Generations in Flux: How Gen Z Will Continue to Transform Higher Education Space
AT THE TURN OF THE MILLENNIUM, a new type of student began to swell the ranks of higher education. Immediately tagged as "digital natives," these students were also described as consummate multitaskers, achievement oriented, and sheltered. These characteristics also set them squarely apart from their predecessors, the smaller and much maligned Generation X cohort that followed on the heels of the Baby Boomers. Initially referred to as Generation Y, the more descriptive and memorable term "Millennials" slowly took root. Coined by William Strauss and Neil Howe (1991) who identified a recurring cycle of generational typologies, the term applied to the generational cohort that launched with those children born in 1982. By sheer numbers alone, this generation easily surpassed the Baby Boom generation, fueled in part by a rising immigrant population. The Millennial influence has rippled throughout popular culture and into the workforce as the leading edge members of this generation are now well into their thirties. No generation holds permanent sway, and almost as soon as one cohort is defined and parsed another comes along to test its mettle. This new rising generation has been dubbed Generation Z or "Gen Z" by most for now. The generation and its members are also variously referred to as Post Millennials, Plurals, iGen, and the Sharing Generation, among other names. There is no consensus on the transitional date between the Millennials and Gen Z (Williams 2015) Howe (2010) established the generational marker for Gen Z as 2005, somewhat later than other sources, but consistent with his generational cohort theory approach. Once a particular generation's Zeitgeist becomes clear, frequently in response to the indelible stamp of a major societal event, then so do the dates bracketing that generation and not until. Alternatively, the Pew Research Center (2015) has yet to establish a definitive demarcation date for the Millennials. The center's determining factor is not generational characteristics, per se, but rather the birth crests and troughs associated with the demographic roller coaster. Still others have been looking at Millennials in the rearview mirror for the better part of two decades by assuming that the length of a generation is growing shorter. The literature that refers to college going Gen Zers, then, is really reporting on the characteristics of trailing Millennials according to Strauss and Howe. These trailing Millennials are being perceived as a "new" generation precisely because they have begun to exhibit notably different characteristics, values, and attitudes, although they are not yet necessarily the norm. Continuing with Strauss and Howe's dates, roughly half of Generation Z's members are already present and accounted for, with those on the leading edge in their "tweens." Once they enroll in higher education, will members of this generation continue to have the transformative impact on campus planning and design that the Millennial Generation has had? Meanwhile, given that the lines are blurred between trailing and leading generational cohorts, what are we already beginning to observe in trailing Millennials? GENERATIONS DECODED Although it is easy and tempting to paint an entire generation with the same cultural brush, no single generation can be so readily and uniformly categorized. While it is evident that generational cohorts share values and traits given some of their common social and cultural experiences, the dividing dates between cohorts are not rigid and are more for referential convenience. Indeed, individuals on the generational cusps share traits with their neighboring generations, which is why "trailing Millennials" hint at the characteristics and affinities that will become increasingly associated with "rising Gen Zers." To understand the characteristics that both unify and divide generations, it is instructive to examine the broader generational context.