Academically Adrift Book Discussion Group

Dates:  Thursday, February 2, 9, 23 and March 15, 29 and April 12, and 15
Time:  11-11:50 a.m.
Location:  IRC 109
Facilitators:  Adnan Dakkuri and Abdi Ferdowsi
Books will be provided.

The book Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses (University of Chicago Press) was released earlier this year and has been featured in, for example, the New York Times (e.g.,
http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/17/academically-adrift/?scp=1&sq=academically%20adrift&st=cse), on National Public Radio (e.g., http://www.npr.org/books/titles/137918082/academically-adrift-limited-learning-on-college-campuses), and, yes, even Doonesbury (http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/archive/2011/08/14).

Below are some of the findings authors and sociologists Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa report in Academically Adrift. Of the students whom they followed for this study:32% did not, in a typical semester, take "any courses with more than 40 pages of reading per week"

• 50% "did not take a single course in which they wrote more than 20 pages over the course of the semester".
• 45% made no significant improvement in their critical thinking, reasoning or writing skills during the first 2 years of college.
• After 4 years, 36% showed no significant gains in these so-called "higher order" thinking skills.
• Combining the hours spent studying and in class, students devoted less than one-fifth of their time each week to academic pursuits.
• By contrast, students spent 51% of their time — or 85 hours a week — socializing or in extracurricular activities.

We invite members of the University community to join us in a discussion of Academically Adrift.  To register, please email: fctl@ferris.edu  or call 231-591-3826.  If you have any questions about this session, please contact Adnan Dakkuri at dakkuria@ferris.edu or 231-591-2240 or Abdi Ferdowsi at ferdowsa@ferris.edu or 231-591-2465.