Colleges, for generations, have encouraged new students to "find their place" in student organizations on campus. That's bad advice, writes Lisa M. Nunn in
College Belonging: How First-Year and First-Generation Students Navigate Campus Life (Rutgers University Press). Nunn, a professor of sociology and the director of the Center for Educational Excellence at the University of San Diego, writes that the traditional approach puts too much of the onus for belonging on the new student. And this approach, she writes, is particularly bad for first-generation college students.
Nunn answered questions about her book via email.
Q: What's wrong with the "find your place" message colleges typically give students?