Education Commons^™

Dual Degree Program Guidebook, Student Affairs And Enrollment Management

Student Affairs Reports

This Guidebook is designed to encourage unprecedented cooperation between four-year institutions and community colleges. The advice goes far beyond articulation to creating a culture of cooperation and inclusion.

From the time of widespread establishment of community colleges until now, clearing a pathway from the two-year college to baccalaureate graduation was assumed to be the sole responsibility of the community college. The university or liberal arts college served more as gatekeeper than facilitator. As a result, community college students, often the first in their families to pursue post-secondary education, were expected to navigate two complex bureaucracies with help only from the …

An Anti-Deficit Approach To The Study Of Persistence: Factors Influencing Persistence Among Black Males Attending Community College, Donna K. Williams

All Capstone Projects

The vast majority of literature on postsecondary Black males emphasizes the lack of academic success for this segment. Research reports that Black males have lower levels of academic achievement, ranking at or near the bottom of most success indicators, which include enrollment, persistence, engagement, and attainment. However, in examining the discourse on postsecondary Black males, a great deal of research is deficit-based.

Providing a counter-narrative to the plethora of deficit-based literature on postsecondary Black males, this study is guided by an anti-deficit approach that seeks to highlight factors that influence persistence among Black men attending community college. This mixed method …

The Underprepared And Underrepresented: Perceptions And Experiences Of Self-Efficacy On College Persistence Among Low-Income African American First-Generation College Students, Christine Marie Brown

All Capstone Projects

Approximately one-third of college students enrolled in colleges across the United States are first-generation students or those whose parents have not attained a post secondary degree. First-generation students are more likely to be students who are racially/ethnically diverse, low-income, and nearly four times more likely to leave college without a degree. College persistence refers to the students' desire and involved behaviors to maintain enrollment until degree attainment. A phenomenological approach was used to conduct face-to-face, in-depth semi-structured interviews to describe the essence of the lived experiences of low-income African American first-generation college students who persisted in four-year undergraduate programs. Results …

Racial Identity And Resilience In Black Male College Graduates, Anancia Stafford

All Capstone Projects

The aim of this study was to see if there was a relationship between Black male college graduates and non-graduates’ racial identity. This study also sought to see if there was a relationship between Black male college graduates and Black male non-graduates’ resilience. Black people were not always afforded the opportunity to attend higher education, but the civil rights movement assisted with the abolishment of unfair laws that supported exclusion and segregation in the educational system. Since then, college enrollment has increased for Black people in America in both PWIS and HBCUs, but there exists a large gap in college …

Indigenous Student Retention In Arctic Higher Education, Evan Brown

All Capstone Projects

The primary focus of this capstone research is to identify the process of indigenous student retention policy in Arctic higher education institutions and compare these practices to existing retention and social theory. Much of the dominant literature on student retention addresses Euro-centric models, not fully addressing persistence issues with subjugated groups. There is a gap in the research with regard to indigenous Arctic student retention. By conducting a case study, data was gathered via the utilization of a variety of tools including archival records, interviews, direct observations, and document reviews. By adding to the body of work regarding student retention, …

Pathways Of Leadership For Women In Higher Education Unions In Illinois: A Comparative Study Using Grounded Theory, Rochelle Robinson-Dukes

All Capstone Projects

This study focused on qualitative elements in its design. It sought to explore the process of women ascending to leaders in higher education unions and discover the barriers that derailed them or which they broke through on their leadership journey. It investigated the stereotypes and assumptions about women as leaders. The researcher looked at similarities and differences of the experiences of women in leadership roles to discover unknown phenomena within their unique experiences. Women in unions may be limited by proliferation of negative stereotypes and sexism. The purpose of this study was to explore the gender barriers of five women …

Scaling The Maternal Wall: Factors Of Success For Female Chief Student Affairs Officers With Children Working At Public Higher Education Institutions, Shaelyn R. Wolfe

All Capstone Projects

The higher education/student affairs administration field has a significant number of women graduating from programs across the country, however those numbers do not translate to the most executive levels, like vice president of student affairs, within this particular field. Many women are placed in entry level and mid-level positions without ever rising to the most senior positions, and others leave the higher education/student affairs administration field for part time work, to raise a family or to go into an entirely different field altogether. While there has been a lot of focus on the leaky pipeline of women in higher education …

Acupa: Exploring The Campus Policy Process (Working Paper), Paul M. Blobaum, T. Michael Ford, Tom Hipchen, Rodney Petersen

Faculty Research and Creative Activity

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to make an exploratory inquiry into the state of policy development processes in institutions of higher education, and to review the history and mission of the Association of College and University Policy Administrators (ACUPA). Methodology: Members of ACUPA were surveyed concerning their opinions of the status of policy development, and where the policy process was located in local governance structures. A survey was conducted of ACUPA membership in March and April 2005. Results: 24 institutions responded to the survey, half of them identifying themselves as Doctoral or Research Universities (Carnegie Classification, 2000). 75% …

Study Of A Contemporary Effort To Build A Prototype College In Suburbia, Samual Patrick Kelly

Park Forest

This case study covers the first stages of a contemporary effort by a group of citizens to plan and thereby satisfy certain educational needs of those outlying communities of Chicago collectively known as "south suburbia". The college is intended to serve not only the local locale but also to serve as a prototype for similar institutions in other sub-metropolitan areas. The study was undertaken with the expectation that a detailed, analytic attempt at an examination of a particular attempt to meet needs for higher education would illuminate a number of conditions affecting the establishment and operation of higher institutions of …