Journal #2 (11/20/09)

The third and fourth chapters discussed diversity and community on any college campus. Nathan describes how college students group together and the reasons for a decreased participation in dorm activities. She argues that it is not that they do not want to participate in large group activities, but that they genuinely forget or do not have enough time for activities like that. Many people believe that college students are spending more time socializing and less time studying, but Nathan proves through the samples she collects that students living in the dorms on average only spend about three hours a day engaging in social activities; the rest of the day is usually spent studying, going to class, and eating.
Diversity is also a major topic in these chapters. The author explores the types of friends students generally make by observing who they eat with and who they generally associate with. She discovered that the majority of people tend to have closer friends that are the same race or ethnicity as them, and that many minorities tend to be the only one of their ethnicity at the dinner table.
Chapter Four goes along the same theme of diversity, only instead of focusing on how American students choose their friends, it focuses on how international students fit in and perceive American college life. As a professor from the same university, she is still somewhat accustomed to college life. International students, however, are entering a completely different culture from what they have been used to all their life. By looking at their experience of finding friends and adjusting to the social aspect of this country and of college, the true culture shock of becoming a freshman in college can be captured. After interviewing several international students from countries such as Japan, United Arab Emirates, and Mexico, she finds that they perceive American college students as very individualized and independent from their family. Also, many of them perceive the friendships and relationships as different from what they know back home. The difference in culture is described as being distant and not genuine. Many international students discussed that when talking to American students, they felt as if they were not interested in what they had to say.