Education Commons^™

Academic Support Staff As Servant Leaders And The Relationship To Student Satisfaction, Joan M. Arrington

Dissertations

This study examined servant leadership practiced by academic support staff of academic departments within four-year, post-secondary institutions. These support staff include employees within academic departments such as secretaries, administrative assistants, and coordinators that do not have managerial responsibilities and are not instructional faculty. The target population for this study was all full-time and part-time students, both undergraduate and graduate, eighteen years of age or older, and enrolled at post-secondary four-year higher education institutions in Mississippi. Results based on the data collected suggested a majority of academic support staff rated at four of the seven institutions exhibited the characteristics of servant …

To Be Or Not To Be Satisfied: Examining Job Satisfaction Of Entry-Level Residence Life Professionals At Historically Black Colleges And Universities, Evingerlean D. Blakney

Dissertations

Research on historically Black college and universities (HBCUs) as institutions of higher education is limited. There is even less scholarship that brings forth an understanding of student affairs at these institutions. A gap in the higher education, student affairs, residence life, and job satisfaction literature suggested a need for research on residence life professionals at HBCUs. Therefore, the goal of this study was to examine job satisfaction of entry-level residence life professionals at HBCUs. For this study, the researcher looked for factors that contributed to overall job satisfaction and further examined the roles of both gender and public or private …

Closing The Loop: A Study Of How The National Survey Of Student Engagement (Nsse) Is Used For Decision-Making And Planning In Student Affairs, Jennifer Lee Mccaul

Dissertations

“Closing the loop” is a commonly used phrase in discussing cyclical processes, such as the area of outcomes assessment in higher education. Increased interest in accountability and a shift in accreditation focus have necessitated that higher education institutions are closing the assessment loop and creating a culture of evidence to demonstrate that programs and services are having the intended impact, and using resources effectively. That culture includes both academic and co-curricular elements of the student experience. This research examined if, and to what extent, student affairs administrators use the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)—one of the most prominent instruments …

Higher Education Alumni Associations And Political Advocacy, Richard N. Buchli

Dissertations

Political advocacy is comprised of speaking on the behalf of a cause or participating as part of a political action group (Weerts, Cabrera, & Sanford, 2010). Because state financial support for public higher education has not been maintained at previous levels, higher education (HE) institutions have been recruiting alumni in an attempt to win state appropriations. As discovered by Avery (2012), very little research exists on the role of alumni associations in political advocacy efforts. In this study, a quantitative research approach was conducted to gather data on D1 public college and university alumni associations. The instrument utilized in this …

Alignment Of Mission Statements With Hiring And Evaluation Processes Of Faculty At Higher Education Institutions Approved By The Academic Quality Improvement Program (Aqip), Nancy M. Foster

Dissertations

In 1999 when the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association created the Academic Quality Improvement Program (AQIP) path for accreditation, they instituted a new format for the documentation of evidence of meeting accreditation criterion called a Systems Portfolio. This study involved the analysis of the Systems Portfolios from 36 institutions to check for alignment of their mission statements, and stated faculty hiring and evaluation processes. Each Systems Portfolio was analyzed for themes found in previous research on mission statements and documentation of the processes for hiring and evaluation of faculty. Additionally, institutions from three Carnegie Classifications were compared …

Developmental Education At The Community College: An Exploration Of Instructional Best Practices And The Relationship Between Integration, Student Involvement And Rates Of Completion, Beverly Gayle Strickland Lewis

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the developmental education process within the community college system in Mississippi. Tinto’s (1993) Integration Theory and Astin’s (1993) Theory of Student Involvement were employed as a framework to assess and understand the relationship between academic integration, social integration, student involvement, and rates of completion.

This concurrent mixed method study identified best practices related to the successful completion of developmental education courses from the vantage point of the faulty and administration at the community college. A total of ten faculty and administrators from five of the community colleges in Mississippi were given a …