Into a big empty lecture hall at New York’s teeming City College marched four young women, three young men one evening last week. All students, they seated themselves in the front two rows.

The experience brought unexpected insights into performance anxiety. I held my office hour in the near-empty lecture hall, one hour before the class began. The hall was open to any student who ...

Walk into a lecture hall today and you’ll likely encounter rows of empty seats, stark evidence of a generational shift in expectations. For students juggling jobs, family obligations, extracurriculars ...