{"id":1169,"date":"2026-04-15T12:13:04","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T16:13:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mystudentaffairs.com\/sss\/?page_id=1169"},"modified":"2026-05-16T18:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T22:16:12","slug":"sa8919-engagement-revisited-updating-student-engagement-for-a-new-generation","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mystudentaffairs.com\/sss\/replays\/sa8919-engagement-revisited-updating-student-engagement-for-a-new-generation\/","title":{"rendered":"SA8919 | Engagement Revisited: Updating Student Engagement for a New Generation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Engagement Revisited: Updating Student Engagement for a New Generation<\/h1>\n<\/div>\nThis webinar is included in our Replay Library<\/a>. Volume discount applies to all items in your cart including replays and live webinars. Save 10% on two items, 15% on three, 20% on four and 25% on five.<\/em>\r\n
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Course ID: SA8919
\nTitle: Engagement Revisited: Updating Student Engagement for a New Generation
\nDuration: approx. 1 hour
\nFacilitator: Dr. Adam Peck
\nPrice: $50<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcc1 Downloads included with your replay:<\/i> video + slide presentation<\/p>\n

OVERVIEW<\/b>
\nIn the fall of 2017, a video created by Cornell University freshman Emery Bergmann for a class project went viral. Her project vividly described the feelings of isolation she felt in her first year of college. She explains: \u201cI guess I just assumed that I was going to have a million friends and I was just going to party all the time. But it\u2019s not really like that.\u201d To make matters worse, to Bergmann her contact with friends back home served as a constant reminder of the relationships she was missing. \u201cThe phone, sucks. You have this constant reminder of all my friends back home, how close we were and all the fun stuff we did together, so I guess that distance can really get to you,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Recently the New York Times followed up with Emery Bergmann to see how she was doing. She wrote an opinion piece in which she looked back on her experiences in her first year. She wrote: \u201cA year after making the film, I\u2019ve settled in to college a lot better.\u201d Among the lessons she learned was that, \u201cSocial media reinforces the notion that you should always be enjoying yourself, that it\u2019s strange to not be happy, and that life is a constant stream of good experiences and photo-worthy moments. I taught myself that everyone\u2019s college experience is different, and slowly, I started to embrace the uniqueness of my own.\u201d Adapting to a new environment often takes time, and many students have similar stories of feeling isolated and alone in the early days of their college years. Institutions would do well to pay attention to this issue. Lack of engagement with the institution is a significant cause for attrition. Students who leave one institution are less likely to complete a degree than those who stay.<\/p>\n

Engagement in college looks quite different today than it did even twenty years ago. Back then, staying connected with high school friends as well as family was significantly harder as there was no texting, cell phones, or even widespread use of email. Long distance calls to old friends and family members were expensive and rare. In not being able to connect as readily with those off campus, creating meaningful connections on campus was vital. If a student didn\u2019t find ways to get involved, they would likely be without friends. For today\u2019s Generation Z college students, this isn\u2019t necessarily the case. Transitioning to college while holding on to deep and sustaining relationships of the past as they struggle to form new, tentative ones can make it easy to retreat in to the relative safety of their digital communication. So while they may be connected to the past, at the same time, they may be disconnected from their present.<\/p>\n

In this light of how differently today\u2019s students experience college and seek engagement, it\u2019s troubling how little many institutions have done to understand or address these changing needs. Even major innovations that are injected with technology are simply digitized versions of the previous iteration. We may not be as likely to promote major events with posters, opting instead for social media posts \u2013 but the mechanics are the same. However, have we really looked at the fundamental ways that engagement needs to adapt and change to better align with this new generation? This session poses a number of critical questions as well as recommendations to rethink student engagement for today\u2019s Generation Z college student.<\/p>\n

LEARNING OUTCOMES<\/b><\/p>\n