Their Highest Vocation

According to polls, today’s «Millennial» college students are the most politically progressive generation in U.S. history. They are deeply concerned about social and economic inequality, they support egalitarian relationships among nations and peoples, and they believe that the government should do whatever it takes to protect the environment. They have a strong desire to «change the world» for the better, and are volunteering in record numbers to do so. Yet Millennials have been educated to be rule-followers, good test-takers, and high academic achievers who feel uncomfortable expressing opinions that go against the norm. Their ease with social media has made their relationships superficial and fleeting. They do not take to the streets, and rarely imagine any radical re-thinking of economic or political systems. Treated as special and entitled by doting parents and teachers, Millennial college students have energy, skills, and heart, but lack historical context, opportunities for critical thinking about complex social problems, and intimate connection to the people they so passionately want to serve. Their Highest Vocation: Social Justice and the Millennial Generation features the voices of Millennial college student leaders, progressive instructors, academic advisors, and program heads who tell us what today’s college students need and how the university might adapt to meet their challenge.

Helen Fox teaches about race and racism, human rights, peace activism, and international development at the University of Michigan’s Residential College. She is the author of Listening to the World: Cultural Issues in Academic Writing (1994), When Race Breaks Out: Conversations about Race and Racism in College Classrooms (2001, 2009), and the editor, with C. Schroeder and P. Bizzell, of ALT DIS: Alternative Discourses and the Academy (2002), as well as many articles, speeches, book chapters, and rambling notes on future projects.

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