Book Review: How College Works
Daniel F. Chambliss and Christopher G. Takacs. How College Works. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014. 224 pp. Paperback: $34.50. ISBN: 9780674049024
C. S. Lewis (1960) once said, “Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one.’…It is when two such persons discover one another, when, whether with immense difficulties and semi-articulate fumblings or with what would seem to us amazing and elliptical speed, they share their vision—it is then that Friendship is born.” Relationships bring levity and joy, comfort and consolation, belonging and acceptance to the human experience. This is certainly true for college students as well, according to Daniel F. Chambliss, professor of sociology at Hamilton College, and Christopher G. Takacs, a Hamilton College alumnus and sociology PhD candidate at the University of Chicago, in their book, How College Works. For Chambliss and Takacs, relationships in higher education are not secondary in their importance or impact. In their extensive research study regarding the college student experience, Chambliss and Takacs focus on the pivotal moments, decisions, and relationships of students’ college careers. Chambliss and Takacs’ contend that, “Human contact, especially face to face, seems to have an unusual influence on what students choose to do, on the directions their [college] careers take, and on their experience of college” (3-4). To build on this, Chambliss and Takacs recommend a renewed focus on fostering and cultivating the relational aspects of the college experience.
In an effort to answer the question, “In an era of fixed or even shrinking, resources, can the quality of collegiate education be improved at no additional cost?” (1), Chambliss and Takacs take a chronological approach that follows the crucial experiences of college students. Chambliss and Takacs offer several recommendations for enhancing college education by improving the quality of education without incurring new or extensive costs. The solutions afforded by Chambliss and Takacs might seem simplistic, unimportant, or unimpactful, but these solutions’ very application on college campuses can drastically improve the learning and social environments of students. Written with budget-mindful higher education administrators in mind, Chambliss and Takacs’ principles for success might also be of interest or import to faculty, staff, and students and their parents.
Chambliss and Takacs are thoughtful in their approach to research. Their work highlights an eleven-year, multi-method, longitudinal study of student experience in college. Countless interviews, surveys, and focus groups make up large portions of Chambliss and Takacs’s research. They rely heavily on the firsthand experience of the students interviewed, quoting them often. The study is supplemented by a large-scale writing study focusing on the writing skills improvement of college students over five years. Similarly, public speaking videos of students were studied in an effort to understand their oratory skill advancement. Admittedly, these varied methods offer insight into what has worked for students at a single, affluent, liberal arts college in the Northeastern United States—Hamilton College. Although Chambliss and Takacs often draw on broader research done nationwide at varying types of institutions, the authors recognize their focus on a singular institution as both a limitation and strength of the study. They were able to consistently and closely follow a sizable, randomized group of students over ten years—graduates, drop-outs, continuing students alike. This being the case, the results are not broadly generalizable across the many sectors and institutions of higher education.
How College Works offers an inside look at five student tasks: entering, choosing, belonging, learning, and finishing within the college environment. Chambliss and Takacs recognize that for students to succeed in and out of college, the first two years of college are pivotal. However, these first two years are also when students are least knowledgeable or prepared to make important decisions. Of the many choices students must make, academic choices remain just one piece of the greater college puzzle. Throughout their time in college, students draw on the relationships and commitments they make early in their college careers.
The first few weeks of the college student experience offer the best opportunity for making friends. Chambliss and Takacs list a multitude of opportunities for students to integrate into the college system. In fact, some spatial facets of the initial college experience such as the organization of dormitories are designed precisely to make student interaction inevitable—long, institutional hallways ripe for bumping into others regularly. Chambliss and Takacs return often to their relational theme. They argue that for students to remain and thrive in college, they must make friends quickly. Without a solid community built of peer relationships, academic gains will be short lived. A second form of relationship important to newly minted college students is faculty mentorship. Finding the right professors means better opportunities for academic performance, satisfaction, and even success after college. Chambliss and Takacs are quick to recognize the polarizing effect faculty can have on students: a visit to a professor’s home is an extremely positive aspect of the student experience, yet, distant and cold professors who make no effort to engage students can have a detrimental effect on the student experience. Their findings indicate that all it takes is one or two great professors and a few good friends for students to reflect positively on their college experience.
Chambliss and Takacs delve deeply into the belonging college students seek in college, referencing and reviewing the works of Randall Collins (1998). Belonging for students on campus is a significant indicator of success, persistence, and satisfaction. Students attend parties, join fraternities and sororities, and take part in clubs and organizations as a way to test out how and where they fit on campus. However, these are not actions students take alone. Chambliss and Takacs assert that institutions bear responsibility for creating, sustaining, and even encouraging opportunities for engagement—pathways for seeking belonging. “The institution shapes the available pathways into membership’s inner rooms, making it easy (or not) for different students to fully join” (102). With regards to belonging, Chambliss and Takacs lean once again into relationships with professors, arguing that students simply learn best when they have professors that pay attention to their needs and desires. For learning to happen, and happen well, relationships are crucial. In their interviews with alumni, Chambliss and Takacs reveal that relationships are the most cited positive result of attending college—surely to the bemoans of many faculty members. Relationships help shape student involvement and academic success. To alumni, the college has improved their lives. They are better for having attended. Chambliss and Takacs boldly insist that gaining marketable skills is not the point of college. Instead, satisfaction, or happiness, should be the whole point of college.
Chambliss and Takacs, in their final chapter, “Lessons Learned,” offer recommendations for the enhancement of the student college experience. These recommendations are largely focused on the relational aspects of the college experience. In fact, these recommendations can be distilled into one phrase: “The key to improving education in a college, we think, is found less in the organization of programs than in the deployment of people” (155). Among their recommendations are strategies such as utilizing the best teachers for maximum impact, using high contact spaces to help people meet, and conscientiously scheduling worthwhile classes at times most students can attend. All recommendations are finance neutral in their impact on the college, yet contribute significantly to the student experience. Small actions make a big difference. Chambliss and Takacs’ major finding and advice for students entering college is simple: spend time with good people.
One can appreciate the emphasis Chambliss and Takacs place on the importance of relationships in the early stages of college, its impact on belonging, and ultimate effect on learning and finishing. However, one might also recognize the lack of attention given to those students who do not integrate into the college. Throughout their work, Chambliss and Takacs occasionally speak to outsiders that have difficulty connecting with other students, yet most of their work is focused on what works best for most college students. Greater attention should be given to students among populations such as those from lower socioeconomic statuses and ethnic minorities. Chambliss and Takacs’ acknowledge Hamilton College as a “small, rich, and selective” (8) school and recognize the impact of social class on student success, yet they do not spend adequate time exploring these realities among their own sample population.
“In the end, it’s about people” (174). Through and through, Chambliss and Takacs’s primary theme is relationship. They pair their research concerning the college student experience well with recommendations for real world application. Although their findings cannot be generalized, their principles can and should be applied if for any other reason than “Why not?” These strategies are cost neutral for institutions and have few, if any, downsides. Rare is the college that finds investing in relational endeavors with students unworthy of time and effort, producing no positive results or satisfaction. How College Works is human centric and relationally focused. It’s about the right people bumping into one another, investing in each other’s’ lives, and pursuing a common goal that creates student success and a quality student experience.