Higher Learning in Appalachia: A Model for Change

Abstract

There are two Appalachian mining industries: one produces coal, the other college students. Ironically Appalachian college campuses are modeled after the company towns from which most Appalachian students come, and from which most are eager to escape. They are tucked away in the hills, miles away from the problems and challenges that characterize contemporary Appalachian communities. They have student unions instead of company stores. But they operate on the same principle of providing for all the students' (miners') needs and preventing them from coming in contact with outside influences. Although they are called institutions of higher learning, they are structured to breed not enlightenment but insularity and social irresponsibility. In this atmosphere, a college education is meaningful only to those who are desperately anxious to obtain a white collar job. Other students fail to see any connection between life in the ''company-university town and the matters that preoccupy their own lives and those of their home communities. Since they are not accustomed to the activist tactics which are employed by students on more cosmopolitan campuses, they register their protest passively, by dropping out. The Appalachian student's dissatisfaction with university life is by no means unique. Students throughout the nation are