In a little more than a week’s time, the University of Wisconsin will unleash tens of thousands of new college graduates into the “real world.”

How has this world changed since the graduates arrived here in Madison as fresh-faced, wide-eyed freshmen in September 1999? What became of the prospect of a fertile job market, the pleasantly congenial world atmosphere and the promise of a better tomorrow for themselves and the world?

Robert McGrath, director of counseling services at University Health Services, told the Badger Herald in April that many students were stressed over trying to find a job in a slackening economy.

“The issues have always been the same, but external circumstances have made things much harder for students,” McGrath said. “There seems to have been a bit of an increase in students visiting UHS with problems concerning their future, mostly due to economic anxiety.”

John B. Sharpless, professor of history at the UW, said that he had seen firsthand the despair some senior students were feeling about the idea of finally graduating and entering the work force.

“In talking to my own students, they were pretty bummed about that,” Sharpless said. “For most of the people coming to the university four years ago, the world looked like a pretty nice place.”

While 1999’s freshmen ate burgers at Dotty’s and slept off hangovers in their beds at University residence halls, they were able to dream of a booming economy riding the wave of the dot-com boom and a peacetime world in which the Badgers managed to win the first of two successive Rose Bowls and a Final Fourth berth.

“Many graduating seniors came to the University of Wisconsin four years ago and were probably focused on material success and having fun,” Sharpless said.

But the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America and the subsequent U.S. war against terrorism served as a reminder of the grimness of the real world.

“All of a sudden, the world became a pretty serious place,” Sharpless said. “And maybe it always was that serious and everyone just ignored it, but now we’re forced to look at it.”

The current world atmosphere could force new graduates to focus on their identity as Americans and how they participate in society.

“I think most Americans are a lot more aware about basic American values,” Sharpless said. “We have to look into our hearts and ask ourselves about what is America really about, if there is anything that makes us special or different from the rest of the world, and if so, what is it that makes us special and is it worth preserving.”

Paul Lichterman, professor of sociology at the UW, said that while American mentality may have shifted, it would be superficial and inaccurate to say Americans have put aside their differences under scary circumstances.

“I think four years ago you could still read pundits writing about how society was fragmenting. Now the fear is that we might be attacked by terrorists at any moment,” Lichterman said. “But I don’t think wealthy Americans feel any more bound to poor Americans.”

Jeff Rose, a UW senior graduating with a bachelor’s in biology May 17, said that “white liberalist” ideals seemed to become prevalent in the city of Madison in the time he has been at school here.

“You could see that just in the debates following Sept. 11, with the school board looking at the Pledge of Allegiance, and in talking about the development projects going on downtown,” Rose said.

While the dot-com bubble’s burst might have contributed to the downfall of the current national economy, the fruits of Silicon Valley’s loom are now appearing in virtually every UW lecture.

“The Internet seems to be a lot more heavily used than a few years ago,” Rose said. “So many people use laptops to take notes in class instead of just notebooks.”