College Belonging: How First-Year and First-Generation Students Navigate Campus Life (Critical Issues in American Education)

College Belonging reveals how colleges’ and universities’ efforts to foster a sense of belonging in their students are misguided.

Colleges bombard new students with the message to “get out there!” and “find your place” by joining student organizations, sports teams, clubs and the like. Nunn shows that this reflects a flawed understanding of what belonging is and how it works. Drawing on the sociological theories of Emile Durkheim, College Belonging shows that belonging is something that members of a community offer to each other. It is something that must be given, like a gift. Individuals cannot simply walk up to a group or community and demand belonging. That’s not how it works. The group must extend a sense of belonging to each and every member. It happens by making a person feel welcome, to feel that their presence matters to the group, that they would be missed if they were gone. This critical insight helps us understand why colleges' push for students simply to “get out there!” does not always work. 

LISA M. NUNN is a professor of sociology and the director of the Center for Educational Excellence at University of San Diego. She is the author of Defining Student Success: The Role of School and Culture and 33 Simple Strategies for Faculty: A Week-by-Week Resource for Teaching First-Year and First-Generation Students (both Rutgers University Press).