[This is a post that I recently sent to the Areivim mailing list]
There has been a few exchanges online regarding the social and spiritual implications of attending a secular college / university. Since I am a fair bit younger than most of the members online (21) and am currently enrolled in university in Sydney, Australia, I feel my comments will be of some interest to the members online.
First some background, I go to the University of Technology Sydney (www.uts.edu.au). It is a full fledged university but with an emphasison the sciences, information technology, business and law. I have just finished my second year of Bsc in Information Technology (basicallycomputer science) and have one more year to go. I attend about 12 – 15 hours of lectures, tutorials, etc a week. I live at home as do 99% of Jewish students here in Sydney, there is no living on campus. In fact it takes me about half and hour to get to University and half an hour back (by car, train takes less time)
Social implications: integrating with the gentile populace – time spent together
The first and most obvious issue to be raised is interacting and integrating with the gentile populace. At least at my university an emphasis is placed on group work. It is my understanding that this is the general trend of education today, to try and recreate the business work environment to the greatest degree possible. The purpose of this is that students are trained to relate and respond with skills they can actually use in the work force as apposed to remembering thousands of facts parrot style. So it is a given that at least at one course a semester many hours will have to be spent working together to get your assigned project done. In other classes, one just attends lectures with a couple of 100+ random people whose name you don’t even know, you watch a power point presentation, listen to the lecturer and then
go on your merry way home.
Group work, social acceptance, religious holidays, social influences
Social acceptance at a university where there is a very small Jewish population (other University’s like UNSW have a much larger jewish population) depends on the individual circumstances of the people involved. In my particular circumstances the following were my findings:
Because I am enrolled in computers at an international university there are a couple of guarantees, 1) 90% of your class mates are male 2) because it is an international university there are many (many) foreign students, many for whom english is a second language.
The implications are as follows:
a) A person has to develop patience and exert themselves to be able to communicate with people who speak a different language to you and come from a different social and cultural background. I found this developed valuable social skills that were until now not exercised.
b) Being the only Orthodox Jew in a sea of gentiles (for lack of a better metaphor) requires diligence to make sure that your religious commitment are not effected by a culture and outlook that does not agree with yours. In theory this could include integration in the gentile activities, ie going to bars and clubs, inappropriate mixing of the sexes, foul language. In my circumstances the degree of the influence of these activities were of a minimal, because to put it bluntly the computer faculty inst exactly known for the wild boys on campus with a gigolo lifestyle. Most of the guys in their free time would rather create scripts on Linux or play on line computer games than go to the clubs for a night on the town. Also the fact that the majority of these students are males who couldn’t speak english properly, didn’t exactly serve as an enticement for me to join theiractivities. In other faculties / University’s this will definitely vary.
c) Because I am in the computer faculty, there inst exactly going to be "heresy" discussed or taught. It is usually the art faculty that is full of the left wingers, the communists, the gothics and the freaks. In Australia one does not have to do a BA before his degree so the majority of Jewish Australians avoid that scene entirely. The computer faculty ins’t interested in campus life, student elections, politics or anything to do with a social conscience. There are very few Jews that I am aware of that are part of University social groups or sororities or frat houses. That aspect of University life doesn’t really exist in Sydney. My personal opinion is that in Australia the issue of heresy is a non issue. Australia is a very secular, non religious country, with many foreigners, so in reality no one really cares what you think or do. There not going to be droves of people marching under the banner of any "ism".
d) Anti Antisemitism for me has not been an issue. Although I personally wear a hat at University, since I just personally don’t want to draw attention to myself, on occasion when I have worn a kippah (for presentations or meetings) I have never found that to be a problem. As I said previously, Australia is a pretty pluralistic country and for a country that has one of the biggest Gay and Lesbian Pride Parades in the world, the average Australian isn’t really too fussed about religious minoritys or people who are different. I have found that the majority of gentiles are quite respectful of your relgious practices and if you are upfront and explain "I cant come onSaturday because of a religious celebration", etc they are usually very understanding.
e) In my personal opinion the only way that University can effect you negatively is by coming lethargic in mitzvot (ie not learning as much as you can, not going to minyanim, etc). However this is not a problem with University per say, but rather with any lifestyle outside the confines of Yeshiva. If a person is going to be involved in an inappropriate relationship with members of the opposite sex, Jew or Gentile, this can occur anywhere not exclusively in the confines of the University, ie it just as likely to happen if not more so in the workforce.
I will post more on these issues at a later stage, I look forward to comments.