Portraits of Students (1969-1999): A Retrospective.

This retrospective picture of college students over the past 30 years reflects what has been written about students in "Change" magazine between 1969 and 1999. Using the analogy of a museum gallery, the student portraits are grouped into five eras; each of which dominated the literature for approximately 10 years. The Gallery of Student Protest, portraying the late 1960s through the 1970s, is shown as a time of student unrest, discontent, activism, and radicalism, and the portraits reveal idealism, rebellion, and confusion. Portraits in the Gallery of Open Admissions are of students who gained admission to higher education despite poor school performance and are often confused with those in the next gallery, the Gallery of Diversity. However, most of the portraits in the Gallery of Open Admissions are of white students--the children of blue collar workers--while those in the Gallery of Diversity are of students of color. The Gallery of Lifelong Learning portrays students once labeled nontraditional, but now called adult, part-time learners, and they reflect new patterns in the design and delivery of higher education. The fifth gallery has portraits of Students as Consumers, comparison shoppers looking for the options that best serve their needs. (Contains 30 references.) (SM)