Coming of Age in New Jersey by Michael Moffat Essay

Michael Moffat studied the life of college students in a co-ed dormitory living environment at Rutgers University in the late 1970’s and mid 1980’s. His book, Coming of Age in New Jersey: College and American Culture draw on writings of actual students and provide detailed accounts of the sexual histories and activities of both male and female students living in the dorm. He writes what he learned as an actual resident living with the students who understood that he was researching their habits and experiences. He lived with them and studies them as an anthropologist would. The book focuses largely on sexual life of students but also touches upon race, work ethic, gender and community living. It seems that all of these issues are related and Moffat is able to tie much of the actions and attitudes together. A common theme throughout the book is that the life of college students is not quite as wild and sex filled as society in general might assume. In fact, the experience may be less wild that the prospective students themselves expected. This was likely a relief to many of them and in fact, is likely that the family values and morals that they brought to college with them were responsible for the reality of life in the dorms. It seems that new college students do not leave all of their past experiences of knowledge at home when the come to college. They apparently have learned and formed opinions and come with a set of expectation for acceptable and unacceptable behaviors. The book also discusses the difference between expectations of general college living and the actual experience. The societal expectation or assumptions of student life, and what actually occurs is discussed. Relating the sexual activity and romantic relationship to student’s morals and prior learning is interesting. While some of the stories are disturbing, many of them lead one to believe that children actually do listen to and learn from their parents. The morals and beliefs of home follow these students to the college dorm.   Moffat notes the difference between living in a dormitory like environment such as an apartment or even boarding home, and living in a college dorm. In the college dorm there is an expected sense of community and commradery and the university does much to encourage the friendships and support that this living arrangement offers. Adolescents are transitioning from home to the life of an independent adult and the community living is meant to offer a degree of supervision and support. The effects of this arrangement on the actual experiences of students in interesting to the reader. Chapters 5 & 6 are titled â€Å"Sex† and â€Å"Sex in College† respectively. These chapters provide the details on the relationships and sexual experiences and habits of the students. Moffat found that students fell into several groups including those who were involved with more conservative and traditional monogamous, heterosexual relationships that involved love and affection. This was the largest group. Others fell in to the groups of experiments and those having some casual relationships that involved sex. This group, for the most part included those who arrived at college more experienced sexually.   Moffat grouped the students into several distinct types in terms of sexual activity. These included; neotraditional, romantic, experimental, radical, liberal and the nonheterosexual population. He was clear to note however, that every student or pair of students involved with a relationship were different, with their own set of idiosyncrasies. Most however, were interested in committed, consensual, heterosexual relationships. Orgies, no matter what the movies and pop culture may imply, were not at all the norm on the college campus. E also found that for most students, their schedule was o busy and the conflicting schedules of their partner or potential partners made sex a rarity for many. Roommates and social issues of community issue further hampered the free love environment one might have expected. The students that reported experimenting with locations such as outside or in classrooms, the library or on the bus seemed driven as much by the lack of privacy as by the desire to be an exhibitionist. The book note that the 1980’s came with the ability to easily prevent pregnancy with the availability of birth control so sex could be enjoyed more freely than in the past. Still, traditional values and the need for committed relationships held out. The fact that the college dorm was set up like a pseudo family, seems to have resulted in some degree of modesty and restraint. Moffat talks about how students would surely not walk around naked or provocatively in front of each other on the floor openly. Students or dorm mates related to each other to at least some degree, as they would act around siblings and family members in general. Those who did dare to walk to the shower wearing only a towel, for example were made fun of and the comments made were much like the comments one would make to a sibling. These relationship similarity likely resulted n some curbing of the sexual behavior at least among floor mates. Moffat’s book reports the facts and shows data and bell curves and comparisons from the 1970’s to the 1980’s. He does not draw a lot of conclusions or cause and effect relationships. That is left for the reader to do if he wishes. The book does seem to indicate that college students are more focused and serious than movies such as Animal House would have one believe. Unfortunately, this book does not address at all the realities of the effects of drugs and alcohol use on college campuses. Living with the students, Moffat did not want to report on issues of substance abuse as he was concerned about the openness of his subjects if they felt that he was potentially a â€Å"narc†. This dimension however is so important to the living experiences of college students that a glaring hole is the result. Anyone familiar with college living will notice the missing piece of information, particularly for those who lived in college dorms during the 19070’s and 1980’s when drug and alcohol use was so much less regulated than it is today The relationship between substance use and sexual activity would have been interesting to note. The issue of traumatic sexual experiences and events linked to alcohol use would likely have been linked. A study today of sexuality on campus, looking at he issue of substance abuse as well as the increased awareness of sexually transmitted diseases would be very interesting to compare to Moffat’s original study.   One would expect that the outcome would be similar to the original study in terms of understanding the relationships between values, morals, family environments and sexuality.