Empowering our students to guide their peers
January 30, 2025
Many students are approaching college-level work differently than their peers just a few years ago. Fewer students seem to want to read, and some are now asking for short videos instead of articles and books. More students—even more than before the pandemic—view class attendance as being optional. Students frequently expect to be graded on effort rather than on outcomes. And the list goes on. Society’s elders have always lamented the youth’s frivolous approach to life, but the post-pandemic changes in student behavior are apparent even to academia’s middle-agers and youngers among the faculty.
We must teach the students we have, rather than the students we would like to have. But we can train the students we have to become more similar to the students we would like to have. We want them to practice the appropriate balance of college and life and show the appropriate focus on college-level work as opposed to high school-level work. But how to do that?
Our college has a vibrant Student Advisory Board with about 20 students that meets once a month with the folks in the Deans’ office, including Shannon, Jen, Dena, Steve, and Florenz. Last week, we asked our Board for their thoughts: how could THEY educate their peers about how to launch and stay the course with successful college careers?
At first, our boardees were taken aback—huh, are you asking us what WE can do? Initially, our conversation focused on more traditional approaches. They suggested that they could explain to new students how to succeed at Xavier, as we currently do at Manresa, but “more so.” They could offer the insights that new students are currently receiving at Goa, in some different and yet unspecified format. Or they might offer joint study sessions to showcase appropriate study skills. Soon our boardees identified the main drawback of those ideas: interventions on a voluntary basis work best for those who respond well to voluntary approaches. They do not work so well for the students who need them most. My good students rarely miss the review sessions before an exam. My not-so-good students frequently do, for all sorts of legitimate and not-so-legitimate reasons.
How might we reach those students who do not respond well to approaches that require their own initiative? Two DIFT majors told us very excitedly about the buddy-system in their major: senior students are paired with first-year students to provide student-led guidance to their younger peers. The DIFT program organizes the pairing. First-year students can still choose not to respond to this senior guidance, but opting out is a lot harder than opting in. And even first-years who opt out have now met a more mature and more experienced senior at least once. They now know a face on campus to recognize with a smile as they pass by. DIFT students from different class years are also involved in many joint activities, from running the student check-out system to monitoring the lab. The older students also reach out to their younger peers in many projects. Often there is a mix of majors helping each other, and the first-years can observe and learn from the behavior of their more experienced peers.
This model offers a nice balance between structure and freedom, and I view it as a very innovative approach to a real problem that needs a solution. Thank you, Blis, for implementing it. I am curious to learn how this project plays out!
To be sure, a buddy system works best in a smaller and close-knit program like DIFT. It is much more difficult to implement in larger programs with a hundred and more majors, and I am certainly not suggesting that every CAS program consider it. But I am encouraging you to think about ways of empowering your best students to support those peers who will benefit from their guidance. Our students are eager to help and give back to Xavier, and they can be a valuable resource in our quest to have everyone succeed in their major and their Core classes. Let’s find ways for them to be involved. All suggestions are welcome.
Dr. Florenz Plassmann
Dean
