UNF Student Stereotypes

The Gallup-Purdue Index Report discovered that only 39% of the over 30,000 college graduates surveyed had experienced a number of elements of well-being as well as having felt engaged in their work (Great Lives 7). Interestingly, the study also found there was no difference if they attended a public, private, non-selective, or a highly selective institution (7). Therefore, the lives of UNF graduates are the same in job engagement and well-being as those of graduates from other colleges. However, the University of North Florida (“UNF”) must do more; the data summarized herein shows that less than half of UNF’s college graduates enjoy overall good lives. If those results were being graded, they would have resulted in a failing grade. Accordingly,

Using race as an example of a stereotype, Steele described the experience of Brent Staples, a black college student walking through a predominately white neighborhood, “Staples was dealing with a phantom, a bad stereotype about his race … that young African Americans in this neighborhood are violence prone” (6). To escape that stereotype, Staples whistled Vivaldi; by so doing, Steele explained, “This caused him to be seen differently, as an educated, refined person, not as a violent-prone African American youth” (7). Steele also found that negative stereotypes lowered intellectual performance for non-whites and females, which have a direct impact on the proposed revision of the UNF education policy

However, Jacotot’s emancipation teaching method, with some modifications, is the way for UNF to dramatically increase the job engagement for its graduates. First, I recommended a form of Socratic problem-based learning. By this, I meant that there would be few lectures at UNFs; instead, the students would be given books prescribed by the faculty. The professors would then assign problems for the students to solve through their own reading and analysis over a period of weeks. Unlike pure emancipation, there would be a specific learning goal; therefore, the professors would offer guidance, as well as critique their work-in-progress. Following the dual advice from Gallup-Perdue and Jacotot, students would be encouraged to learn by themselves via a long-term project or extracurricular activities. To further encourage such learning, students would be given credit for their work as “independent research.” Furthermore, UNF must establish a liaison with local employers; students would be required to take a minimum number of hours employed in an internship during their third year. Internships, like projects and extracurricular activities, would allow students to apply what they had learned at college. In addition, students would be treated as equals by professors, with interaction and mentoring encouraged. Finally, Steele’s findings that stereotypes lowered