Campus Sub-Cultures, Part: One

In an attempt to help those of you working with college students attending school and particularly four year schools - but I will also talk about commuter schools as well -  I am going to take this entire week to walk through different sub-cultures of students.  This is not an attempt to unfairly categorize people, but rather provide a general idea of where people are and where they are finding a temporary sense of identity.  I will be writing a short article every day, and posting at least in part here.  My desire is to not only provide a general guideline, but also give insights into each sub-culture from a discipleship standpoint.

Campus Sub-Cultures, Part: One

Sociologist Burton Clark described four different subcultures of college students that from my experience is accurate and helpful. The people you are working with will most likely fall into one of these categories.  If not, there will at least be aspects that apply, so Clark’s theory will serve as a framework for this series of articles.  The four subcultures I will walk through are: the collegiate, the academic, the rebel, and the vocational.  I will talk through one a day this week, with a summary following.

The Collegiate

The collegiate subculture’s identity is centered in Greek life, parties, major, sporting events, and general campus life.  This subculture will typically do enough school work to get by, but their reasons for being in college are more for the experience of “college life” rather than the education or future vocation.  They are not necessarily interested in subject matters discussed in class and tend to live day to day, minute by minute, lacking goals for education, responsibility and discipline.  They are interested in social aspects of college versus the intellectual ideals presented.  And, in many ways, they will…more