Getting to the mindset of first-year students.(Newswatch)(Brief Article)

Faculty and administrators can bridge the cultural and reference gap between students and themselves by checking out the 6th annual Mind-Set List by Beloit College WI.

It helps guard against "hardening of the references" in the older generation of school employees, according to coeditor Tom McBride, a humanities professor there.

Due to hiring freezes and delayed retirements, professors are far more likely to be members of the AARP generation than the MTV generation, according to national data from the HERI survey by UCLA. Today 36% of faculty are 55 or older, compared with just 24% in 1989. And just 30% of faculty are younger than 45, compared with 41% in 1989.

Here's a sample of the 50 cultural benchmarks offered on the class of 2007, most of whom were born in 1985:

* The Jaycees have always welcomed female members.

* They have always "grazed" for food.

* Directory assistance has never been free.