This article is excerpted from The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 13, 2000. It helps explain the values and aspirations of today’s college students. In decreasing numbers they are declaring interest in Greek life, and one of the goals of the Greek Engagement Project is shaping Greek life in ways that will be attractive to today’s students.

The Next Great Generation?
By ANDREW BROWNSTEIN

In Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation (Vintage Books), Neil Howe and William Strauss argue that youth culture is on the cusp of a radical shift, much as it was in the Beach Blanket Bingo days of the 60's.

The "Millennials," the generation that begins with this year's college freshmen and extends into the near future, is team-oriented, optimistic, and, poised for greatness on a global scale, according to Mr. Howe and Mr. Strauss. And, if the authors are right, many of those changes will be seen first on college campuses. "I think campuses will be unrecognizable in the year 2010," says Mr. Strauss.

…By the time the second decade of the new millennium rolls around, the Zeitgeist on campuses might be something like this: The least race-conscious and most female-dominated generation in U.S. history will have increasingly less patience for the politics of boomer faculty members and will rebel against university policies they see as promoting separatism. Admissions offices will increasingly be focusing on men, who will be dropping out in record numbers. In an age when the most important color is green, class will overtake race as the hot topic of debate. Parents who once obsessed over their youngsters' Little League games will play an equally meddlesome role once their children go to college. Universities will create offices of parental relations to handle the avalanche of e-mail from mom and dad. Boomer parents engaged in free love and talked about changing the world. The authors say that the far-more-modest Millennials, who even shied away from gym showers in high school, will talk about sex but work at making real changes in society…

…According to national surveys cited by the authors, homicide, violent crime, abortion, and pregnancy among teens have all plummeted at the fastest rates ever recorded. Teen suicide rates are falling for the first time in decades. The Millennials' views are diametrically opposed to those of their parents. Half of Millennials say they trust political leaders to do what's right all or most of the time, according to a 1997 CBS News/New York Times poll. A 1998 Primedia/Roper National Youth Opinion survey found that, when asked "What is the major cause of problems in this country?" more teenagers named "selfishness" than anything else. Those on the leading edge of the generation say they are aware -- sometimes painfully so -- of the pressure to become better than their parents…

…Millennials, as portrayed in the book, are a generation accustomed to following rules. They grew up with uniforms in elementary school, new achievement tests in junior high and metal detectors in high school. Far from the image conveyed in the media of an idle youth, the authors argue, Millennials are programmed by their parents to an extraordinary degree, with ambitious schedules of homework and extracurricular activities… The authors hold a Hegelian view of history that predicts generations will evolve in cyclical patterns: Each new generation attempts to solve a problem facing the previous youth generation, corrects the behavioral excesses it sees in the current midlife generation, and fills a social role being vacated by the departing elder generation. Hence, if the authors are right, the Millennials will form the communities that alienated Xers longed for, heal the societal fabric worn by narcissistic boomers, and build institutions…

In the eyes of Mr. Howe and Mr. Strauss, the generational tone of the Millennials was set by the determination of their parents to avoid the neglectful child-rearing practices of their past. The Millennials' college experience will be marked by parents who give new meaning to the word "overprotective." The authors predict that the push for higher standards in elementary and secondary school will be transferred to college…The line between the haves and the have-nots will be drawn over issues like who can afford college-selection counselors and private tutors. With the competition intense, rejected students and their parents will complain more and more about a perceived unfairness in admissions…

…On the social front, the old boomer causes tied to race and gender will fade, the authors write, "to the chagrin of aging faculty." In their place, there will be new questions – about class and the dwindling numbers of men. As women increasingly take over the leadership of student government and clubs, and men flee academe for the workplace, "how to bring young men back into higher education will become recognized as a national problem," the authors state…

…In an otherwise optimistic take on the current youth culture, Millennials Rising strikes one loud note of discord. With their love of rules and trust in institutions, the Millennials could be led astray by a demagogue or use technology in Orwellian ways, the authors write…[another] possibility is that a generation that combines the cultural conservatism of the 50's with the Big Government politics of the 60's might just turn out ... boring, prone to practicality rather than creativity or introspection. Lucy E. Rollin, a professor of English at Clemson University and author of 20th Century Teen Culture by the Decades (Greenwood Press, 1999), says she has noticed that her recent students demand that "everything be spelled out" in detail and have trouble thinking for themselves. "I was trying to get them to write with their own voice," Ms. Rollin recalls. "But they couldn't use the word 'I.' They said their high-school teachers never let them use it. It was sad, really."