PHOENIX — As a professor at Northern Arizona University, Cathy Small was baffled by undergraduates. They seemed less engaged, less likely to do assigned reading and more likely to ask questions such as “Do you want it double-spaced?”
So she decided to study them as anthropologists research any foreign culture — she lived among them. After moving into a dorm, eating cafeteria food and struggling with a five-course schedule, the 50-something Small said she empathized with students who struggle to balance chaotic class and work schedules.