Listening to a professor’s lecture at 8 a.m. is not one of the most exhilarating activities for Kristina Jackson.

Jackson, a freshman in social work from Castleton, Vt., said she did not expect to be bored during her college classes. Lifeless lecturers cause her to sleep in on some days.

I get bored in class, she said. Sometimes other things might grab my attention. I’ll just stare off into space and think about other things.

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There’s no motivation. Sometimes I figure nothing is going on in class, so I won’t go. Or I’m just too tired to get out bed.

Reactions similar to Jackson’s were included in a recent study by University of California at Los Angeles researchers suggesting college freshmen are the laziest in more than 30 years.

The 1997 survey conducted by the Higher Education Institute at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies included 348,465 freshmen at 665 institutions nationwide, including SIUC. The data collected from the survey was based on responses from 252,082 students at 464 colleges and universities across the country.

The UCLA survey showed 36 percent of college freshmen are frequently bored in class and 35 percent are frequently late to classes because of oversleeping. Freshmen also tend to fall asleep during class as a result of boredom.

Besides oversleeping, some students simply have trouble paying attention in class.

Lavell Henderson, an undecided freshman from Maywood, could be doing more exciting things like playing basketball or better yet, sleeping.

Some of these classes are just boring, especially when teachers are just lecturing, he said. It’s not really exciting. That makes it hard to stay awake in class.

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Like Henderson, Jackson agrees entirely with the survey. She usually has no interest in the majority of her classes.

She said her lack of motivation may be a result of a weak transition from high school to college. High school did not quite prepare her for college. She also was not aware of study habits or detailed homework either.

I’d have to agree with the survey because you don’t have that much work to do in high school, she said. Now you have to put a lot more effort into your homework, and sometimes I just blow it off.

Gordon Pitz, an emeritus psychology professor, said that he witnessed the lack of motivation among freshmen with late and missed homework assignments. But, motivation is much more than a student participating in classroom activity.

One of the things that people have to think about is what exactly is motivation, he said. A lot of people think it is something that comes from within that person. But it is a person’s reaction to the situation.

With motivation you have to look at the factors, he said. I try to structure my class where students have to participate. That could be a means of participation.

But, I can’t say that freshmen have any less motivation than any other students. Usually it’s the sophomores, juniors and seniors who are quicker to miss a class than freshmen.

But, Henderson said freshmen have less to lose compared to students who have been in college for a couple years. Most freshmen can return home without really failing.

Freshmen don’t care because they aren’t established in the University yet, he said. If you fail a class, then you can just say forget it and go back home. But if you’re a senior you’ve already been here for three years. You’ve got to go on.