Latest on Beloit College Mindset List

Unlike the perception of many the Beloit College Mindset List is not a chronological listing of events that have occurred in the year that the first year students were born. For instance, the members of the Class of 2008 will be around 18 years old and this list intends to reflect their frame of mind shaped up over the years. It is also not intended to reveal the colossal disparities in the outlook of the faculty and students. 3

However, critics of the Beloit College Mindset List point out how undue risks are often taken in some cases while making generalizations. This is quite a valid point as students at Beloit College come from every state of USA and also from other nations. 6

The Mindset List is not a chronological listing of things that happened in 1990, the year they were born. It is instead an effort to identify the worldview of 18 year-olds in the fall of 2008. The list identifies the experiences and event horizons of students and is not meant to reflect on their preparatory education. 2

Hundreds of people make random contributions and after months of deliberation, the Beloit College Mindset List is prepared for the entering class. The fact that the present generation knows much more about mobile phones than the collapse of the Berlin Wall, reflects that how generations are significantly different from each other by virtue of their experiences from life. Todays students spend much more time e-mailing or chatting on social networking websites like Facebook or MySpace, and listening to their iPods, rather than watching National Geographic or History. 4

Seated at left is Tom McBride, Professor of English and Gayle and William Keefer Professor of the Humanities, and at right is Ron Nief, director of public affairs at Beloit College. Each year, they work together compiling suggestions and releasing the final version of the highly anticipated Beloit College Mindset List. 8

Ron Nief has been director of public affairs at Beloit College in Wisconsin for the past ten years, following two decades at Middlebury College in Vermont. He has been communicating the work of higher education institutions for almost 40 years, starting with his alma mater, Boston College, in the late 1960s. He is the editor of several books and has written for the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Christian Science Monitor, the Gannett Newspapers and National Public Radio’s Marketplace. 7