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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (July 2, 1968)
Tuesday, July 2, 1968 Page 4 Summer Nebraskan '1 '4! i i if l J"1 1 n r . 't. i t It. Seniors: In Their Hearts They Think They're Wrong By Dan Dickmeyer NU School of Journalism College and university medical staff treat a variety of student illnesses including colds, the flu, hangovers, uloers and mononucleosis the "kissing disease." But they rarely see another disease which hinders a student's best efofrts, attacks the nervous system and may be communicable. That disease is known as senioritis. A University of Nebraska clinical psychologist, D r Carmen Grant,' estimates that "in some degree oranother senioritis probably strikes 50 to 75 percent of the college seniors." Her estimates, however, are guesses because at this time senioritis is still a "sub clinical syndrome," according to Dr. Harry Canon of the University of Nebraska Counseling Service. A sub-clinical syndrome is a disease not treated pro fessionally. In the case of senioritis, the nearest bar stool might serve as a psychiatrist's couch with "Hank the bartender" being the doctor. But Dr. Hank isn't the only one listening. Psychologists are beginning to study the senior phenomonon. A recently-completed four year study at Stanford and the University of California revealed that half of the senior men and two-thirds of the senior women suffered from deDression from a few times a week to a few imes a month. Around three fourths of the seniors felt physically out of sorts between one and five times a month. What It Is The study points up the major symptoms of the disease as outlined by Dr. Grant anxiety, depression, massive apathy and an in ability to concentrate which may lead to physical symptoms of headaches and insomnia. Dr. Grant believes senioritis is a situational d'-ease. "It crops up more around exams and vacation times" when students must confront their parents and answer the question: "How's school?" Both Dr. Grant and Dr. Canon, however, stressed that senioritis is not overly serious. The anxiety is usually reduced by comparing notes with a fellow senior. "The level of anxiety is not so great that it incapacitates that individual so that he cannot carry on," Dr. Grant said. "The people we see present senioritis as a symptom. They often have long histories of adjustment difficulties, major and minor " But just giving the symptoms of this disease isn't really telling what it is, what causes it or how serious it might seem to the afflicted The ENTIRE Staff of The Summer Nebraskan extends to you their wishes for A SAFE AND HAPPY 4th OF JULY person. Dr. Grant puts it this way: "Senioritis is the anxiety over separation from the University and the prospect of achieving a more definite level of independence than prior to that time." There are two key words in that definition. One is separation, which most of the seniors interviewed called "leading the womb." Dr. Canon said there is a reason for hesitating to leave the womb and going out into the unknown world. "For one thing, the academic world is an easy place to lose yourself for four years," Dr. Canon said. "You dnn't have to have contact with anvbody else. You can en to class and go home to your apartment or dorm room and cut yourseit ott. The Rev. Mel Leutchens assistant pastor of the Wesley Foundation at Nebraska, calls this structured academic world a "ghetto" for the col lege student. Leavine the ghetto is the problem, according to Bob Muschewske, an NU residence hall director, who savs that in college "you always know where you're going to be the next year and then all of a sudden in the senior year you don't." But the strange irony of the whole disease lies in tnat se cond key word: "indepen dence." Stop any senior in the hall and he's likely to laugh at the idea of fearing separa tion and tell you, "I just took the last English exam I'll ever have to take. I'm almost out of this place." Ambivalent A campus Episcopal minister confirmed this escape reaction when asked to describe senioritis. "Thinking back, I guess I was apprehensive," said Father Ronald Wiley. "But I was never so glad to get out. It was a horrible, horrible thing." This apparent contradiction of motives the fear of leav ing and the desire to escape is called am bivalence. If the senior really is afraid to leave "the womb" or "ghetto" why does he act so eager to leave? "Aren't there a lot of times we say one thing and do another?" asks psychologist Grant. The ambivalence probably causes some of the anxiety though most seniors probably are sure they are more anx ious to leave, than stay, at the University. "There is the excitement and enticement to live like a human being and the an ticipation and ambilvaence as a natural part of growing up one of life's many identity crises. "Senioritis is passing into adult responsibility," she says. "What it all gets down to is what is so crucial in human development the growth of the individual and learning who you are and where you fit it." If adult responsibility meant only finding ones identity growing up then senioritis might not be s porevalent. But Dr. Grant says that in accepting adult responsibility one must recognize changes in one's environment and make maturp d?"-' 'ons about them. These changes in the en vironment add to the problem of the identity crisis, ac cording to Russ Brown, associate dean of student af fairs, who said, "the general society provides an underly ing chaotic situation to add to personal nmn'ms." "For a person who has put his head down all through college and then in his senior year year puts his head up the problems may be very real. They may be frighten ing," he said. Problems These problems are graduate school, the draft, marriage and career choice. They bring into focus the fact of separation from t h e University and the need to "put one's head up." Preoccupation with any of these problems during the senior year can lead to senioritis, failing grades and incompleted work. A failure to face the problems in col lege can lead to post-graduate senioritis as that portrayed in the recent movie, ''The Graduate." Reaching the decisions to these problems early in the senior year can provide relief and could mean the individual is accepting adult responsibility. What is damning to the senior is the fact that all of these areas provide avenues of escape from the real pro blem of leaving the Universi ty and adjusting to the real world. "Some people may go into graduate school for that very reason," said Dr. Grant of escape. "They haven't in four years received a strong enough sense of identity or purpose." For some, she said, this may be the best adoptive response because it is a false assumption of our socitey that people mature and become educated at the same rate. Another "hang-up" with most senior men is the draft how or whether they will fulfill their military obliga tion. Avoiding the draft can lead to decisions to pursue a new career like the draft deferred ministry, according to Rev. Leutchens who hears students half-joking about it. Right Choice? Marriage Volunteering for military servic in be an escape from actual decision making about a career, according to another residene director, Richard McKinnon. Wavering between these idecisions are a great many Keepsake Diamonds Longines Watches Ml CM 1332 "0" St . ri msk. 'mm, 1 WONDERING WHAT TO DO FOR RECREATION THIS SUMMER? Come to QUE BALL Pocket Billiardi and Snoolctr 1332 "V" Sf. Special Summer Halts 45c ptr hour NEBRASKA UNION BARBER SHOP ir Air Conditioned Comfort it Television Hours: Men.-Fri,f 8:30 a.m.-5:15 p.m. Sat. 9 a.m. -3 p.m. On Campus for your convenience Appointments , or just walk in 472-2459 Nebraska Unionlower level senior men all w i t h .senioritis. Like the draft for men, husband-finding must surely be a cause of senioritis for women. Like the draft, marriage can be an escape from going to work. Failure to marry upon graduating may force other decisions such as grad uate school. Wavering between these decisions are a great many senior women all with senioritis. A young, unattached resi dence director, Diane Cook, who says her pet peeve is the stereotype that all women are husband hunting, calls the marriage element of senior itis "senior panic." "For some girls it doesn't really bother," she said. "But for others it bothers them more than they care to admit. And for a third group by their own admission they came to college because the good material was here. These girls are usually attached by their senior year." She said senior panic is not something the girls talk about seriously and it should be consoling to see many girls not wearing engagement rings. But it isn't and Miss Cook says, "I think women feel that by the time they graduate and go into a pro fession that the cream of the crop is gone." McKinnon agreed that col lege is the last time women will have contact with such a large body of eligible men. Ironically, he reversed Miss Cook's theory to read: "Some guys say that the type ot gin who waits until she's 26 or 27 isn't the type they want." Thus unattached, and pos sibly unsure about her career, a senior woman may panic and start h-isband hunting. "I knew a Mortar Board (a senior honorary for women) who in April of her senior year copped out and married a buy she had only met once before. Last I heard she was a housewife,'' recalled Muschewske. Underlying these three areas of decision, the senior might also begin to wonder if he has made the right career choice. This doubt is reflected in statistics that from one-third to one-half of the college graduates deviate from their career choide within three to five years after graduation. "Even if you have a job there is always the uncer tainty that you won't make the grade or that it won't be like you thought," said Father Wiley. Looking deeper into the problem Dr. Grant said, the senior may actually be fear ing success, because "success means accepting more ,. "if) a v . 0 w g7 7 '"-T T2SV 9 a mr m 9 IH s-.:;4.!ty I 1 riif!-! I i4 4 .'.iJ 1 M I afcjiwfiwff Via-. a JjTj.... - ,J - 4 Detachment and a sense of complacency are two symptoms of "senioritis," a disease which af fects many college students. Seniors are tired of studying but hate to leave the University. The future may be uncertain, so the sheltering trees of a college campus may offer some reassurance before graduation. RAINBOW Spaces Available TRAILER COURT Halfway between Ag and City campuses. 1801 Adams 485 3411 f responsibility." Senioritis, therefore, ocurs when a student who should be thinking about a specific job is still having career doubts. At this point in his college career, a senior sees little hope of resolving this conflict by changing majors. Planning And according to authorities, for seniors stuck with liberal arts degrees rather than engineering, science or business degrees senioritis is more severe because the career goals are less well defined. "One solution might be for these people (the undecided liberal arts major) t o organize their life," said Frank Halgren, director of placement services at Nebraska. He said that most people who use his office are business and engineering seniors "eager to look to something new and a new challenge." "Those who have routes to explore have the greatest success. Even though they ACADEMY AWARD WINNER BEST ACTRESS! KATHARINE HEPBURN BEST SCREENPLAY! WILLIAM ROSE Spencer i Sidney , Katharine TRACY 1 P01TIER 1 HEPBURN guess who's coming to dinner H-NEBHA n CT A DTC M SKA nil v aiui 432-3126 rfVh i nriiii 12th &P Street MaiyTylerMoore WY uaroi Uinnning i"ROSS HUNTERS P'oouction ot C5 tL,NMIMMIIIM"f1' HJ iTTTtrtrrmf T TECHNICOLOR UNIVERSAL PICTURE feCavin Beatrice BDfetf I ' '. MBiotJ 0Kca4tw 1 c ltmli I may change their plans if they've evaluated what they want and how they can con tribute," they have a better chance of succeeding, Halgren said. Certainly active planning is a part of the senior decision making process which Dr. Grant sees as a partial remedy for senioritis. Bu for the present no one is doing much speculating about cures for senioritis until more research is performed. Senioritis may be something seniors will always have to live with. "It's more important at this point to find out what kind of processes are going on," says Dr. Canon. "Then we will know how to intervene. But we can't sit in the office waiting for people to come in." Dr. Canon implied that a cure may not be possible but that a pain-killer could alliviate some of the suffer ing. "I feel very strongly that as we think about educational reform we ought to build in activities that keep the senior in contact with the workaday world," he said, suggesting apprenticeship programs as a way of easing the senior into involvement with the real world. Both Dr. Canon and Dr. Grant said that the stresses of the senior year which have been labeled senioritis can be talked about outside the clinical setting. But Dr. Canon thinks that it could "be made something you can anticipate. When you anticipate something you can live with it better." He said counseling services could help students better predict and cope with the anxieties of senioritis by speaking at dormitories, for instance. And while con tending that senioritis can be treated sub-professionally ha is careful to add: "It's a whale of a lot easier to put disinfectant into a sep tic tank than treat 50 cases of diphtheria." Ends BOB HOPE "PRIVATE NAVV Tonight sct. cfarreli" & FITZWILIY I . "X 1.UH Alll a 1 PRIVE-IN THtATKt -TOMORROW- CONTINUOUS FROM aref! mm .j 1 D 11 .1 fflMir Starts Wednesday! 1 u?o2nif . JUST IN TIME FOR A LAUGH 13th &P Street ROARIN' 4th of JULY! ; : i LemnsHandV&tter Mattes 13 Odd Coups V. 3 .say no more. 'Mr' V9 WNWISION'TECHNICaOR'A PARAMOUNT PICTURE. Green when they began. ..like the color of their berets. ..but when the going got rough...they became the toughest fighting force on earth n mum RWM0ND ST. JACQUES BRUCE CABOT PATRICK WAWE ALOO RAY STARTS TODAY J
