costumes because they have the time to play.

Anna

Anna said very early on that, “my interactions with college students are simply an
extension of myself.” The findings flom our interactions support this claim. That is to
say, Anna’s understanding of college students is not distinct flom her relation with
others. Therefore, the rich description of our interactions will center on creating an
image of Anna that is representative of the whole.

Anna is a spiritual person. She believes in a higher power that is loving and
forgiving. She prays, attends church, and journals to be more in touch with that higher
power that she believes is within all of us. She believes that a priest does not mediate her
relationship with God, but that it is her responsibility to live a life that is in touch with
that love of God and extend it to others. As she said, “we are God, we create our own
reality, either consciously, or unconsciously, we still do it with our thoughts, which are
incredibly powerful, and our emotions.” She wants to model a way of living that reflects
her belief in a benevolent God.

Her struggle in life has been to trust that inner voice. As she says, “I have a very
difficult time just being.” She feels the need to be in control, or as she would explain,
“my tendency when I am interacting with somebody is to try and lead.” Although
complicated, there is some explanation as to why she feels it is necessary for her to have
this control. “I was very accustomed to being number one” as a child, Anna said. She

grew up in a positive family environment that was lower middle class, with a dad who

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was a teacher and a mom who stayed home to take care of the kids. She said, “I made all
of my own clothes, but we never lacked for anything.” Her dad was an important
influence and two things were particularly important to her father: sports and work. As
she tells it, “for whatever reason, I cannot play. I can’t catch a fly ball to save my life,
and I think he (her father) saw that. He actually said very early that sports was not going
to be my thing and so he thought he’d steer me into leadership roles and kind of cultivate
that.” His handy work began to show through quite early. She told a story about when
she was in fourth grade and she sent a letter to the superintendent citing Title IX for the
reason why young women should have a basketball team at her school. She remembers
keeping the fax he sent back.

Anna is an active community organizer around issues of town and gown relations.
She lives in an area where students have felt unwanted and disrespected by the
community and have acted in turn with riots and couch burnings that eroded the
relationship even further. She has been part of an organized effort to bring civility and
respect into community relations. She has helped plan block parties to get students and
long term residents to interact. She has worked with less than accommodating
neighborhood associations and ever-changing student organizations to bridge the gap
between the two groups. In the end, she sees this as a potentially powerful way of
influencing not only this community, but areas far outside the United States as well.

Anna explains:

For me, part of the excitement of working with college students...is that that was a
part of my life that was so pivotal — absolutely - you learn so much more during
that period than any other period in your life. So, it’s exciting for me to see

them. . .it’s interesting, this is in effect is how they will view the world for the rest

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of their lives. . ..that’s one reason why I am so passionate (about the community

work). I think we are not just changing (the city), we’re giving people an

example for how they can change whatever community they go to, whatever part

of the world they end up. . .and if at one point somebody on our street had a

positive memory of us coming over and introducing ourselves to them and

interacting with them (so) that they’ll take that to Boise, Idaho or Bangkok,

Thailand, and they’ll extend the same thing. And that’s so exciting to me, I mean

that it’s just flowered.

She wants to have a positive impact on the world and the university/community
work has been the vehicle through which she exercises that influence. It has made her
feel like she is responding to the spiritual call within herself, and that she is in tune with
the directions of her father. But, if she lived someplace else, she believes she would still
be doing work that valued these guiding principles. She says that where she lives is
probably the main reason why she interacts with college students and that she would
bring a lot of the same thoughts and activity to whatever neighborhood she lived in. She
would also bring the same style of interaction.

As Anna says, “control is a huge thing for me.” She has a very difficult time
letting others take the lead of projects or situations. She has seen the negative
ramifications of this behavior in her professional and personal life. Why does she feel
such a need to be in control?

Anna experienced the feeling of being bullied as a young person and it has been a
recurring theme in her life. She feels that the “universe gives us different themes that we
play out over and over again” in our lives until we learn the intended lesson. She recalled
several incidences of bullying throughout her life and being surprised and jolted by those

experiences. Eventually, but not until adulthood, did she feel that she learned the

intended lesson. The lesson, although oversimplified, is to stand up in the face of

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someone trying to take advantage of you. The impact of this lesson, as she describes it, is
complicated. She is conscious to not let others take advantage of her and she tries to
ensure this does not happen by taking control of the situation. On the other hand, she has
also found herself taking control of situations that would be better left directed by the
group or someone else. She summarizes these ideas nicely when she says, “If I’m not in
control of a situation it may be hard for me to stay in the situation, and I might feel like
I’m being taken advantage of, whether I really am or not.”

Recently, Anna has decided to step away flom the planning and organizing of
community leadership to write and reflect. Interestingly, the process by which this study
asked her to reflect upon the influences of her life experiences was in tune with the
practice of her life. She is looking more deeply at the shaping influences of her life and
making connections and forming coherency where it wasn’t before. She is taking the
same drive that put together block parties and neighborhood forums, and applying it to

her spiritual and personal growth.

Ray
Ray is the senior member of the participant pool. At 78 years of age he has spent
over 50 years in university towns across the country. In addition to university towns, he
has also spent time stationed at a variety of United States Army bases. In hearing about
those experiences, you begin to hear stories that reveal who he is and how he’s come to
know college students.
Ray was instilled with a foundation of learning at a young age. Ray remembers

his father as an avid reader and his mother and father as being intellectually driven. For

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example, his father was a person of science. He was an agriculture agent, a scientist, who
disseminated research to farmers and worked with them to identify new areas of research
for the university. He also described his mother as a person of science. He described her
as, “rational, but not cold about it, and humane but ruthless.” Overall, his family
established a flame of reference based on reason and academic rigor.

In fact, he recalled that “my mother urged me to finish high school early and go to
college at (age) 16” so that he would not get drafted into World War II. “My mother was
very rational and a tremendous planner,” Ray said as he described the influence of his
mother, “and actually the family leader until she died (in her 903).”

He enrolled in college, but after only one year he enlisted in the Army to, as he
says, “keep in control of my options.” He was immediately sent to another university
town across the country. This began a career in the US. Military that would take him to
at least 5 different states and a handful of different military bases along the way. Ray has
fond memories of his service in the military. Most of the stories he shared were about
making friends and their forays into partying and stirring up trouble. His military stories
also bring to light Ray’s willingness to challenge authority. The following stories are
illustrative of the ones he shared in our interactions:

They sent me into an Army training program at (a large public university in Ohio)

where they just put me unabashedly into an engineering program. (The guys I

was with) thought we were premed. I applied for the paramedics to get out of that

and to get more into what I wanted and it didn’t work. So, a couple buddies of
mine and I would slip out at night and party (try to get into trouble). That still
didn’t work. We were actually messing up stuff in the lab, overloading the
electrical circuits to make everything blow and that still didn’t (work). I finally
had to tell a battalion commander ‘they really lied to me’, and you know, ‘the hell

with you’, and he was a former prosecuting attorney and that did it. I got
transferred out of there.

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Another time, for some reason, they put me in charge of teams that were supposed

to wash trains, but that didn’t make any sense to me so I took this bunch of guys, I

expect there were 8 or 10 of them, and we went by the PX and bought a case of

beer and then I marched them down to the waterflont. You know this is along

Monterey Bay, California, and the rifle ranges shot into sand dunes which were

along the water. There were gaps in between them (sand dunes) so we went down

behind those on the water and waited until we heard cease-fire and then we split
across another one. We were there all day because we knew that no officer would
ever come down there looking for us.

Ray’s military experiences also demonstrate a continued focus on the sciences.
He found himself in an engineering program, although he wanted to be in the pre-
medicine program. Even following his military service, he entered a university and
majored in zoology and chemistry, with minors in mathematics and psychics. Then, even
though he was accepted to medical school, he switched to journalism, because as he says
it, “I had a son on the way and I was a good writer.”

His interest in journalism eventually helped bring him to his current university
town of residence. He said he was attracted to that university’s Communications program
“because it was the best nationally.” Although, instead of finishing his graduate degree,
he and his wife took an opportunity to move to India for two years. He described the
experience as “heavy immersion” and a time during which he and his wife made very
good fliends (actually becoming the Godparents of two Indian girls).

Upon his arrival back to the states he said that he “got into a snarl with someone
trying to take over” where he was working and he was demoted. At the same time, he
said he “developed writer’s block and never finished his graduate degree (in
communications)” This marked a shift in his career. He went to work for the state

government, editing and publishing data driven analyses on education in the state. This

would be the job flom which he would retire.

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After Ray described his professional journey, he turned to his feelings about
college students and he reflected on living in the same community and house for over 40
years. His home, once surrounded by other long-term residents, is now in a
neighborhood that he describes as about 40% rental properties (most of which he believes
are occupied by college students).

“The proximity of (the local university) is not an advantage,” he said, “because
they (students) create more problems than they do benefits.” “There’s the traffic,” he
continued, “and the drunkenness at the tailgating.” He further elaborated his feelings
about college students when he said, “I’m not anti-student per se, like these guys in here
(referring to those students studying in the coffee shop in which we were meeting), those
are the ones I think of as real students; the other folks are just playing around.”

He then spent some time describing the environment and causes of the problems
between students and permanent residents. He began by saying, “talking about
(community) relations, trying to reach the kid (college student) that’s got $500 to spend
on a weekend and wants to do it in the bar; that’s a really hard person for me to find any
time to deal with.” He continued, “The best you can get with some of them is a tentative
truce. The assumption that you are going to become fiiendly and have them in your
house for apple pie is dreaming.”

Both interesting and relevant to the mental flamework in which he is placing
these judgments in context, he immediately flows into talking about his own experiences
as a young man. “When I was in the Army,” he said, “we played a lot, but we didn’t do
destructive things.” Although not directly, he is illustrating an expectation that young

people relax, or as he calls it, “play.” The distinction he is drawing is based on how that

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desire manifests itself into behavior. For example, Ray said that, when he was a young
man, “when students needed to be serious they could; when they wanted to party, they
partied, but not in the way that set anything on fire, or caused any wenches to blaze their
brassieres.” He is referring to a significant riot/gathering of approximately 10,000
students that occurred in his university town a few years ago.

Even when he describes students who have not fit that unfavorable mold, he does
not sound positive or optimistic about students. For example, he said that the students
who live next door to his son (who lives in the same university town) seem to be fine
neighbors, but he follows that up by saying, “and talk about your fancy automobiles, but
so far they (students) have been fine.” There seems to be an expectation on his part that
these students will eventually fit the mold of students who engage in undesirable
behaviors.

When asked to explain why he thinks the behavior of young people is different
today, he offers three primary explanations. First, he believes that many of today’s
college students “have not been taught that there are limits.” He continues by saying that,
“it has something to do with the values of the families that they come flom — they’ve not
been taught to respect other people.” Secondly, he feels this behavior is indicative of a
culture that is too often distracted by material wealth and technology. He believes that
“kids (college students) have grown up with parents who allow too much self-indulgence;
they’ve got too little to do that’s productive.” That leads into the final factor he sees as
resulting in poor student behavior. That is, he attributes much of the poor student
behavior to a failure in the system of higher education. In his own words, he believes

college “is too easy, so students have got to have something to entertain themselves

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with.” He says that “professors should insist on excellence and they should be humane
but ruthless to the people who don’t want to be in that game.” That phrase really strikes
me because it seems to bring together his narrative. That phrase, “should be humane, but
ruthless” was the exact word choice he used in describing his mother, who he described
as “being a very important factor” in his life.

Although not to overstate the connection, it seems reasonable to conclude that his
way of making sense of student behavior is somewhat rooted in how he relates to
underlying issues of respect and learning". As stated, those were issues at the center of

his early life development.

Mark

As Mark charted his lifeline he placed two identifying marks to signify points of
significant influence in his life. The first mark was to recognize the importance of his
family and early childhood experiences. “I think I was taught some pretty tough work
ethics and I think I was also taught morals, ethics, and the difference between right and
wrong,” Mark said early on in our discussions. It became clear during our subsequent
interactions that these values were key in developing the way Mark relates to the world.
Although somewhat abstract on their own, Mark has assigned meaning to these concepts
in powerful ways. He speaks of them in ways that are emotional and directive. The
value of work, respect and responsibility are guideposts for his day-to-day behavior. For

example, Mark has taken those lessons and applied them to his work in the business

 

‘ There was a gap of at least one week between each of our meetings. Ray also suffered health problems
during this time that limited our interactions. These factors, coupled with his longer life history, make Ray
the most challenging case. More than the others, it would have been helpful to have had more time with
him. Therefore, the findings related to Ray are tentative at best.

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world. “I was proud of the professional position I achieved,” Mark said, “and I had a
great job that a lot of people aspire to that quite flankly never got it.” As he would say,
he has been successful in attainting desirable leadership positions that are quite selective,
and these positions have brought him influence and wealth. Overall, Mark can be
described as a professionally driven person. His lifeline and stories reflect that focus in
that nearly two-thirds of his lifeline included professional milestones (e.g., first job,
professional mentors, and career changes). Furthermore, more than half of the personal
references on his lifeline were related to professional lessons. That is to say that his
family and personal relationships have been seen as interconnected with his professional
life in that they have offered “continued validation of the importance of a strong work
ethic, having a strong character, having integrity, having ethics, morals and (making)
community service” an important part of his life.

The second mark Mark placed was to signify the importance of his service in the
United States Military. As he said, this experience “reinforced those ethics and values”
that he learned as a young person. He credits his military experience for helping him
mature so that he was ready to take advantage of his opportunities after his service in the
military. He believes that was particularly important because, prior to his entrance in the
US. Army, he had not been successful at the local public university. After his service, he
returned to the university and graduated to launch himself on a successful professional
journey that would span over 30 years.

Except for his service in the US. Army, Mark has always lived in the same town,
including having gone to college in that same town. He takes great pride in being a

member of the community and expresses that by saying, “I feel very fortunate to have

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grown up in this city, and I want to kind of try and get an environment back to where it
was.” Therefore, he has been heavily engaged in community service for his hometown.
From being active on local committees, to being elected to City Council, Mark has served
with more than 26 various community groups. He sees this as his way of practicing those
values of respect and responsibility that were instilled in him as a young man, and
reinforced in his service with the US. Military.

Since the days some decades ago that Mark learned those lessons of hard work
and respecting others, he has seen society shift away flom emphasizing their importance.
He said, “I think the environment has changed. . .I think some of the young people today,
with the lifestyle and affluence that we have in the United States, have been given so
much that in some ways I think they don’t understand that life doesn’t owe you
anything.” He goes on to say that “more and more people are getting away flom what I
believe is a life fundamental and that is the respect of the other person, (including) the
other person’s rights, civil rights, (and) property rights.” In part, he finds these behaviors
occurring as a result of the lifestyle of affluence in Western society. More specifically,
he finds the disrespectful and destructive behaviors caused by a small, but growing
percentage of young people who do not understand how to be citizens in a community.
He believes these young people were not taught the same foundation of values and
morals that were so central to his upbringing. He explains, “that was one thing I was
taught way back here (pointing to his early childhood on the lifeline he had drawn) — to
respect others’ opinions and rights.” It is very disturbing to him that this small
percentage of disruptive and disrespectful college students has allowed some members of

the community to foster an image that all college students are bad. Generally, he thinks

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most college students are good people, working hard to get ahead. What upsets him is
that group of students who were not raised to understand and respect other people.

He believes these young people are the result of several factors. First, he thinks
they were probably raised by peOple who never understood concepts of respect and
responsibility either. Secondly, he believes that the Vietnam War had a far more material
impact on our society than we may realize. He said, “I think it moved us flom a more
conservative society to a more liberalized society and that liberalization has the tendency
to break down some of the structures of society.” Specially, he was referring to the
structures in households where there are less rules and more openness and flexibility.

In the end, Mark finds that more of today’s students are willing to impede on the
rights of others. He recognizes that his generation engaged in activities that negatively
affected others, but he believes that more and more of today’s students repeat those
behaviors and don’t learn the necessary lessons which they present. In the context of
describing the differences between himself and some of today’s students, he told the

following story:

I remember one night, I was probably in my late 203. I played trumpet in the
band and I had a bunch of people over (and) at midnight I get talked into getting
my trumpet out and I went out on the back patio. I lived pretty much in a
residential (area) and I played revelry at midnight. One time. And felt bad about
it. . .and I recall some of the neighbors said “what was that all about?” But I didn’t
persist with it, (it was) kind of isolated. But now, this stuff starts at midnight and
goes into the wee hours of the morning around here. But I didn’t do that because
I had respect for privacy. The action is repeated (today) and I don’t know if I
even got all the way through revelry that night, but I played enough of it. . .the
damage had been done.

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Jackie

Jackie can tell a story. Animated and engaged, she weaves a good tale. Plus, she
has an interesting story to tell. The problem is, where does Jackie’s story begin? She
was a Red Diaper Baby, that is, she was born to a socialist mother. Her father was an
alcoholic who suffered flom posttraurnatic stress disorder (as a result of his service in
Word War II). She grew up in New York City at a time when, as she says, “girls were
not allowed to do things.” She realized that when she was in fourth grade and it really
angered her. She also viewed this revelation as the loss of her identity and in some ways
she spent the next few decades searching for a stable one.

Her mother died when she was in high school and in her own words, “things
really started to fall apart for me; my grades tumbled, my pot smoking got much heavier
and got interspersed with heavier drugs and I start falling.” She spent the next decade as
an alcoholic and drug user. Blessed with a high intelligence, she managed to get a
nursing degree and keep pretty steady work. She was also very involved in social
activism, such as protesting, voter registration drives and peace marches.

Although the first half of her life could fill a book, in some ways, this is where the
story begins. As Jackie says, “I am a person shaped by recovery.” More specifically, she
is a person torn down by addiction and revived and reinvented by following the steps of
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). She is truly not the same person she was prior to receiving
what she calls “the gift.” That gift started her on an ascent that takes her where she is

today. Jackie explains:

Most people die of the disease (of alcoholism), but I got what you call ‘the gift’
and began to recover. It was given to me, but I worked to keep it. I feel blessed,

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and it gives me an awesome responsibility to carry the message. My work for the

rest of my life will be to carry the message of recovery and spirituality in

everything that I do.

The impact AA has had on her can not be overstated. The majority of her
responses to my data protocol took us back to lessons she learned in AA. “That’s what
AA calls. . .,” or “AA refers to it as. . .,” or she often said, “AA has taught me...” In the
end, and most important to understanding who Jackie is today, is to know that AA
opened her to a spiritual life. She said that she did not have a spiritual life prior to AA,
but Buddhism now defines the way she interacts with the world. Buddhist sayings are on
her office wall, she meditates several times a day, she reads flom a Buddhist book each
morning, and her colleagues at work call her the “Karma Queen.” It is who she has
become, and joyfully so. She describes her Buddhist lifestyle centered on working to be
“awake” and “mindful.” “You’ve got to be willing to hear what you are exposed to,”
Jackie said, and her life reflects a daily practice of hearing and honoring the voice of her
higher power. This routine reflects a desire to live in a way that requires and values
higher thinking. She finds that environment in the college town in which she works.

Jackie is a senior level administrator in a city that houses a large, public, Research
I university. She designs policies that affect all citizens and represents the city in many
of the discussions about student-related issues. She recognizes there are challenging
issues in the university community in which she lives and works, but she believes it is a
beacon of “paradise.” She looks around the community, and in a whole series of

measures, sees an absence of poverty. Jackie explains:

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There’s affluence of thought, openness of mind, there’s material affluence, there’s
spiritual affluence, there’s demographic affluence - we have people flom 120
nations living here. . .we have mosques, churches, temples, and all of them living
cheek to jowl. The air is clean. The inflastructure is in great shape. The number
of intact families is I’m sure higher than many, many areas of the country.
There’s affluence of thought, and they (college students) are responsible for much
of the non-traditional affluence. Everything that makes this community paradise
is the result of students and what they bring.

Jackie also recognizes that with affluence come fleedom and choice and new

challenges.

Students realize they are in paradise and they feel this wave of fleedom, it is at

once overwhelming and flightening and liberating. That’s why (problems)

happen in this town. Because they are overwhelmed by fleedom — by affluence in

all of those spheres. My fleedom begins to bump against your fleedom and you

then have the potential for more conflict. We have to be mindfirl of that.

As a way of maneuvering these fleedoms, Jackie relies on the spiritual gifts that
AA and Buddhism have brought to her life. She believes that society, and students in
particular, would be better equipped to deal with these “higher order conflicts” if they
embody the Buddhist concepts of being “awake” and “mindful.” She does not believe

her calling is to prophesize or enlighten other people, but instead, her calling is to be true

to herself and carry the message by modeling its meaning.

Summary
The protocol guided my journey with the participants. It provided an impetus for
the narrative of each participant that was engaging, insightful, and rich. The participant
profiles illustrate a participant pool that is eclectic in background (e.g,. employment and

college experiences) and diverse in personality (e.g., a “New Yorker” and a child of a

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“Beaver Cleaver” family). Despite these differences, the participants generally come
together to speak with one voice about how they view college students. That is, they
share a flame of reference of what it means to be a college student (Mezirow, 2000). The

next chapter presents that flame of reference.

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CHAPTER FIVE: HOW PARTICIPANTS HAVE COME TO KNOW COLLEGE

STUDENTS

Frame of Reference

The process of data collection gathered the assumptions and beliefs that
participants hold about college students (their flame of reference). It is important to
understand, the primary purpose of the study is not to understand what participants know
college students to be, but rather to investigate how they come to hold those beliefs.
Accordingly, the following is the flame of reference that participants use in order to
relate to college students. This coherent collection of beliefs and assumptions they hold
about college students is followed by an explanation of the basis (themes) by which they
make those judgments. Having presented those pieces as the foundation of the case, the
final chapter offers an interpretation of the data.

Although most of the participants recognize that there are different types of
college students, for example, non-traditional life-long learners, older students, and those
who attend community college, they each structured their comments and reflections
around the more stereotypical college student: a student 18-25 years of age who lives on
campus early in their university experience, moves off sometime around their junior year
and graduates in four to five years. These students were understood to share a number of
common traits.

First of all, they were considered to be “me” oriented. That is, they do not seem
to care that their behaviors or lack of action have consequences for others. Rene
described some students as having “this one-dimensionality” that is “a sign of

immaturity,” while others, such as Ray and Mark, flamed the “me” orientation as

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manifesting itself in a lack of respect for community and others. Finally, Elizabeth spoke
to this orientation most directly when she said,
I think that a lot of times (college students) are very much “me” focused once again,
kind of like when you were younger ahnost; you get back to it’s all about me. “The
city exists because of me.” “If there wasn’t the university there wouldn’t be a City of
East Lansing!” “I pay your salary!” That whole kind of business you go through.

The participants believe these transgressions are the result of a basic struggle with
the fleedom that being a young adult in college allows. As Rene illustrates the concept,
college students are just beginning to understand the impact they have on the larger
community, and “some students just have a lack of empathy and respect for others.”
Jackie, as illustrative of the participant pool, described college students’ struggle with
fleedom in the following way:

They realize they are in paradise and they feel this wave of fleedom, at once

overwhelming and frightening and liberating. That’s why the things that happen

in this town happen in this town. Because they are overwhehned by the fleedom
and by the affluence in all of those spheres that they experience, and they just
don’t know how to handle it or how to draw limits.

Participants offered college students’ partying behavior, the second common trait
of the flame of reference, as evidence of this lack of respect for other, and of the inability
to manage their freedoms. Elizabeth, the participant who works for the city in housing,
said,

A lot of younger people seem less mature and it doesn’t bother them - something

gets damaged it doesn’t bother them — it should bother you — it should bother you

a lot. If you are partying and you see a street light get broke, or a car get rolled, it

should be a highly uncomfortable situation and a lot of students — a higher

percentage it seems there’s just an “oh well” response.

Another participant, Mark, echoed this sentiment by saying, “we partied in my

day, but we did it with a different respect for surrounding neighborhoods and property

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owners than what I see today.” Joe, the participant who is a city police officer, put the
student partying within a more general complex characterization of students when he
said,

What I think of when I see students - on one hand they have been extremely

helpfirl (for the community). . .on the other ...a lot of them are absolute pigs who

don’t worry about if there’s a wastebasket right there, you know, a lot of them are
just a pain in the ass and inconsiderate.

The participants attribute this disrespectfirl behavior to the affluence, the third
common trait of the flame of reference, to which college students have grown
accustomed. Joe, the participant who works for the city as a police officer, summarized
the way participants feel when he said, “a lot of people are spoiled rotten” and have a
“sense of entitlement without any merit, without earning it, except by birth.” They point
to students who don’t care about monetary sanctions related to city ordinances. Elizabeth
describes the situation by saying, “students will just pass the hat to pay for them (fines),
or simply pay $500 to $1,000 and not seem to blink an eye.” Participants believe this
attitude stems flom parents who have given students whatever they want. Mark supports
this conclusion when he says, “college students have been given so much that in some
ways I think they don’t understand that life doesn’t owe you anything.” Finally, Ray, the
elder participant of the group, summarized the participants’ feelings of how affluence and
intersects with poor student behavior when he said,

We get overloaded with cars — they are cars most people can’t afford at that age,

and even at a later age. And why do they need them? The traffic offenses — the

speeds goes up. You get cut off more. They are going through so fast, that when

it happens (accident) it’s going to be awful.

He continues by saying,

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And talking about relations — try to reach the kid that’s got $500 to spend on a
weekend, and wants to do it in the bar. That’s a really hard person for me to find
any time to deal with.

Even though they find these behaviors disturbing and inappropriate, they seem to
be forgiving of most of this behavior because they recognize that college students are
experiencing what Jackie called a “pivotal” part of life where they are experimenting
with different values and behaviors “that has the potential to awaken higher thinking and
questioning.” In other words, the fourth common trait of the flame of reference is that all
the participants agree that college is one of the most important times in someone’s life.
They believe it is important because it is a time where mistakes are made, and hopefully
important lessons are learned. As Elizabeth put it, “I mean it’s your first time away flom
home, of course you’re experimenting, so you don’t always stay on that very straight and
narrow path.” Even though they don’t always maintain behaviors that meet community
standards, they are expected to make progress. Participants, as described by Jackie, see
college as a time “that people get to experience who they are and who they want to be
and to identify their own personal individual gifts” and that by the time they graduate

they should be a person who is more community and society focused. Anna further

elaborate on this common trait when she said,

They are at a point where they are forming their adult lives, and they’re forming
their roles in society, and they’re formulating their concepts of how society
works, and just think of the power; how powerful this one four year period is in
their lives.

Unfortunately, there is a sense that because of the affluence, fewer and fewer

students are coming prepared to take advantage of that opportunity. Rene, the participant

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who is a committed mother and rental property owner, summarized the theme by saying,
“the teenage years are the toddler stages of adulthood, and in some respects that’s what
college is too - a protective shell (where) you can wallow in idealism and try on personas
that they want to be” and hopefully there’s development and growth during the
experience.

Although participants believe students are affluent and privileged, they hold
sympathy for them in the same breath. The final common trait that makes up this flame
of reference is that participants feel students are under a lot of pressure and in a high
stress environment. They believe, as Joe articulated, “students are more under the gun”
than they were, and that there are “a myriad of complexities that they have to adjust to
and deal with.”

As Rene said, there is a general feeling that “the parents of students are so busy
promoting their own (agenda)” that they need other authority figures to keep them in line.
Rene continued by describing the college experience as “throwing somebody over a cliff
and hoping that when they hit the water they swim.” As representative of the other
participants, Jackie finds it “sad and tragic” that “most of the young people coming to
college go into these huge classes where they just don’t get the opportunity to be seen as
an individual and to be acknowledged as an individual and to be helped as an individual
(through) mentoring.”

Finally, the last theme illustrates the complexity of the participants’
understandings of college students. That is, on one hand they appreciate and genuinely
like students, while on the other hand they express vehement anger and disappointment

about student behaviors. Joe further elaborates on this when he says,

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I’ve read a couple of quotes in the paper about how they are talking about
students rioting because they can no longer play beer pong during tailgating. . .and
it’s like, you’ve got thousands of people being killed over in the Middle East and
if I can’t play beer pong I’m gonna raise hell. It just amazes me. But they’re
smart. But I don’t know.

Jackie, echoing other participants’ feelings, brings several themes together when

she says,

There is a war in Iraq going on, but yet in this town, a kind of innocence still lives

- to me, that’s remarkable to have a community that can hold both concepts

simultaneously. That can take the issue of war that’s happening on another side

of the world so seriously that people are stenciling commentary on the sidewalks

-— have that thought going on, at the same time as the thought of sorority

recruitment — that’s an affluent society.

Summary of the Frame of Reference

As the participants describe students, you can almost picture the student. There
they are, stepping out of their new SUV, cell phone to the ear, talking about how stressed
they are about an upcoming exam. They have a political bumper sticker on their car, but
they didn’t vote in the last election. They complain that the city is out to get them, but
they attended a house party last night (not realizing that it woke up the young children
next door at two in the morning). They are spoiled in that they lack little
materialistically, but they are in great need of mentorship. This same person is affluent,

apathetic, and self-absorbed, as well as helpful, smart, and engaged. They are shaping

their life, while having the time of their life.

Understanding the Frame of Reference

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What has contributed to the formation of this flame of reference? What is the
basis flom which they are making these judgments? What is the lens they are using? In
sum, how have the community representatives of this study come to know what it means
to be a college student?

Although it is fairly complicated, three themes emerged flom the study. More
specifically, those three themes peel a bit deeper to understand more fully the attitudes,
beliefs, and values of the participants and how those influence their understandings about
college students. The following themes are explanatory in the sense that they provide
some insight into how the participant’s understanding of themselves influences how they
have come to understand college students. The descriptions are not interpretative, but
representative of the findings of the study. Following the more full description of the
themes, these thematic links will prove important, as in the final chapter I will interpret
how these underlying themes relate to unconscious beliefs and assumptions.

All seven participants, in one form or another, spoke about the importance of the
following influences in their understanding of college students:

0 Family — they spoke passionately and flequently about a moral sense instilled by
their family that shape their assumptions and expectations related to college

student behavior.

0 Their Own College Experience — how they related to students was a reflection of
their college experiences partying, studying, and developing.

0 Their Own Socio-Economic Context — they feel the level of affluence has
increased since their own young adulthood experiences.
These three themes run across the data collected flom the participants. They
represent a more complicated representation of how they have come to understand

college students. It is important to note that the interview protocol was designed to elicit

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beliefs and Opinions that would explore the participant’s own college experience and their
early childhood and family experiences. Those were intentional choices and reflect the
theory of depth psychology (Singer, 1994; Whitmont, 1969). The final theme, the
affluence of today’s college students, was a surprise. The interview protocol was not
designed to explore that area. I did not anticipate that being a dominant theme.
Nonetheless, each participant offered the affluence of college students as central to the
way in which they understand them. A more rich description of each theme will be

presented.

Family

Native American writer Linda Hogan (1995) said, “Walking, I am listening to a
deeper way. Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say. Watch and
listen. You are the result of the love of thousands.” That quote beautifully illustrates the
kind of impact family has had on the participants in this study. All of the participants
described their childhood and adolescent experiences as central to how they’ve come to
relate to college students. They spent considerable amounts of time in their lifeline
drawings depicting these times. They brought in artifacts that connected themselves to
these times, and they told colorful stories about events that happened 30 or 40 years
earlier.

In summary, they pointed to these early experiences as being key in instilling the
morals and values (moral sense) that shape the standard by which they judge the
behaviors of others. These were broadly captured by a moral sense and illustrated

through descriptions of knowing “right flom wrong,” having a “strong work ethic,” and

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not wanting to disappoint the family.” All of these were indicative of the importance of a
moral sense that their family experiences instilled in them.

For example, Elizabeth talked passionately about “not wanting to disappoint” her
parents, while Mark said he was “taught some pretty tough work ethics and taught
morals, ethics, and the difference between right and wrong.” There was general
agreement that these ethics were the lens by which they made decisions in college and
provide the foundation of their criticism of today’s college students. Elizabeth illustrates

that when she says,

I grew up in a very community-oriented place. It was small, so everybody knew
what you were doing. I mean I think it gave you as a kid a sense of responsibility
because if you were doin’ somethin’ wrong you got caught. Your mom and dad
were gonna know, your fliends were gonna know, your dad was gonna yell at you
for embarrassing the family.

Furthermore, this “strong sense of family” impacted the participant’s behavior in

college. Elizabeth explained this as well by saying,

I don’t think students flom a strong family feel a need to experiment as much
(when they get to college). They come with a cocoon. You don’t need to find
yourself as much, because there’s a portion of you that’s already anchored
somewhere. Maybe you don’t feel like you have to do what the other guy does to
fit in, because that other guy just went two steps too far for you, (and) you know
that your mom back home would be going “whoa! I am so disappointed in you.
The central element within the family theme was that participants saw their early
family experiences as the time in their life that shaped the beliefs and values that are still

central to how they relate to others. To be more specific, several of the participants

described early life experiences with family as a time during which they were taught the

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difference between right and wrong. It was this time during which they were instilled
with the sense to lmow when they were, in the words of Mark and Elizabeth, “crossing
the line” flom right to wrong. Crossing that line was understood to be times that you did
not show respect for others, be it respect for their opinions, rights or property. They
understand inappropriate behaviors to be defined by community standards. To be clear,
those standards are not derived flom law or ordinance; they are a higher standard that one
should meet. For example, a person’s behavior should never reach such an unsuitable
level that requires legal intervention. The line of reasonableness had been crossed much
earlier, and if people were raised with the proper morals and values they would never
require government regulation to moderate their behaviors. The participants believed that
more and more of today’s students are pushing and crossing that line. For example,
Elizabeth said, and “the kid has a high sense of right and wrong and responsibility and
working hard will be the one to treat those in the community with more respect, and I
think that generally comes flom parents.”

Therefore, they generally attribute poor student behavior to poor parenting. For
example, Rene said, “you can tell if the students have had good relations with their
parents” because they’ve been “given responsibility and understand how to respect
others.” Unfortunately, Rene notes that a lot of “parents are so busy promoting their own
agenda ...a lot of them are just self-advancing” while the kids are “just impoverished
emotionally.”

Ironically, even though the worst of the college students are “impoverished
emotionally,” as Rene says, they also enjoy more affluence than the participants’

generation. Although this theme is more fully developed later, Mark elaborates on it

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when he says, “I think some of the young people today, with the lifestyle and affluence
that we have in the United States, have been given so much that in some ways I think
they don’t understand that life doesn’t owe you anything.” Ray echoed this sentiment
when he said that “kids (college students) have grown up for whatever reason with
parents who allow too much self-indulgence — they’ve got too much to spend and they’ve

got too little to do that’s really productive as they are growing up.”

Their Own College Experience

For each of the participants, their own college experience seems to provide a
baseline flom which they are judging the experiences of today’s students. Although there
were clear differences in the college experiences of the participants, each of them used
the lens of their undergraduate experience to relate and define college students today.
The participants’ experiences differed flom one another in major, university type (two of
the participants attended community college prior to attending a four year public
university), success (e. g., grades), and level of extracurricular engagement. Although
further research is necessary to confirm, these differences between participants seemed to
have little impact; a common understanding of college students emerged despite these
differences. This claim is based on the similarities of the stories they shared about their
own college experience. These stories illustrated a common experience (e. g., parental
influence, academics, maturation, fliends, and partying) that provided a lens through
which they understand today’s college student. That lens seems to highlight the

following notions: respect, moral sense, a process of change, activism, and a process of

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adjustment. Each of one of these will be supported separately, but each under the general
theme of the participant’s own college experience.

The following quote, given by Mark, is representative of the way in which the
participants described their college experience and how it relates to the respect today’s

college students have for others.

I grew up in this town. I partied in this town. I partied in some of the same
structures that kids are partying in today. But we did it with a different respect for
surrounding neighbors and property owners than what I see today.

Elizabeth echoed this sentiment, when she said, “I drank, I partied, I just make the
assumption that that was normal, and probably most students were doing the same thing,
but today the line’s gotten pushed.”

Several participants referred to that “line” that they knew when they were
crossing. The line was flamed as Elizabeth and Mark both described as “knowing the
difference between right and wrong” and feeling “a real sense of discomfort when you do
something that crosses that line”. Generally, the essence of this can be captured by the
participants’ feeling they had a moral sense that provided a guide for the behaviors during
their own college experience. Therefore, even though some of the participants
recognized that they crossed this line and behaved in ways that were both destructive to
themselves and the community, they justified those experiences in two ways. First, for
one group of the participants those damaging behaviors were rare and seen as an isolated
mistake. For the others, specifically those who said partying was a large part of their

college experience, they presented this behavior as evidence of their maturation and

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development. In fact, Joe described his experience as “a story of transformation, from
partying and alcohol being central,” to deciding “I gotta do something with my life.”
This participant’s change was dramatic, but illustrated another sub-theme (process of
change) of the participant’s college experiences. Joe went flom being on academic
probation, to quitting college, to returning to the same university in less than a year and
finally graduating with a grade point average over one point higher than when he left.
This type of transformation was not indicative of all the participants, but there was
general agreement that college is a time where people learn flom early mistakes. Rene
provides another example, when she said, “college is about the idea of maturation -
period of separation to gain a true sense of maturation that recognizes interdependency.”
Participants also believe the collegiate experience is a time when issues are
debated, political opinions are explored, and action is taken to voice those opinions. This
could be described as a general sense of student activism. Several of the participants, like
Anna, said that they recalled attending political rallies, writing letters to influence social
policy, and discussing politics in their apartment or dorm room. Three of the participants
(Jackie, Anna, and Mark) specifically referred to this social and political engagement as
central to their defining the beliefs and values that shaped the rest of their lives. Jackie
said she remembers as a young person being an active “beatnik - which comes before
hippie, phenomenon of 19503 — we were interested in voter registration drives, peace
marches, and so on.” Later in our interview she illustrates the kind of connection
participants are making between their experiences and those of today’s college student,

when she says,

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We have a community that can hold concepts simultaneously. That can take the
issue of war that’s happening on another side of the world so seriously that people
are stenciling commentary on the sidewalks - have that thought going on, at the
same time as the thought of sorority requirement.

Finally, three of the participants (Elizabeth, Rene, and Joe) recalled their own
struggles to adjust to university life. That is, most of the participants talked about their
own process of adjustment that took place during their early college years. They talked
about coming flom small, rural towns that were working-class (defined both socio-
economically and by attitude) and entering a university environment that was
challenging. It was more challenging academically than their high school experience,
and it was challenging to make new friends. Anna recalled her first day of classes at the
university she was attending as traumatic, because she couldn’t find where her class was,
ended up in the wrong classroom, and she realized, “your on your own honey.” At that
point she says “you grab yourself by the gut” and do what you have to do, and eventually,
“everything got easier and I knew I could make it. They attributed their eventual success
to having what both Rene and Elizabeth described as an “anchor” that gave them the self-

confidence and will to graduate. That anchor came flom their family instilling that moral

sense that was described earlier under the family theme.

Their Own Socio-Economic Context
Participants made the connection between behaviors that do not meet their
understanding of the community standards and the increase of affluence in our society.
Participants felt that affluence, a general sense of entitlement, is pervasive among many

of today’s college students. As a group, they defined affluence as more than just

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monetary wealth. Without prompt, Jackie offered the following definition of affluence

that seemed to capture an agreed upon essence of its meaning:

Affluence is a notable absence of poverty in a whole series of measures. There’s
affluence of thought, openness of mind, there’s material affluence, there’s
spiritual affluence, there’s demographic affluence. . .we have people flom 120
nations living here. . .we have mosques, churches, temples. . .and all of them living
cheek to jowl. The air is clean; the inflastructure is in great shape. The number
of intact families is I’m sure higher than many, many areas of the country.
There’s affluence of thought — which is a great tolerance for different kinds of
thought.

Overall, participants feel more and more college students come with affluence.
That is, today’s students have more of what Anna called “creature comforts,” be it nicer
cars, more sophisticated technology, or an ability to travel all around the world. Rene
illustrated this sense when she said, “today’s students have a sense of world weariness
flom traveling, and somehow the experience is hollow.” In other words, there was a
collective sense that although students were well traveled they were valuing the richness
of those cultural experiences.

Participants also depicted college students as having a privileged lifestyle that
permits them cell phones, expensive housing, discretionary cash, and fancy bikes. In
representing the college student experience participants took pictures of motorized
scooters, multiple students engaged on cell phones, expensive off—campus housing, and
store windows where students do their shopping. As they described these luxuries, they

also described students as having a lack of moral clarity to appreciate and value these.

Rene described this as students being “sophisticated but hollow.”

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Participants find evidence of this affluence in those materialistic elements just
mentioned, but they also find it in the attitude of students. They point to how students
relate to fines as one example of the impact of that affluence. As Elizabeth said, wealth
allows students to pay fines for noise violations or parking tickets “without even blinking
a eye.”

Interestingly, most of my participants were parents and talked about wanting to do
what Joe described as “give their kids everything that would give them an edge”.
Therefore, in the same breath of being critical of the role of affluence, they would also
describe it as something to “be aspired to,” as Mark described it. Mark further elaborated
when he said that “affluence isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s all how you deal with
it.” He points to affluence as providing more options for children in the form of sports,
such as soccer, gymnastics, swimming, and dance (those activities not afforded to him as
a child). More broadly, there was a sense among participants that affluence affords
students the ability to take for granted basic needs, such as shelter and food, and in turn
requires them to deal with higher order thinking related to individual growth and
becoming a positive member of a community. Jackie illustrated this point when she said,

We are a relatively affluent community. That is, there is a notable absence of

poverty in a whole series of measures - there’s affluence of thought, openness of

mind, there’s material affluence, there’s spiritual affluence, there’s demographic
affluence; we have people flom 120 nations living here. We have mosque,
churches, temples and all of them living check to jowl. (The) air is clean; the
inflastructure is in great shape the number of intact families is I’m sure higher
than many, many areas of the country. There’s affluence of thought, great
tolerance for different kinds of thought it this community.

Therefore, as Jackie continues, “the struggle of today’s college student is to get

beyond the materialistic phase of development” and develop skills necessary to deal with

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the “higher order conflicts” that come with having their basic needs met. Another way of
saying this is that today’s students have to learn to navigate the venues of fleedom that
are afforded by affluence. They have to learn how to elicit meaning flom fleedoms, be it
broadly the fleedom of opportunity, or more specifically the fleedom of thought, travel,
or expression.

Participants feel students are doing a poor job of navigating these fleedoms. For
example, Ray said,

If I outlive my current doctor I don’t want one of these brats taking over for him.

Would you want your lawyer to be one of these kids? Or your broker or your

CPA or someone you put a lot of trust in? I’m not out to solve society’s

problems, but I think affluence has brought a weakening influence to the country

and obviously young people are the source for the future and that’s too bad.

Although most of the participants do not draw that stark of a negative conclusion
about students, there is genuine concern about parenting practices. Mark provides
another example of the general sense that parents are doing a poor job when he says,

Having respect for others - It’s get to the very beginning over here (pointing to his

childhood) — parents - you have to respect others’ opinions, others’ rights, others’

property and as individual within society we don’t do that. We don’t respect
other opinions. (We) should be able to agree to disagree (and we) should be able
to work things out for the most part.

Nearly all the participants echoed this sentiment. That is, a moral sense comes
flom parents and family, but many of today’s students do not have the same moral sense
that the participants feel they were instilled with at a young age.

Furthermore, they feel students do not appreciate the opportunities affluence is

affording them, and instead, are not limiting the expression of their fleedoms. They are

not respecting the rights of others. They slam the doors of their $50,000 car at three in

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the morning. They purchase houses to get around rental restrictions. They buy their way
out of violations. They are consuming wealth and being wasteful. As Joe summarized it,

“a lot of people are spoiled rotten.”

Limitations

The rich qualitative data provide meaningful data to uncover the life experiences
and individual sense-making processes that relate to community representatives’
understanding of college students. Although the qualitative nature of the study,
particularly the small sample, makes it impossible to generalize these findings, it does
provide a deep and complex understanding about how participants have come to know
what it means to be a college student that is the hallmark of quality qualitative research
(Fey & Fontana, 1998). In considering the findings, it is important to recognize the
limitations of the data collection and analysis.

Although in-depth interviewing has been the primary means of data collection,
secondary interviews of students were also used to enrich the study. These interviews
proved to be validating at times, but more often unfluitful. I believe that is indicative of
three factors. First of all, I only spent approximately one hour with each student. That
time spent together was not sufficient for unearthing the deeper issues at hand in the
study.

Secondly, as I should have suspected, hints of the students’ psychological profile
bled into our interactions. Although the interview protocol specifically called for
reflections regarding the primary participant of the study, the beliefs, values and emotive

experiences of the students colored our interactions. Finally, the nature of the interaction

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between the students and the primary participants of this study were generally (with only
one exception) short-term, rigidly professional, and flamed by power (in some case,
primary participants currently having considerable positional authority that impeded
critical reflection by students).

Similar to the psychic synergy that colored my interaction with students, my role
as interviewer affected the data collected. As Jung (1963) would suspect, who I am
affected what the participants brought to the table. The inclination of participants was to
speak positively about college students. For example, even when they would tell a story
that was not positive about students, the participants would be quick to qualify the
statement by saying things, such as “but I realize that not all college students are like
that.” Furthermore, in completing the photo elicitation component, two of the participants
recognized the ill behaviors of some college students (e. g., liter, noise, alcohol abuse,
etc.) and actively avoided representing those characteristics as a valid rendering of a
college student experience in their pictures. So, even though they would recognize that
some of their student neighbors were engaging in unlawful and disrespectful acts, and
verbally expressed their displeasure of those activities, they consciously refused to
include them in their pictures. There are more than a handful of theories and
explanations for this behavior, and understanding this could be a study entirely on its
own. I will offer just a brief explanation that seems to fit the particular aspects of this
study.

There is evidence that the participants identified me as a member of the college
student population. In other words, their understanding of college students originated

flom a mental model that included me as a college student. Indeed, I am a college

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student, and have worked with them in somewhat traditional ways in the community
(having served with them as a graduate assistant). But, I have never lived near any of
them, and their student neighbors do not share my characteristics as a graduate student in
his late 203. Despite that, several participants made remarks that included me in their
generalizations of college students. For example, one participant remarked, “I have
interacted with a lot of college students like you who want to be active in the
community.” I believe that given their personal identification with me as the interviewer,
it sometimes made it difficult for them to speak negatively about college students. Even
given this limitation, overall the length and depth of the interviews were able to transcend
this shortcoming. I am confident in saying this because many of the stories captured in
the final two sessions were much more graphic and colorfirl representations of both
positive and negative experiences. In addition, the level of psychic depth, evidenced by
voice inflections, body movements (e. g., pounding the table, standing up, and unusually
active hand gestures), and word choice (e.g., uncharacteristic use of foul language)
indicates emotionally powerful areas that reflect deeper held beliefs (Singer, 1994).
Although anecdotal, these explanations offer a more full understanding of the data
collection. Further research is necessary to understand the impact of the interviewer on
studies such as these. As well as others, the method of triangulation would offer a
somewhat more full explanation of the impact of interviewer characteristics on subject

selectivity of the data provided.

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Summary

The three themes presented in this chapter serve as lenses through which the
participants have come to know students. These themes provide a filter for how they
understand and judge college students. The overarching theme is the family; it
symbolizes the time in their life that taught them a moral sense that provides the basis for
how they judge the behaviors of others, including what they do in college and how they
manage the fleedom and affluence characterized by society today. Consciously they
have related these behaviors to how they understand students. Recognizing the stated
limitations, the final chapter further explores these themes, and others, to understand the
unconscious aspects of how participants form beliefs, assumptions, and judgments about
college students. In the end, the final chapter proposes that these unconscious aspects are
found in a mythology that is structured and identifiable. The final chapter will define and

explore the implications of such a mythology.

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CHAPTER SIX: IN TERPRETATIONS

Arguing for the Presence of the Unconscious

The previous two chapters presented data that linked how the participants have
consciously related their own life experiences to how they understand college students.
The participants used the three themes of family, their own college experience, and their
own socio-economic context to mediate and color how they have come to know college
students. To be clear, those themes that emerged flom the data provide a lens through
which the participant’s process of meaning making takes place.

In this final chapter, I will argue for the presence of unconscious elements that
reflect (or manifest as) emotive centers of the psyche below awareness that manifest
themselves in feelings of tension, conflict, and ambivalence (Jung, 1958; Singer, 1994).
Supported by a base of literature (e.g., Jung 1963, Whitrnont 1969, and Singer, 1994)
these emotive areas will be presented as evidence of the unconscious.

Furthermore, it will be argued that these unconscious elements are evoking a
structured set of beliefs and assumptions that come together to form a mythology of the
college student. The participants reflect a culture that has repeated the story of the
college student, thus bringing forth a collective understanding (myth) (Bennet, 1961).
The concern is not whether the myth is true or not, but rather to understand how the myth
is structured and why it holds such power.

I will then speculate that the evoked myth in this study can be placed within the
larger parent/child myth (Jung, 1954; Singer, 1994). This study points to a largely
unconscious process of mythology in which the participant (and community) is parent,

while the student is child. In the end, I speculate that their style of “parenting”

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(masculine versus feminine) is in conflict as a reflection of our society’s struggle with the
emerging feminine voice versus the established patriarchal structure (Bondurant, Donat,
& White, 2001; Fine and Carney, 2001; Maraecek, 2001; Woollett and Marshall, 2001;
Singer, 1994).

Following the presentations of these theoretical implications, I will briefly speak

to the practical ways in which the lessons of this study can be put into use.

Defining the Unconscious

Jung (195 8) described the unconscious by making a division between the personal
unconscious and the collective unconscious (Bennet, 1961). This division illustrates
repressed psychic elements that have been acquired through personal experience
(personal unconscious), and those that are flom what Whitrnont called the “collective
storehouse of mankind” (collective unconscious). (Whitrnont, 1969, p. 38).

The common way in which the unconscious is used in today’s vernacular seems
to reflect the personal unconscious aspects of the definition. The following
interpretations will rely more heavily on the collective unconscious. Bennet (1961)
speaks to the collective unconscious when he writes,

As a member of a community the individual is not circumscribed. . .(but) is a

repository of collective attributes. He may look upon these unleamed activities as

his private property because he cherishes and uses them with personal
satisfaction. . .nevertheless, those instincts, so personal in manifestation, so
essential to life, are part of the constitution of everyone, and cannot be classed as
personal acquisitions.

In sum, the collective unconscious is often manifest as sets of beliefs,

assumptions, values, and actions that are shared among a group of people. Therefore,

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even though they are wrapped in motifs of the individual, they are flom what Whitrnont
calls the “mythological layer of the psyche” (Whitmont, 1969, p. 38). More simply
stated, they are the common myths that undergird the story of humanity. They are the
hero myth, or the mother myth, or religious myths (Whitmont, 1969). Again, research of
this type (depth psychology and the like) is not primarily concerned with the truthfulness
of these myths, but focuses on understanding the power they have to influence people.

In the hopes of more deeply understanding the collective unconscious and its
mythical essence, a few basic tenants will be reviewed. These tenants are based largely
on the work of Singer (1992) and Whitrnont (1969). As well as being the theoretical
assumptions of the unconscious, these tenants also provide a guide for identifying the
unconscious. In other words, they are the clues one finds in the presence of the
unconscious (Jung, 1958; Singer, 1994; Whitmont, 1969). Following the brief outline of
these tenants, evidence will be provided flom the data that demonstrates that these tenants
are present in this study. The following are the most basic tenants of the collective
unconscious (Whitmont, 1969):

1. The environment evokes or activates the archetypal energies within the
unconscrous.

2. This activation is manifest in images that reflect highly emotional energy fields.

3. As these energy fields take shape, they form non-rational patterns.

4. These patterns tend to correspond to mythological themes, or timeless stories, and
either complement or compensate for the narrow viewpoint of the conscious.

In summary, the collective unconscious has distinguishable characteristics that are
descriptive and observable. Manifestation of the unconscious is made evident through

behaviors, assumptions, and beliefs that display tension, ambivalence, and paradoxes.

These behaviors, assumptions and beliefs more or less coalesce into patterns, such as

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myths. These myths blend with conscious elements to inform an individual’s process of
meaning making. We might regard myths as motifs of meaning making.

Do we find the presence of such myths in the participants of this study? Are we
able to point to a myth that reflects a collective understanding of college students? In
short, I believe we do see evidence of a collective story that is brought together into a
myth of the college student. The following section attempts to provide evidence for that

conclusion.

Evidence of the Unconscious

Given those basic tenants of the unconscious, if we are able to find illustrative
examples flom the participants of each of those tenants, we have some ground flom
which to claim that unconscious elements are present in these seven participants. In fact,
I believe a careful read of what has already been presented in the previous two chapters
illustrates such evidence. In this chapter evidence will be presented to correspond to each
of the four tenants.

The literature and data flom this study have been based on the assumption that
there is tension among community representatives and their student neighbors. Broadly,
evidence was presented that demonstrates that these tensions are not unique to the
university community context in this study. More specifically, and in direct support of
the first two tenants of the unconscious (emotive fields of energy and emotions, such as
tension), the participants reflected that emotion and tension in a variety of ways. The
following are a few quotes flom participants that illustrate the level of emotion and

tension they feel is present in their university community.

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Jackie flamed the tension in her university community as citizens’ inability to
manage expanded levels of fleedom. With emotion (while sitting at the edge of her chair
using active hand gestures, animated facial expressions, and a raised tone of voice), she
described the situation like this,

As with any fleedoms, my fleedom bumps against your fleedoms and (that’s
where the conflict occurs). Conflict is inherent in human society, so I wouldn’t
call it a drawback (of living in a university community), but I would say that the
more fleedoms you have the more potential for conflict. You have to be mindful
of that. Here our conflict has a hundred venues, because of all of the fleedoms we
have. We have to be mindful to that. We have to be prepared to deal with that.
We have to develop within the populace the skills necessary to deal with those
higher order conflicts that will inevitably come about when you have this level of
fleedom.

Mark described his flustration and disappointment with how his university
community has managed the level of conflict. He said,

There is a small percentage, but unfortunately ever increasing percentage, of the
college age students that simply don’t get it. . .and I think that they have come
flom environments or lifestyles, because of the affluence, and I’m not talking rich
people, but we have a very affluent society, just candidly. . .so when you get that
number of people who don’t get it, (who) don’t understand how to be citizens in a
community, and (how to) respect the rights of others - they create not only a
problem for themselves and a problem for the community, but they foster this
image that all college age students are bad, and there in, in my opinion, is the crux
of the conflict, the crux of the challenge.

Finally, Ray summarized the nature of the community conflict when he said,
The best you can get with some of them (college students) is a tentative truce.
The assumption that you are going to become fliendly and have them in your
house for apple pie is dreaming. If the students would just lower their profile,
much less knocking on your door and to say “hi, I’m so and so, I’m moving in
next door over here.” I would be shocked if anybody did that.

These comments are reflective of a participant pool that believes they live in a

community environment where tension and conflict are the norm. They not only point to

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examples of this conflict (e. g., noise ordinances and riots), but they feel the conflict. In
telling these stories, they become animated, talk faster, rise out of their chair, and change
their voice tones to reflect anger, fear, and apprehension. In that sense, they demonstrate
the emotional nature of their feelings. The tension of the community is not outside of
them. As the previous quotes illustrate, they feel a part of that conflict and tension. In
the language of the literature, those feelings of tension are found in emotionally dynamic
fields (Singer, 1994).

One of those fields of emotion is ambivalence. In analyzing the data, I found the
participants reflect a paradox of sorts. In one breath they exhibit disappoint and anger
toward college students, while later, the same participant, would exhibit empathy and
affection for students. In talking about college students, Joe said it most succinctly when
he offered this summary,

On one hand they have been extremely helpful, but on the other a lot of them are

absolute pigs who don’t worry about if there’s a wastebasket right there, you

know, a lot of them are just a pain in the ass; inconsiderate.

Joe’s comment illustrates a common sense of ambivalence that the participants
feel toward students. Sometimes that ambivalence would be flamed in one paragraph,
while other times it would show through over our extended conversations. I’ll offer a
few quotes flom the participants that illustrate this ambivalence (two of these quotes are
part of the photo elicitation exercise).

As Rene was describing what each of her pictures meant she began to talk about
what she called the “inconsistency” in the behavior of students. For example, one of her
pictures had her son and husband dressed up in costumes for an event they were

attending. She said that this picture reflected the “different personalities” that students

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try on, like costumes, during their time in college. She went on to show me pictures that
attempted to capture the contradictory nature of student behavior. For example, a few of
her pictures symbolized the academic nature of the college experience (e. g., students
studying), while a few others demonstrated what she called the “excessive” and “risk
taking” behavior of students” (e. g., students cheering at a university basketball game).
Overall, the pictures reflected her own ambivalence towards college students. During the
session we talked about her pictures, she elaborated on her feelings when she said,

They (college students) try on their different people that they want to be - act

awful in some respects, trying out their sexuality, try out different morals,

different ethics. . .You wonder why so many of them act so strangely or like they
don’t have accountability. A lot of it is trying on different costumes. . .There is
that inconsistency. They often will push their limits, be risk takers and they are
excessive. That’s why you have the beer cans all over and stuff like that; again,
the theme is pushing the limits. But, (it also) shows the whimsical, fun-loving,
spontaneous side of them. I love that about them, but spontaneous can be
impulsive. It sweeps them away; let events sweep them away as opposed to being
in control.

Rene went on to summarize her thoughts by saying, “while excessive, they are
also reflective, and there is another side to all these kids that is very touching, (because)
they have such a soft spot, (and) are role models to young kids.” Rene came full circle,
flom questioning the morals and ethics of college students, to appreciating and admiring
students for being role models to children. Rene’s feelings were not unique.

In talking about the photo elicitation exercise (geared toward capturing an image
of students), Jackie’s decisions reflected a certain ambivalence toward college students.
As she pulled out her photos, I asked Jackie to describe how she had decided on certain

pictures. Jackie answered by saying,

My first impulse was to take pictures of Friday and Saturday nights in downtown;
drunks puking, people falling down, crowds of kids, people getting carted off in

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paddy wagons. That was my first impulse. Then I had a kind of epiphany,
because when I was thinking about doing that I was riding home on my bicycle —
I sort of looked up flom this linear line that I was on and I was riding past (the
park), and it was such an idealistic scene, with people playing volleyball, Frisbee,
(and) people laying on the lawn. I suddenly realized, wait a minute! You know,
“that first vision that you had is so skewed by your prejudices, so instead of
following your prejudices, why don’t you just open your eyes and look around
you and see what you see.” So, what I ended up doing is just taking pictures of
what I saw, rather than what I thought, essentially a day in (the city). So instead
of following my mind, I followed my senses.

In speaking about her choice of pictures, Anna recalled a similar process. She
recounted it by saying,

I’ll tell you one thing I actively avoided (taking) pictures of all the cups in one of

our neighbors’ yards. And I can imagine that some of the people that I’ve worked

with, some of the permanent residents that I’ve worked with, might have a photo

essay just about the garbage and the parking violations. I think that’s a legitimate

part of it, but if I’m looking at what it’s like to be a student, I also thought I don’t

notice that very much. I do remember consciously thinking, I’m not including

that. I purposely excluded that, so I guess that means it’s significant.

Joe, the participant who is a police officer, echoed much the same sentiment about
college students. He said,

I’ve read a couple of quotes in the paper about how they are talking about

students rioting because they can no longer play beer pong during tailgating. . .and

it’s like, you’ve got thousands of people being killed over in the Middle East and

if I can’t play beer pong I’m gonna raise hell. It just amazes me. But they’re

smart. But I don’t know.

In summary, participants recognize students contribute to the community as role
models. They recognize that students are intelligent, loving, and energetic. On the other
hand, they find students to be inconsiderate, excessive, and disrespectful. In the end, they

seem to hold both opinions in their head. Although I cannot speculate as to when they

employ each, more importantly for this research, it lends support to the claim that

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unconscious dynamics are contributing to how they make sense of what it means to be a
college student.

In the end, it seems reasonable to claim that unconscious elements are at play in
how the community representatives are relating to, and understanding, college students.
Given the presence of these basic elements of the unconscious (i.e., emotive areas,
tension, ambivalence and paradox), it can be argued that the unconscious is manifest.
Then, the question becomes, do they speak in one voice? In terms of the participants’
process of meaning making as it relates to college students, do these unconscious beliefs
and assumptions reflect a kind of structured, shared pattern?

The previous two chapters presented findings that did just that - came together as
a shared flame of reference. That flame of reference, delineated in chapter five, presents
a coherent collection of beliefs and assumptions that characterize the participants’
understanding of college students. Furthermore, supported by the data, that flame of
reference was unpacked, so to speak, to reveal three themes that began to explain the
emotional and dynamic beliefs and assumptions that undergird that flame of reference.

More simply stated, this study has been an exercise in digging deeper and deeper
to find meaning that reflects more than just consciousness. From the protocol to the
analysis, the research hopes to locate and embrace the unconscious influences that affect
the formulation of how students are understood by community representatives. In service
of that goal, I have used language and practices that are rich in theory to describe and
embrace the symbolic nature of human understanding. The challenge of this research,
particularly in offering interpretations of the data, is to take that theory and research and

bring it to the reader in a way that is understandable and compelling. Specifically, the

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goal is to explain how these unconscious emotional dynamics have influenced the way
the seven participants have come to understand college students.

The findings suggest that the community representatives have a collective image
of the college student. In the language of depth psychology, there is a compelling
symbolic nature to the way participants understand college students. As reviewed in this
chapter, a case can be made for the presence of unconscious emotional dynamics that are
influencing the way these participants are relating to, and understanding, college students.
Now, in order to understand and interpret these unconscious emotional dynamics, it is
helpful to more clearly describe how they come together and correspond to mythological
themes. As the participants’ reflections come together to form a collective image of the
college student, the concept of myth can be used to flame, and thereby understand, this

image.

Evidence of Myth

The community members of this study reflect a powerful myth. The way they
understand students to be (their flame of reference) brings together more than just student
behavior. There are several pieces of evidence flom the findings that support the
interpretation that participants have presented a student myth. First, the way people
understand college students reflected their own narrative (life history). In other words,
who they understand themselves to be reflects how they have come to know students.
Their narrative becomes the lens through which they create the student myth.

For example, a number of the participants drew on cultural myths, such as the

Protestant work ethic, to develop their narratives. They identified themselves with

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socially vague principals, such as character, respect, integrity and right and wrong. These
were not nebulous in their minds, instead they held great meaning when placed clearly in
the context of their life experiences. For example, Ray said,

(The poor behavior of students) has something to do with the values of the

families that they come flom; they’ve not been taught that there are limits. Not

been taught to respect other people; they want all kinds of rights and what have
you, but they don’t think about. . .other people’s. I just see it as a change (in the

character of people). The word character is kind of a squishy word, but there’s a

change in the way of what they think is okay.

Ray is referring to limits and respect in powerful ways that reflect a narrative that
has given them meaning. This becomes important in order to understand why Ray feels
the way he feels about students. It places his judgments and understandings of students
within a more full context — the context of his life.

Mark provides another personal story that sheds light on the myth of the college
student. Mark speaks passionately about work ethic. In his words, he believes that he
“was taught some pretty tough work ethics” when he was young. When I asked him to
describe what a work ethic was, he said, “it means to improve yourself and put the time
and effort in.” In the context of conversations, you could sense Mark unpacking the
importance of work ethic to mean much more. His experiences provided a baseline
understanding of what it means to work for something — what it means to earn something.
In that context, the reader can gain much more flom his following statement,

I think some of the young people today, with the lifestyle and affluence that we

have in the United States, have been given so much that in some ways I think they

don’t understand that life doesn’t owe you anything. We have to make our own
way.

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Jackie’s story also reflected the importance of a personal lens in creating a student
myth to make sense of the world. If presented with the description of a student myth, I
believe she would agree that it is a reflection of her current inner-conflicts. In her words,
“how I react to someone is almost entirely about my spiritual condition.” That statement
has power. It says what the other examples only allude to. That is, more than empirical
evidence is present as they shape their judgments and beliefs about college students.
Their imagined past experiences (i.e., how they have come to understand their life
history) are working hand-in-hand with reality (what they are currently faced with) to
shape an understanding of the world. In this case, the understanding that has taken shape
is a student myth.

The second piece of evidence that supports the claim that the participants have
created a student myth is the disproportionate presence of highly emotional stories (e.g.,
student riot). In other words, the student myth is not meant to be a literal picture of
students, but reflects the highly emotional triggers that played an important role in
shaping their understanding of reality. The emotional trigger that was most often referred
to by participants was a student riot. All of the participants experienced what they
referred to as a “student riot” approximately 5 years ago.

More than 10,000 people (a majority of whom were of college age) participated in
the riots and engaged in destructive behaviors, such as flipping police cars, breaking
storeflont windows and burnings couches in the middle of the street. When it was over,
there was over $100,000 worth of damage (Burden, 1999). This event seems to have
touched an emotional core for the participants. For example, in comparing their own

young adult experiences they would use their memories of the riot as the marker for

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current student behavior. Ray illustrated this point when he said, “when I was a young
man, when students needed to be serious they could; when they wanted to party, they
partied, but not in the way that set anything on fire, or caused any wenches to blaze their
brassieres.” Although not in name, and not prompted, that is a clear reference to the
student riot.

Elizabeth demonstrated a similar propensity to use the riot as a marker for today’s
student behavior when she said,

There’s an awful lot (of students) that don’t have that same level of getting
uncomfortable it seems like. I mean, for example, the riots we had, it’s kind of
amazing, even though it was a pretty small percentage of students, but it’s still
amazing that that many young people with the caliber of education, intelligence,
(and) background feel it’s ok to be that close to that; they weren’t all participating
but just to be there. That would be a good example of when I would go, “okay, I
could get hurt or in trouble, I’m outta here.” It seems like there’s just less of that.

Elizabeth even recognized that it was a “pretty small percentage” of students, yet
this was what came to mind when asked to explain why she felt things were different
today than when she was in college. Finally, Joe, who admittedly struggled with alcohol
abuse in college and partied to the point of having to leave school, talked about students
in light of the riots. He said,

I think people get wrapped up in it. Most of those people don’t go there (to do
something bad). (They) get caught up in it and there you are. I had a lot of
contact with those in the 1999 riot and a lot of those students were on the Dean’s
list who got caught up in it. And I’ve done stupid things; we all have, you know,
so I guess I’m thankful that we have a criminal justice system that is somewhat
forgiving. A guy with a bright future and everything, who for whatever reason
gets caught up in it; it suddenly becomes a good idea to light the Taco Bell on
fire; that’s different than a guy who steals cars for a living, does it every night,
and has no hope. I think one should be locked and do hard time, the other one,
yep a fine, yep probation and all of that, but let this guy get on with his future.

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Joe demonstrates a more nuanced understanding of those involved in the riot.
Having worked with many of them, he sees the personal stories behind the destructive
public outcome. In summary, the riot, understandably, is a strong emotional trigger that
is operating just below consciousness but is often called to consciousness by the
participants’ own mental construct. It seems reasonable to conclude that the riot is a
strong symbol used to understand students, but it would be interesting to further explore
the emotive impact the riots had on these participants and other members of the
community.

The final tenant that supports the concept of a myth to describe the way
participants understand students is that despite knowing something, participants still seem
to operate flom what they feel. This claim is a kind of capstone that incorporates the first
two pieces of evidence. It is also the most tentative and in need of firrther research.

Several of the participants talked about how their instincts were pushing them one
way, while their conscious was pulling them another way. Take Anna and Jackie, for
example, in talking about the process by which they chose to take pictures that represent
students, both of them said it was their instinct to take pictures of partying and drinking.
Jackie said it like this, “My first impulse was to take pictures of Friday and Saturday
nights in downtown; drunks puking, people falling down, crowds of kids, people getting
carted off in paddy wagons. That was my first impulse.” Anna articulated something
similar, yet each of them purposefully did not take any pictures representing that segment
of college student life.

Ray provides a richer, but also more complex example. In talking about students,

he had a difficult time bringing together his beliefs and a recent example to the contrary.

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I found this in his description of his son’s student neighbors. He recalled how the
student’s parents bought the house for them, “renovated and fixed it up” and “have been
good neighbors.” But, as he finished describing those events, he paused, and said, “and
talk about your fancy automobiles, but so far they have been fine.” It has been at least
four months since those students have moved in, yet he is still waiting for them to fit into
his understanding of college students.

Of course, this is a tentative conclusion, yet it suggests areas of future research
that could be fluitful. It also suggests that there are inner-conflicts in operation that

impact the beliefs and assumptions of the participants.

Parent — Child Myth

Carl Jung (1963), as well as subsequent writers, such as June Singer (1994) and
Edward Whitrnont (1969), have identified and described a number of different myths that
capture some essence of human behavior. They have given meaning to our quest for
greatness through the hero myth (Jung, 1963). They have written about the myths
surrounding religion and the power they hold for people (Jung, 1963; Singer, 1994).
They have also helped us more fully understand our relationship with our parents and
children by delineating the parent-child myth (Whitmont, 1969). In this study, that final
myth has particular relevance. Although it is speculative, the data compel me to interpret
the relationship between students and the community representatives as embodying the

characteristics of the larger parent-child myth.

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Defining the Parent-Child Myth

I suggest that the parent —child myth symbolizes aspects of the student —
corrnnunity relationship. Although largely unconscious, I find that the community
representatives in this study see themselves as parents to the college students of the
community.

The parent-child myth has been described as a way to more fully understand the
positive and negative aspects of parent and child relationships (Whitmont, 1969).
Furthermore, as it will be used in this case, it has also been used to symbolize the
characteristics of other relationships. Clearly stated, the parent-child myth is one that
attempts to capture a holistic story — the story for the ages — that brings together
experiences of past generations with today to paint an image of the parent-child
relationship (Singer, 1994). This image, as described by Singer (1994), is imprinted on
the child’s psyche and is evoked as a way to understand other paternal relationships. The
parent-child relationship can manifest itself in relatively favorable ways, such as parents
demonstrating a sense of responsibility, compassion, and affection, and children being
agreeable, maturing, and respectful. On the other hand, the parent-child myth can evoke
unfavorable circumstances, such as parent figures that are destructive, oppressive, or
simply not present, and child figures who are feeble, submissive, immature and
perpetually adolescent (Singer, 1994). How might one use this myth to describe and
understand the relationship between college students and the community members?

What makes me believe that the parent-child myth is an appropriate metaphor for

explaining how community representatives understand college students? First of all, two

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of the participants made statements that consciously depicted their relationship with
students as parental. For example, as Rene described her relationship with her tenants,
she was describing herself in some ways as a surrogate parent. She would get involved in
their lives in ways other rental managers did not, she would get to know them, send them
birthday cards, and check up on them if she had not heard flom them in awhile. This
conversation was sparked by her saying how it was often very difficult for her to be hard
on the tenants, even when she felt they deserved it. I asked her about this seemingly
motherly relationship, and this is how she responded.
It’s very hard (for me) to be hard on the tenants. Some landlords kid me about
being too easy and too parental. (It is difficult for me to be hard on them)
because we really don’t know them, I can’t assess them, I don’t know what stage
they are in and when it’s all said and done, and I’m going back to the parental
thing, the only hold you have over them, is the respect they have for you.
Elizabeth described a similar dynamic when she was asked to articulate the lens
through which she views the world. She responded with, “Parent is the first one (lens).
That’s the biggest one. I don’t know what other lens I see the world through.” She went
on to give specific examples of where, in her current role in the city, she finds herself
acting out as a parent to the college students. She said, “I’ll think ‘how dangerous that is’
when students talk of sitting on a folding chair, drinking, while on the roof.”
Although those were specific references to the participant as parent, and student
as child, other participants were more suggestive of such a relationship. For example,
nearly all of the participants referred to the students as “kids” and talked about them

going through a process of maturation. Furthermore, Jackie illustrated the parental role

community members engage in when she drew the following analogy,

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(Students are) like a herd of well fed, graving wildebeests and the reality of this
earth is that there are lions in the bushes. And they will feed upon the weak and
the young. (We must) protect the innocent. The police take their role very
seriously. What is perceived as overzealousness, is truly, for the most part,
people motivated by the desire to protect (the) vulnerable young people. These
officers see themselves as protecting the innocent.

I went to Afiica on vacation (and) we were a group of naive tourist who we went

out into the Serengeti Plain. . .our guides hired (people) to sit around the parameter

of the campsite all night awake to make sure that we didn’t get invaded by lions.

We’re essentially doing the same thing here. We station our warriors around the

edge of the campfire all night to watch over the innocents. That’s what they see

themselves doing — it may not be perceived that way. And we’ve got the
innocents saying, “Why can’t I leave the campsite and go wandering in the dark?”

Well, you know, there are lions (out there)!

Jackie’s story paints a picture. It puts into words the symbolic nature of the
relationship between college students and community representative. You see the college
student as a child, who needs to be protected by a parent who is wielding their power to
shield the child flom dangers outside the family. You also see a child who is rebellious,
and wanting to break flee flom the family. This story is mythological. It captures more
than reality. It seems to hold meaning for the storyteller and reflects unconscious aspects
of the relationship between student and community representative.

As described, Jackie’s story not only supports the claim that there is a parent-child
myth at play, it also begins to speak to what kind of parent the community members see
themselves as being. From data, I gather that community representatives struggle with
how to define their parental style. Are they more patriarchal, using clear boundaries
enforced by punishments, or do they embody a feminine approach that is more forgiving
and supportive? I think you see both in the participants. As I established earlier (see

Evidence of Unconscious), participants feel ambivalent and demonstrate paradoxical

behavior toward students. Not only does this point to unconscious psychic influences, it

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also hints at repressed contradictions in how they choose to relate to students. I speculate

that this is indicative of a cultural conflict present in our society.

Rising Feminism Versus the Established Patriarch

June Singer (1994), as well as many others (Bondurant, Donat, & White, 2001;
Fine and Carney, 2001; Maraecek, 2001; Woollett and Marshall, 2001), have described a
cultural conflict and reorganization around society’s struggle to incorporate the feminine
voice within a historically patriarchal society. As society works to rcdefrne and possibly
rid themselves of cultural forms, such as masculine and feminine, the psyche reflects this
strain. June Singer (1994) writes, “The psyche strives toward wholeness,” while taking
direction flom the collective unconscious aspects of nature as to what is appropriate,
expected, and desirable. As we redefine gender roles, we are redefining and reorganizing
the collective unconscious elements of the socially constructed ideas of gender. I think it
is reasonable to believe that the ambivalent and paradoxical behaviors exhibited by
community representatives are evidence of this cultural conflict. Although this
conjecture has clear limitations, I do believe it is compelling enough to call for further
research to substantiate the claim.

In summary, the findings of this study lead me to believe that there are powerful
unconscious aspects of the participants’ psyche that are informing their process of sense
making as it relates to college students. These unconscious elements are showing
themselves through emotional dynamic areas characterized by ambivalence, tension, and
paradoxes. Although it is not conclusive, there is compelling evidence that these emotive

areas are structured into a myth of the college student. This myth is shared by the

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community representatives and reflects elements of the collective unconscious.
Furthermore, this myth reflects a broader cultural conflict that is present in society. The
established patriarchal organization of society is being challenged by the feminist voice.
As the mythological matriarch challenges the patriarch, it impacts the individual psyche.
The impact of that conflict is captured in the collective unconscious of individuals. In
this study, that conflict seems to impact the manner in which community representatives
understand and relate to college students. That is, the community members vacillate
between a motherly or fatherly approach as a reflection of the unconscious conflicts

related to the cultural reorganization of gender definitions.

Dropping the Jargon
The implications of this research have the danger of falling into the bucket of
jargon. Words like unconscious, mythological, and psyche do not connect with how most
people come to understand the world. In this final section, the practical implications of
the theories and findings of this study will be briefly presented. The applications will
reflect the findings of the study, and deep thought on the issues, but an effort will be

made to use language that does not require being well read in depth psychology.

Ethic of the Inner Voice: Practical Implications
More than even when I began this study, I believe in the importance of this work.
This research study works to validate the relevancy of more than a method of study in
research. It takes a step towards supporting an ethic of the inner voice in our society

(Dirkx, 2004). The findings presented in this chapter, and the implications offered in the

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final chapter are not conclusive, but they are explanatory and directive. They help
provide a foundation of knowledge flom which to know what we feel.

What does it mean if we accept that the nature of interpersonal interactions, as
well as personal development, is driven by more than rational thought? Based on this
study, as well as my reading of depth psychology literature, I believe it calls for society to
embrace a new ethic. Eric Neumann (1990), a scholar of depth psychology, describes
this as an ethic of the “inner voice.” This type of work embraces an approach to living
that calls on individuals to expand their conscious awareness to value the unconscious
content of our psyche (Dirkx, 2004). Put another way, it requires people to value the
whispers in their life — those feelings and thoughts that are just bubbling below the
surface that we feel, but do not engage.

Psychotherapy, meditation, and prayer have all been tools used by individuals to
become aware of those inner voices. This research embraces those efforts, but also calls
for a collective movement to enrich our ways of living together in community. The
disruptions we feel in our lives are inherently relational and social. By disruption, I mean
all those experiences in life that do not mesh with our inner lives. It could be a sensation
of disconnection, or helplessness, or flustration; it is an emotional sense of detachment
flom who we want to be. Sometimes, we sense these, but ignore them. More often, we
are so driven by our superego that we never reflect on these quiet influences. Beyond our
own self interest, it is important we do so because those emotions are wrapped in the
fabric of the community (Becker, 1997). Therefore, if we are to respond to the conflicts

in society (e. g., university and community), we must see the problem in a different way,

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and we must take a communal approach to action. Others will carry this research forward
to more eloquently establish that path, but I offer just a few ideas.

Gay Becker, author of Disrupted Lives: How People Create Meaning in a
Chaotic, wrote, “transformation begins with alterations to ways of seeing.” This research
calls us to be more intentional in our efforts to incorporate the voice of the other. In this
case, other meaning the voices within ourselves that we ignore (personal unconscious), as
well as those mythological voices flom our context (collective unconscious). If we are to
see differently, we must be open to these different voices.

9, ‘6

We must recognize that issues, such as “noise, trash,” or even “riots” are
evoking deep mythologies. These mythologies have positive and negative energies.
More specifically, take the example of the parent-child myth as a way of understanding
how community representatives understand college students. The community
representative as parent has positive and negative energies associated with it. Parents can
provide protection, support, guidance, and love. Or, they can lack judgment, be
oppressive, sexist, neglectful, and a poor role model. Seeing the problem differently does
not mean repressing those negative attributions. It means providing structures that create
dialogical environments where people can give voice to the inner parent-child dynamics.
Quality research has been written on how institutions and individuals create these
dialogical environments (Adams & Harnm, 1996; Bruffee, 1993; Dirkx, 1997). This
study takes its place among those calling for an ethic of the inner voice that can emerge
in those environments. By creating opportunities for the symbolic and mythological to

become conscious, we are able to hold this tension; we are able to see the contradictions

between the positive and negative energies of the parent-child myth. In doing so, we are

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better able to allow the positive energies to be manifest, while being consciously aware of
the negative energies. Given that, what should we do with what we have learned in this
study?

The findings of this research claim that subconscious emotional themes are an
individual and community artifact that result in complex value and behavior patterns
(sometimes referred to as mythologies, complexes or archetypes). These patterns can be
unearthed and understood by using the tools of depth psychology. As individuals and
communities engage these subconscious emotions they will cultivate an understanding of
behaviors that manifest flom the value-laden, subconscious emotional patterns. These
claims are central to the study and result in recommended actions for individuals and
communities (particular university communities).

As an individual we are called upon to be more fully present in our interactions
with others. In other words, prior to facilitated group workshops, we need to open
ourselves to exploring the emotionality of situations that characterize our personal and
professional lives. This recommendation, written about at length in this study, require us
to ask reflective questions of ourselves. Although general in nature, the following
questions should be tailored to the issues at hand:

0 How have we come to believe what we believe?

0 Why are we approaching issues in a certain way?

0 What issues do we react most emotionally to, and why?

0 What issues do we spend less energy on, and why?

0 How have our feelings changed about the issue at hand, and why?

0 What values are guiding our decisions regarding this issue, and why?

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Similar to the individual approach of utilizing reflective questions and prompts to
more fully understand our personal motivations and behaviors, university communities
can do much the same exercise. In order to identify the subconscious emotional patterns
that are shared among community members we need to provide opportunities for
facilitated public dialogue. In the same way the methodology of this research was an
instrument for deeper understanding, the community conscious should be engaged with
the purpose of more fully understanding the values that color our complex community
issues. More simply stated, we should use depth psychology to help us make sense of
value-laden ideas such as, respect, citizenship, accountability, fun, maturity, fliendship,
privilege, disturbance, criminal, oppression, and safety (communities should create their
own lists). These values are important because they shape how we understand events and
our subsequent behaviors in response to those activities. If as a community we are able
to place those values within a context (i.e., examine how we have come to hold those
values) we are better able to establish more fully informed cultural and legal standards for
our communities.

How do we do this? How do we spur an organizational analysis that reflects the
principles of depth psychology? Broadly speaking, we need to have a willingness to
explore our individual and community judgments and decisions, and we have to be
willing to examine the issues flom different perspectives. This process should be
facilitated and structured (e. g., university and community workshop), with specific
intended outcomes tailored to the issue at hand (e. g., better understanding the tension in
student and permanent resident neighborhoods). The facilitator should be a trained

professional with a demonstrated ability to elicit and make sense of literal meaning and

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symbolic content. The facilitator should be able to help the group understand how they
make sense of value-laden ideas, and how that process of meaning making influences
their judgments and actions. In order to lead these discussions, the facilitator may use the
following questions to prompt reflection:
o How have we come to understand the issue?
0 Why are we organized the way we are (membership, meeting practices, etc.)?
o What shared assumptions are we working flom, and why do we hold those
assumptions?
0 How do others see the issue at hand?
0 Why do we believe certain things are the cause of the problem, and why do we
believe certain things will solve the problem?
0 How do we define success, and why?
0 What mythologies have we formed to make sense of the issue?
0 How have we come to those mythologies?
o What are the implications of those mythologies?
These types of reflective, question-oriented exercises can be a tool for encouraging
individual and community growth. They can be an instrument of analysis that improves
the process by which we make decisions, as well as provide a means to which we can

better understand the quiet, reluctant influences in our lives.
Personal Reflections
1 come to these interpretations based on what I have seen in conducting this study.

I knew all of these participants prior to interviewing them. Some, I knew for over four

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years. What surprised me most about this study was how little I really knew them. In
talking to them about their inner life, I realized how boxed in they feel. I realized, and
have shared with you, how their unconscious is undervalued and under explored. In
summary, that reflects the distance we are flom our collective and individual inner lives.

I ask that others carry this research on. How do we create institutions that value the inner
life? What can teachers, parents, and coaches do to embody that way of life? How do we
model an ethic of the inner voice for young people?

Having coached middle school students for the past four years, I am sure that I am
biased, but I believe that is an absolutely crucial period of life. Those students
intellectually understand a variety of issues, but they are just beginning to form values
around them. I have seen it when I coach. They look for cues, and suggestive remarks
that point them to what is valued. Too often, we point them in the wrong direction. Too
often, we do not value their voice. Anyone who has been around middle school students
knows that they have an enthusiasm and way of being that just reaches out to others.
Young people have an intuition about them that has not been crushed by society. They
openly dream, question, and wonder. I see fewer layers between their inner voice, and
their outer expression. Education, at its best, does not squelch that inner voice, but

enriches it with a diversity of ideas.

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APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW PROTOCOL

Overview

The following table presents an overview of the methods and procedures that are
being proposed. It is followed by a full delineation of the project protocol, including
intended procedures and measures.

 

 

Example of Collection

 

 

 

 

 

 

Session # Purpose(s) of the Session Method of Collection
W
Session #1 To introduce the participant to Semi-structured interview Talk about an important
the nature of the interview protocol childhood experience
process (e.g., their rights as a
participant, the anticipated time Phenomenological Lifeline exercise — participants
commitment, and how I will symbolic approach, while will be provided with a standard
collect and use the data) modeling Jung's idea of sheet of paper and a packet of
active imagination colored pencils and asked to
To explain the nature of the pictorially recount significant
study, including the purpose, points in their life
topic, and tone of the method(s)
of inquiry
To collect basic demographic
backgron information, as well
as initiate collecting data about
their early life experiences
To prepare the participant for
next session - artifact that tells
their personal stol
Session #2 To further explore their lifeline; Symbolic and What has made you the most
to rmearth their story and its mythological reflection - proud?
relation to how they have come revealing feelings and
to know college students emotions through When you think of a college
associations evoked via a student reaching their potential,
To explain the photo elicitation symbol or artifact, their what does that mean to you?
technique that will be utilized as lifeline, and a story
a point of discussion for next Do you remember your family
session Semi-structured interview or close friends talking about
protocol their college experience? If so,
what did they say
about it?

How does the artifact you
brought describe who you are?

 

126

 

 

Example of Collection

 

 

 

 

 

 

M W W
Te_chmu_eul
Session #3 To better understand the Photo elicitation How does this picture represent
participant's assumptions, Technique what it means to be a college
emotions, and experiences student?
regarding college students Semi-structured interview
protocol
To set up an opportunity for me
to observe their interaction(s)
with, on behalf, and/or about
college students
Session #4 To observe exchanges between Behavioral approach Around what topics do they
Option #1 the participant and students, engage students?
and/or between the participant Observation
and others as they talk about a What mannerisms, tone, speech
student issue patterns, and personality
descriptors do they demonstrate
when engaging students and/or
student issues?
Session #4 If unable to conduct a direct Serra-structured interview Could yen talk a little bit about
Option #2 observation of the participant, I protocol “Joe" (e.g., the participant)?
will meet with a student with
whom they have worked to When you see Joe, what do you
better understand the generally talk about?
participant‘s interactions with
students
Session #5 To provide a capstone Semi-structured interview It has been said that we wear
experience by engaging the protocol masks that are oriented toward
participant in observations and what we think society expects.
conclusions drawn from Mythological and Reflecting on your beliefs and
previous session experiences symbolic reflection using actions geared toward students,
pieces of the work of June what do you think society expects
To connect the personal nature Singer and Carl Jung as of you?
of our previous conversations prompts

 

 

 

within a socio-cultural context

To explore Jung's idea of a
complex particularly situated
around the participant‘s
understanding of college
students

To reiterate their rights as a
participant, including
explaining my plans to analyze,
organize, and submit my
research

 

 

It has been said, “What we cannot
admit in ourselves we often find
in others." Thinking about your
beliefs and values associated with
college students, what does that
mean to you?

If you were to write a biography
about specifically about your
interactions with college students,
what might you title it?

 

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Session One

Protocol

The primary purpose of this interview is to introduce the participants to the nature

of the interview process, as well as the specific purpose(s) of the research. Given that

these community representatives are not professional members of the university

community, it is particularly important that I provide the details and context to frame the

importance of their rights as human subjects. I will do this in three ways:

1.

Provide the attached form of consent. After allowing time for them to
read and understand the document, I will answer any questions and
concerns they might have. I will also encourage them to contact Dr.
Ashir Kumar, Chair of the University Committee on Research
Involving Human Subjects, if they have any further concerns or
questions.

I will then verbally reiterate their rights as human subjects, including
their right to skip any, and as many, questions as they would like, their
ability to stop the interviewing process at any point they feel is
necessary, and their right to contact the office of UCRIHS at any point
in the process.

I will briefly introduce the nature of my topic, explaining its purpose
(to understand how community representatives come to know what it
means to be a college student), its importance (including its
implications for members of the community and students), and the

personal reflection it will require.

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After addressing any questions or need for clarification, I will more fully review
the research topic, my interests, and why I feel their experiences and stories will be
important and helpfiJl to the study. As part of that discussion, I will reiterate the personal
and reflective nature of the work. I will also express my hope that they find the reflective
nature of the exercise to be interesting and possibly helpful in their interactions with, and
about, students.

Next, I will discuss the time commitment necessary to be a participant in the
study, explaining that I expect each session to be approximately an hour and a half long,
with meetings about every week over a period of approximately six weeks. In addition to
session time, the study will also require them to do a few exercises between meetings.
These will include things such as, preparing artwork, selecting artifacts to bring, and
taking approximately 15 pictures.

That discussion offers a smooth transition into an explanation of the way in which
I will collect and handle the data. Explaining my desire to most accurately capture their
words and feelings, I will introduce the variety of recording devices that I plan to use
(those delineated under “Data Collection and Organization”). Following that, I will
remind them of my obligations to abide by the human subjects processes in storing and
publishing data (data will be stored in a password protected computer). Finally, I will
give them an opportunity to voice concerns and questions regarding the data collection
and storage techniques I propose.

With their consent, I will begin collecting basic personal information. In
collecting this information I will be looking for areas that I may want to visit in a fiiture

session.

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The following personal information will be collected:

1.

2.

8.

9.

Full Name

Age

Preferred method of contact (e.g., telephone, email, or cell phone)
College(s) attended, if any

How long they have lived in this area

Where they grew up

Who raised them

Siblings — briefly describing their relationship with each

Other significant relatives

10. Important childhood experience

11. Important childhood person

Upon gathering this information, I will ask them to complete the lifeline exercise

(Hall, 1986). This exercise asks the participant to offer a pictorial story detailing

significant points in their life (please see attached example). I will provide the

participants with a standard sheet of paper and a packet of colored pencils to complete the

drawings. I will assure them that the demonstration of artistic talent is not the goal of this

exercise. The purpose of drawing this picture is to help me get to know the participant,

particularly those events that preceded me meeting them (most often these will be events

prior to three years ago). In order to make them feel comfortable in the process, I will

also complete my own lifeline at this time.

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After they have completed the lifeline I will ask them to talk about each event
they have represented. Listening carefully, I will ask clarifying questions, and look for
areas that I will want to revisit in following sessions. Afier they have completed their
explanations, I will ask them if there are events they thought of as they were speaking
that they would like to add, or any further explanation of any particular events they would
like to offer. I will also prompt them to speak a little more about their own college
experience(s). If appropriate, I will ask them to do a lifeline just of their college years to
bring for our next session.

In concluding the session, I will ask them to bring an artifact to our next meeting.
This item should be something from earlier in their life that has great importance, and
tells a story about them. It could be something they see as a source of daily inspiration,
or something that holds the story of their family. An artifact (be it an object, song, video,
or antique), that somehow tells their story -— who they are, what they strive to be, and

where they hope to point future generations (Singer, 1994).

Session Two

As I begin the meeting I will ask if they have any questions or concerns that came
up following our last meeting. I will then ask them if they had any thoughts that Came to
mind after the meeting that they wanted to share at this time (noting that they will have
time later in this session to specifically speak more about their lifeline). During this
introductory conversation I’ll also mention that some of my questions and exercises may
not always seem relevant or related to how they have come to know college students. I

will explain that the nature of the work is to uncover connections that are not usually

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made, so we should expect those sorts of feelings during the process. I will encourage

them to voice those feelings should they arise.

I would like to spend a significant amount of this session discussing their lifeline

(as well as their college lifeline, if relevant). I will ask them to speak about their

experiences, while asking open-ended and prompting questions, such as the following:

What has made you the most proud?

When have you felt the most disappointed?

When have you felt the most challenged?

Could you talk a little about your family life as you were growing up?

What personality traits of your parents do you see in yourself?

Were there expectations in your family that you would attend college? Could you
talk a little about that?

How would you currently describe your relationship with those who raised you?

In addition to these questions, I will utilize my notes from the last meeting to

generate questions that may have hinted at complexes related to their sense-making

processes. The following are a few examples of what those inquiries might look like:

You mentioned several times last session, could you talk a little more
about the impact he/she has had on you?

Have you met a college student that you could personally identify with? If so,
why? What was that person like? If not, what might such a person be like?
What influence do you think the media has on the way people understand what it

means to be a college student? What impact has it had on you? Why is that?

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o In your job/civic activism, describe how you work with college students? How
often? Around what types of conversations? Describe some of the typical
interactions you have with college students.

0 When you think of a college student reaching his/her potential, what does that
mean to you?

0 When you think of lessons that college students must learn, what comes to mind?

0 (If they went to college) What lessons did you learn during your time in college?

0 Do you remember your family or close fi'iends talking about their college

experience? What did they say about it?

At this point, I will ask them to fiirther explore their early childhood and
adolescent experiences, particularly regarding their personality development (I will be
keeping in mind Jung’s model of the complex and its development and adjustments)
(Adler, 1956; Jung, 1963/1989). I will use the following story to prompt conversation:

In one of the books I read for this study, they talk about a sailboat being set out to
sea, with a relatively novice sailor. At first the sea controls the boat, washing it around as
it likes, but as time goes on, the sailor begins to understand the art of sailing and takes
some control. She recalls the story of a Rabbi Hillel:

You learn to take into account the structure of the boat itself, how it is made and

how it responds to the water and the wind. The boat is comparable to your

personality. You learn about the current in the lake, these correspond to the
realities of life in which you are situated and which are somewhat predictable.

You learn about the winds, which are invisible and less predictable, and these

133

correspond to the spiritual forces which seem to give direction to life without ever
showing themselves. In learning to sail you do not change the current of the
water nor do you have any effect on the wind, but you learn to hoist your sail and
turn it this way or that to utilize the greater forces which surround you (Singer,

1994, p. 12-14).

What does this story bring to mind for you?

If you were to describe your boat, that is your personality, that helps navigate you
through the rough waters, what would say?

How has that personality developed?

Who are a couple individuals who have had a profound influence on that
development?

In what way have they influenced you?

Although it is not in the story, I imagine that sailor had particular strengths and
weaknesses, or particular things he/she was proud or ashamed of; what strengths
does your personality offer to the world, and offer to your ability to cope with
difficult times?

What would you say are areas of weakness that are a struggle for you?

Why do you think those areas are a struggle for you?

Part of the story relates to the world around us -- this story describes that world as
having a strong influence on the direction and general enjoyment of our personal

journey. Would you agree? Why?

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As another way to understand the participant’s past, current perspective, and
personality, I will ask them to talk about the artifact(s) they brought to the session. In

having them explain their importance, I will ask the following questions:

0 Psychologists, authors, and poets all have talked about the importance of
symbols/artifacts as another way to describe who we are and what it is we feel a
part of, or connected to in our past and present — how does what you brought
today do that?

Depending on the artifact, I will ask leading questions to connect its importance to the

participant’s past, as well as its daily influence.

In concluding this session I will explain the photo elicitation technique that will
be utilized for our next session. I will give them a digital camera with the task of taking
approximately 15 pictures before our next session. These pictures should be seen as a
tool to tell the story of college students. In other words, I’m asking them to describe the
life of college students pictorially through what they see on a daily basis. Although they
are certainly welcome to, there does not have to be a single picture of a college student —-
it could be those things they have or currently associate with what it means to be a
college student. As part of the approximately 15 pictures I am asking them to take, I will
ask that at least five of them speak to what it was like for them as an 18-21 year old. To
further clarify the exercise I will give them the following example:

If I was asked to describe what it meant to exhibit leadership I may or may not

include a picture of someone I see as a leader. Instead, I would include pictures of a

135

college or university to demonstrate the knowledge it takes. I would capture a parent
gently holding their child to express the passion, patience, and love it takes. I might even
include a photo of someone about to do something scary, such as skydiving or hang-
gliding. Finally, I would include a picture of my parents, expressing appreciation to

those who have influenced what I think it means to be a leader.

Session Three
As we begin this session I will ask them what they have thought of the process
thus far, particularly taking note of thoughts or emotions they have had during and after
the sessions. The following questions will be used as prompts:
o How have you felt after our first two meetings?
0 Were there particular things that stick out — that you remember thinking about

later, or on the way back to your office or home? If so, why?

As I feel this conversation ending, I will transition into how they felt taking pictures
this past week (asking them to concentrate on the process of actually picking and taking
the photos, rather than the specific photos they selected). I will use the following lines of
questioning:

o How did you decide what pictures to take?

0 When did you take them?

0 As you thought about the exercise were there pictures that you knew you wanted

to take? What were those? Why those pictures?

0 Were there any pictures that you took and then erased? If so, why?

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0 Did you have any conversations about this exercise with anyone? If so, could you
talk a little about those conversations?

o If I had asked 100 people to do the same exercise, how do you think your choice
of pictures would be the same as, and different than the others? Could you talk a

little about why that might be?

As this conversation develops, I will begin asking additional probing questions. These
questions will be specifically related to the pictures and the participant’s feelings about
each picture. The following are examples of the types of questions I will be asking:

0 Could we take some time to talk about each picture and why you selected it?

o How does this picture represent what it means to be a college student?

0 What feelings or emotions does this picture arise in you? Why?

Finally, I will ask them to talk about those pictures that specifically speak to what
it was like for them to be a college student. In addition to asking a number of the
aforementioned questions, I will use the following as prompts for our discussion:

0 How are these pictures meaningful to you?

0 How might the pictures you have chosen to take be different if you were a college
student today?

0 How do the pictures you have taken relate to your expectations of college students
today?

0 Are there moments/memories that these pictures remind you of?

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o What difference do you see in the pictures you took about your college
experience, and those you took to describe today’s typical college student
experience?

0 If there’s a difference, why might that be?

In closing this session, I will introduce session four, and ask their cooperation in a
somewhat different exercise. For our fourth interaction I would like to observe them
working with college students. These observations could be during a meeting they have
with students, at a neighborhood barbeque they are attending with students, or during a
confrontation they have with a student. Understandably, direct observation may not be
possible for all of the participants, in that case I’ll ask to join the participants at a public
or private meeting in which they have to address an issue that will impact students (e. g.,
city council ordinance recommendation, or a community meeting geared toward a student
issue). If neither of those scenarios are possible, I will ask them to refer me to a college
student with whom they work. I will explain that I’m interested in understanding how
they interact with students, and while first hand observation would be best, talking with
college students they work with will offer me a unique opportunity to understand the

impressions and beliefs they transmit to students.

Session Four
As briefly described above, in the fourth session I would like to explore the actual
behaviors associated with a participant’s interactions with students. In observing those

exchanges between participant and student, or between participant and others as they talk

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about a student issue, I will be taking detailed notes, and utilizing the following questions
to guide my observations:
0 How do they initiate conversations with students? Is it different than they do with
others?
0 Around what topics do they engage students?
a How do students seem to react to them?
0 What mannerisms, tone, speech patterns, and personality descriptors do I notice
when they engage students? Are there differences in these characteristics when
they engage non-students?

o What views, opinions, and beliefs do they express about students?

In addition to these questions, I will take an ethnographic approach to observation
in which I’ll take extensive notes trying to capture the seemingly insignificant (Spradley,
1979).

If I am unable to conduct a direct observation of the participant, I will meet with a
student with whom they have worked. The interview will last approximately one hour
and the following protocol will guide the interaction (using the fictional “Joe” as the
primary participant of interest in the study):

0 Following the protocol outlined in session one of my participant interview, I will
introduce the study, cover their rights as a participant in a research study
(including following appropriate UCHRIS guidelines), and remind them of my
obligations as a researcher (e. g., confidentiality and secure data storage).

0 The following questions will guide the interview:

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0 Could you talk a little bit about Joe?

0 What comes to mind when you think about him?

0 How long have you known him?

0 When did you first meet him?

0 How well would you say you know him?

0 When you see Joe interact with students, what do you think?

0 When you see Joe, what do you generally talk about?

0 Describe what you feel is his personality?

0 Are there any stories you can remember Joe telling you that really helped
you understand who he was?

0 What do you think students feel about Joe?

0 If you had to talk about Joe’s views and opinions of students, what would

you say?

Session Five

While some of the particular conversations for the final session will depend upon

earlier findings, I have three broad goals for my time with the participant:

1.

As a capstone for the experience, I will have prepared some of my own
observations and conclusions that I have drawn from the previous interactions and
exercises. I will share the themes of these observations (the pieces of a Jungian
complex) and ask for their reactions. As a complement to this conversation, I will

find an appropriate time to share the following:

140

a. It has been said that "each one's way of being, ways of thinking and
feeling and perceiving and knowing are distinctly that person's. . .the sum
total of the person’s experiences, and behaviors patterns that have been
shaped by internal and external factors” (Singer, 1994, p. 17). When you
think about your ways of thinking and feeling, and how that connects with
external and internal forces, what comes to mind? In other words, what
are some of the factors that have shaped the way you see the world? Are
there specific factors that you think shape the way you see college
students?

b. If the participant is unclear or struggling with this line of questioning, I
will rephrase the question to read: If someone were to ask you, “How do
you look at things, or through what lens do you see the world?” what
might you say?

2. To connect our conversations with larger, socio-cultural behaviors, I will share
the following pieces of text (primarily from Jung) and ask for them to react:

a. It has been said that we wear masks that are oriented toward what we think
society expects. (Bennet, 1961). Reflecting on your beliefs and actions
geared toward students, what do you think society expects of you?

b. It has been said, “What we cannot admit in ourselves we often find in
others”. Thinking about your beliefs and values associated with college

students, what does that mean to you?

141

c. If you had a magic wand and were able to create the ideal college
experience for someone you love, be it a nephew, niece, son or daughter,
what would that experience be like?

. Having talked about this some, often indirectly, and more recently with some

specificity, what “emotionally sensitive areas” (as Jung defines a complex) do you

find are central to your understanding of college students?

a. What are the central ideas, opinions and convictions that you think impact
your beliefs about, and actions toward college students?

b. Finally, as a way to close our time together, I’ll give you a chance to share
any thoughts, observations, or questions that are on your mind.

i. As a way to further prompt these reflections about the study, I may
ask the following questions:

1. What has surprised you about the study?

2. Have you thought at all about the study after our time
together? If so, what has come to your mind?

3. A piece of this study has really been about telling your
story. If you were to write an autobiography, what might
you title it?

c. In closing, I will explain that over the next several months I will be
analyzing, organizing and writing up the data. I will encourage them to
contact me if anything comes up that they feel would be relevant for my
study. I will also express my gratitude for allowing me to share in their

life’s story.

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APPENDIX B: PILOT INTERVIEW

To more fully prepare to interview my participants I conducted an abbreviated
pilot study. The pilot allowed me to practice the interviewing techniques of association
and amplification that are at the center of my interview protocol. I utilized the prompts
within my protocol to dig deeper into the issues and images the participant presented. I
continued to revisit those images and stories with prompts such as, “can you say more
about that” or, “what else comes to mind when you think about that?” The data from
these interviews do not appear in the research study. This was utilized as a process to
inform and improve my methods of data collection.

A resident of East Lansing, whom I have known for a few years, agreed to
participate in the pilot study. I chose this person because they had similar characteristics
to the members of my study (e.g., East Lansing resident, works with college students, not

a product of a Student Affairs background) and they were willing to volunteer their time.

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APPENDIX C: PARTICIPANT CONSENT FORM

Primary Participant Consent form for the Research Project:
Parent-Child Myth in University and Community Relations

Study Background

In order to complete my doctoral work in the Higher Adult Learning and
Education Department at Michigan State University I am conducting a research study on
the relationships between students and permanent residents in rmiversity communities.
The study seeks to understand the dynamic relationships between students and permanent
residents in university communities. Using a depth psychological framework, this
dissertation hopes to contribute to a deeper understanding of the ways in which
community representatives (people like yourself) have come to know what it means to be
a college student. In other words, I am interested in knowing how you form beliefs,
assumptions, and expectations about college students.

Benefits of the Research

As a participant in the study you would be helping advance the research on
community and university relations. Traditionally referred to as “Town and Gown”
relations, this area of research has most often focused on the perceptions, benefits, and
costs accrued by members of the college or university. This research, and its focus on the
beliefs and opinions of community representatives, will begin to fulfill a void in the
community and university relations literature.

What the Process Requires of You (Risks of Participating)

You are being asked to participate in an interview process that will ask you to do
several things. First of all, you would be asked to meet with me five times for
approximately and hour and a half each time we meet. Depending on your schedule
availability, I anticipate the study to take approximately 5-6 weeks. The location and
time of the interview will be at your convenience.

The questions you would be asked are of a personal nature that would invite you
to talk about life experiences and how you have come to make sense of what it means to
be a college student. The intent of the research is to understand the emotional and
symbolic themes that inform how you understand college students. Given that, the
questions you would be asked are of a personal nature and would ask you to talk about
your life history, values and beliefs that form the foundation of your personality. The
procedures for gathering data are directed at exploring the stories, myths, artifacts and
symbolic themes that you use in order to make sense of the world, and in particular, how
you have come to know what it means to be a college student.

The kind of emotive and personal information that you would be asked to provide
is often found in the more basic personal identifiers, such as gender, martial status, age,
sexual orientation, etc. This type of data will be collected and is likely to appear in the
dissertation.

Given the personal nature of that information you would be providing it is
possible you may experience psychological discomfort in discussing these sensitive

144

issues. If these risks emerge, they will be mediated by a reminder that you are free to
discontinue the interview, skip any question, or immediately withdrawal from the study
without any negative consequences to you at any time.

Furthermore, by participating in this study you risk someone identifying you and
associating you with the data presented in the presentation of the research findings. For
example, if someone were to identify you with your data you could risk professional
and/or personal hardship. In this scenario your comments could be of a sensitive and
critical nature (6. g. they might elicit criticism fiom your employer or cooperating
university). This could result in strained relations at home and in your work
environment.

In order to reduce the risk of accidental disclosure, the data will be de-identified
in its presentation. That is, your name will not be used. Furthermore, I will not reference
your exact position in the East Lansing community. For example, if you were the deputy
police chief of East Lansing, it would be reported in my research that you were a “police
officer with leadership capacities in a college town”. It is highly likely that I will report
your gender, sexual orientation, family situation (e.g. martial status, children, siblings)
and other stories that you share in the research findings. Of course, you are free to
discontinue the interview, skip the question, ask that I do not include something you
share with me in the study, or immediately withdrawal fiom the study without any
negative consequences to you at any time.

The only people, other than myself, to have access to the raw data (taped records
and written notes of our interactions) will be my dissertation committee (three MSU
faculty members). The data will be stored on a password protected computer in a locked
space. Your privacy would be protected to the maximum extent allowable by law.

This research project has six components. If you decide to take part in the study,
you do not have to participate in all six components. Please place a checkmark next to
those areas in which you wish to participate. You may withdrawal from a component at
any time.

Specific Study Procedures

Interviews — These will include questions of a personal nature to gain a
better understanding of how you have come to know what it means to be a college
student. All of the interviews would be recorded digitally to capture only the audio
portion of our interviews. I will also be taking written notes. The interview data will
be stored for five years from the date of the dissertation defense. This data will be
destroyed at that time.

Life Line Drawing - You will be asked to draw a lifeline that highlights
significant events in your life that you feel have helped define your personality. The
primary purpose of these drawings is to better understand you and your perspective
on issues such as success, failure, and adventure. You may ask me to destroy them
following our conversation that day. With your verbal consent (given that day of the
interview), these pictures may appear in the dissertation.

145

Photography — You will be asked to take approximately 15 photos that tell
the story of college students. You would be provided with a digital camera to take
these pictures. The exercise would be asking you to describe the life of college
students pictorially through what you see on a daily and weekly basis. The purpose
of these photos is for discussion purposes. If they contain personal or geographic
identifiers they will be kept until the dissertation has been defended and then they will
be destroyed. If they do not have personal or geographic identifiers then they may
appear in the dissertation. They will be securely stored for five years from the date of
the dissertation defense. They will be destroyed at that time.

Artifact — For one session, you will be asked to bring an artifact that helps
tell the story of your life, and reveals a central part of your personality. If you agree,
I will take a digital picture of the artifact for possible inclusion in the dissertation.
The pictures of the artifact will be kept for five years from the date of the defense.
The data will be destroyed at that time.

Observation — If possible, you would be asked if I could accompany you as
you interact with, or about college students. In other words, if you are going to a
meeting dealing with an issue that primarily affects college students, or if you are
attending an event where you would be interacting with college students I would ask
to attend the event as an observer. The purpose of this technique is to gain a better
understand of how you interact with and/or about college students. I would take
notes about the interactions. If I use this data in my dissertation it will not include the
names of those with whom you interact.

Student Interview - If I were unable to observe you in a “live” setting, I
would ask that you provide the name of a student with whom you have worked and
allow me the opportunity to interview that person. Of course, like you, they would be
protected by the same procedures I have presented for you, and they would also be
under no obligation to participate in the study. The primary purpose of this interview
would be to gain a better understanding of your interactions with college students.

Participation in the process is voluntary; you may chose not to participate at
all, or you may refiise to participate in certain pieces of the study, and you may
discontinue participating in the study at any time without penalty or loss of benefits to
which you are otherwise entitled. Please note, although we have worked together several
times over the past couple years you should feel under no obligation to participate in this
study. If you are unable, unwilling, or uninterested in being a participant in the study I
am prepared to find another participant.

If you have any questions about this study, please contact the Responsible
Primary Investigator, John Dirkx, Ph.D, Department of Higher Adult Learning and
Education (HALE) by phone: (517) 353-8927, fax: (517) 353-6393, email:
dirkx@msu.cdu, or regular mail: 408 Erickson Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824.

 

146

If you have questions or concerns regarding your rights as a study participant, or
are dissatisfied at any time with any aspect of this study, you may contact — anonymously
if you wish — Peter Vasilenko, Ph.D., Chair of the University Committee on Research
Involving Hmnan Subjects (U CRIHS) by phone: (517) 355-2180, fax: (517) 432-4503,
email: ucrihs@msu.edu, or regular mail: 20201ds Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824.

 

I agree to participate in this study and have designated with a checkmark those areas in
which I am willing to participate.

 

 

Signature Date

147

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