Research Blog #8: Case

My main example that I will be exploring in order to illustrate my argument that social isolates do not receive benefits of on-campus living based on the Student Involvement Theory, is through Alana in Paying for the Party. Alana was known on the floor as one of the social isolates, who came into college excited about her education, but left sorely disappointed. In the book, she focuses on the fact that it was hard to meet friends in the hall and that eventually led to her grades slipping and thoughts of transferring to a school closer to home. Alana tells the researchers, "'Maybe the lack of social environment that I was looking for kind of interfered with my schoolwork'" (Armstrong and Hamilton 96). Although Alana did try to make connections in her hall in the beginning, unlike other social isolates, Alana never fully tried to get connected in college. The book never mentioned that Alana actually joined any clubs, or tried really hard in her classes (in the end she ended up failing most of them). Being a social isolate, Alana could not make any real connections or friend groups in her hall, and this ultimately caused all the on-campus benefits of living in a residence hall to be negated. As an interesting point that I would like to mention in my paper, there was no RA in Alana's residence hall who actively sought out social isolates either, or tried to create a welcoming environment for everyone in the hall, which also could have led to the demise of Alana's college experience. While bringing up solutions, I would like to mention how Alana's experience could have been different if there was a resident assistant present in her community that cared.