Higher Education Administration Commons^™

2026 January 12 - University Council Agenda And Minutes, University Council, East Tennesee State University

University Council Agendas and Minutes

The University Council met on January 12, 2026, where Provost Kimberly McCorkle opened the session and members approved the previous meeting’s minutes before hearing updates from governance groups and campus units. A mission moment highlighted the Nurse Narratives initiative, a collaborative storytelling project shaping empathy-centered nursing education. Governance reports noted progress on faculty surveys, staff recognition planning, academic chair training, Appalachian Folk Festival preparations, and athletics achievements. Enrollment management updates emphasized reduced drop-risk student counts, improved outreach coordination, increased fall 2026 applications, and opportunities and challenges related to the TN Direct Admissions pilot program. Additional updates addressed FAFSA improvements, the …

2026 January 12 - Staff Senate Agenda And Minutes, Staff Senate, East Tennessee State University

Staff Senate Agendas and Minutes

The Staff Senate convened on January 12, 2026, led by President Cody Morelock, who opened the meeting with updates from university leadership and key campus initiatives. Dr. Noland reported confidence in spring and fall 2026 enrollment trends and anticipated stable state budgets, with upcoming budget hearings centered on KPIs and strategic priorities. Additional University Council updates included the premiere of the Nurse: Empathy Heals documentary, ongoing faculty climate survey efforts, athletics challenges related to the transfer portal, and enrollment reports highlighting approximately 2,000 students at risk of non-enrollment, FAFSA verification needs, and international recruitment declines due to global travel constraints. …

2026 January 8 - Academic Council Agenda And Minutes, Academic Council, East Tennessee State University

Academic Council Agenda and Minutes

The Academic Council met on January 8, 2026, under the leadership of Provost Dr. Kimberly McCorkle to conduct routine business and receive several informational updates. The meeting featured presentations on two major topics: a proposal to rename the Department of Exercise Science to Exercise and Sport Science to more accurately reflect its academic programs in sport performance and strength and conditioning, and an overview of the newly established Center for Community Engagement, which formalizes the university’s long-standing commitment to outreach, collaborative partnerships, and Carnegie Community Engagement classification efforts. Additional updates included spring 2026 enrollment monitoring, with attention to payment deadlines …

Dean Leslie Named One Of The National Jurist’S Most Influential People In Legal Education, Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Cardozo Law News Archive

Dean Melanie Leslie was named one of The National Jurist's 25 Most Influential People in Legal Education for 2026 in recognition of her leadership at Cardozo School of Law. The announcement highlights her role in advancing social justice, innovation, institutional growth, and leadership development in legal education.

Navigating Federal Work-Study: How Informational And Structural Barriers Shape First-Year Student Participation, Sooji Kim

Journal of Student Financial Aid

Understanding the complex nature of institutional and student behaviors regarding the federal work-study program (FWS) is critical to bolstering federal and institutional efforts to implement tangible policy interventions and practical improvements to the program. However, there is scant literature about the mechanisms of students’ FWS decision-making processes. To better understand the “why” of students’ decisions and behaviors around the FWS program, this study explores the determinants of imperfect FWS aid take-up among lower-income, first-year college students. Drawing upon multidisciplinary views on students’ work decisions while in college, a survey was developed and administered at a large public four-year university in …

Forging Pathways: How Low-Income Stem Students Navigate College On A Free Tuition Program, Taylor Wilby, Sarah Madsen, Nathan F. Alleman

Journal of Student Financial Aid

In light of the ever-increasing cost of tuition, colleges and universities are turning to free tuition programs to make college more affordable – especially for those students demonstrating the most financial need. Concurrently, students from low-income backgrounds continue to enroll in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) majors, navigating rigorous fields of study and anticipating highly lucrative career opportunities following graduation. This project, therefore, sought to answer the following question: How and in what ways is the college-going navigation of low-income STEM students influenced by a free tuition pathway in a selective, affluent university? Utilizing a qualitative, symbolic interactionist …

Advising With Heart: How Institutional Selectivity And Size Shape Emotional Labor In Higher Education Academic Advising, Dallas W. Maddox

Theses and Dissertations

Academic advising serves as a vital bridge between students and their educational experiences and success, yet the emotional complexities of this meaningful work remain underexplored. This mixed-methods study examined how institutional selectivity and size influence emotional labor awareness and application among academic advisors, addressing a critical gap in understanding the human dimensions of advising relationships. The research explored whether advisors at smaller, selective institutions demonstrate enhanced emotional labor competencies compared to colleagues at larger, more inclusive institutions. Eleven dedicated academic advisors participated in this study, representing experienced professionals with 5-17 years of advising experience across four institutional categories defined by …

The Effects Of Youth Extracurricular Involvement On The Home Environment Of Millennial African American Families, Joyce Merius Speed

Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological qualitative study explored how youth extracurricular involvement shapes the home environments of Millennial African American families. Guided primarily by Ecological Systems Theory, with Critical Race Theory as a complementary lens, the study examined how parents navigated interconnected systems of home, school, peers, and community while responding to racialized barriers embedded in youth programs. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, observations, and document analysis with six African American mothers. Seven themes emerged: extracurricular activities, family dynamics, parental involvement, academic achievement, social development, cultural identity, and time management. Findings showed that extracurricular participation strengthened family communication, routines, and cohesion; supported …

In The Circle Of My Sistas: Blackmotherscholars (Re)Defining Scholarly Identity, Dawn Stephens Jenkins

Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Dissertations

This dissertation examines how Black mothers in doctoral programs develop scholarly identities at the intersections of race, gender, and motherhood within historically white academic spaces. Grounded in endarkened narrative inquiry, the study centers the lived experiences and collective reflections of BlackMotherScholars to interrogate how racialized and gendered mothering shapes scholarly becoming. The research responds to a gap in the literature that overlooks Black maternal experiences as sites of intellectual production and identity formation in doctoral education.

Findings indicate that Black mothering serves as an onto-epistemological foundation for scholarly identity development, shaping participants’ ways of knowing, research commitments, and sense of …

The Relationship Of Federal Title V Funding To Retention And Graduation Rates Of Hispanic-Serving Institutions In The Southeastern United States, Julio Cesar Llanos Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

The number of Latino/a or Hispanic students, also known as Latinx students, are expected to grow demographically in various regions of the United States over the next several years. To ensure Latinx students are progressing toward graduation in their respective cohorts, it may be beneficial to anticipate and prepare for the increase in this student demographic. This study focused on institutions in the Southeastern region of the United States. This study compared the relationship of federal Title V funding and retention rates and graduation rates of students; it also compared degrees awarded to Hispanic students and enrollment of Hispanic students …

University Of Central Florida Graduate Catalog, 2025-2026, University Of Central Florida

UCF Catalogs

No abstract provided.

The Role Of White Racial Identity Development In Leadership Practices: An Interpretive Phenomenological Study In White Educational Leaders, Kaitlyn Ryan

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study examined how white educational leaders experience and make meaning of their racial identity development as they lead adult professional learning focused on racial equity and culturally responsive practice. Grounded in Helms’s White Racial Identity Development (WRID) model and guided by Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), the study explored the lived experiences of ten white leaders across PK–12 and Institution of Higher Education (IHE). Data were collected through three semi‑structured interviews per participant and analyzed using IPA’s six‑step process. Five major themes emerged: transformational experiences that shifted leaders’ understanding of race and privilege; the critical role of white affinity …

From Pilot To Dissertation Proposal: An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis Of The Professional Role And Boundary Spanning Experiences Of Va School Certifying Officials, Daina Hunter

SPARK Symposium Presentations

The effective support of military-connected students is a vital priority for higher education institutions, and the VA School Certifying Official (SCO) serves as a foundational support role essential to military-connected students’ use of Department of Veterans Affairs education benefits and institutional compliance (Hunter, 2026a; Semer & Harmening, 2015). SCOs’ perception of their professional role and their experiences navigating the complex spaces between regulatory agencies, their own higher education institution, and their students are the focus of this inquiry. This presentation highlights the evolution of a study from a two-participant pilot to a larger dissertation proposal using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). …

Bias Across The Data Lifecycle: Data Governors’ Perceptions In Land-Grant Higher Education, Shauna N. Mcclure, Lisa Lambert Snodgrass

Journal of Higher Education & Student Affairs

Higher education institutions increasingly rely on artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled tools and predictive analytics to inform decisions in areas such as admissions, student success, and resource allocation. This reliance heightens the need for data governance frameworks that address the policies, processes, and technologies governing student data. Data governors shape how institutional data are collected, interpreted, and used, yet existing approaches often assume that data are neutral, overlooking how bias can become embedded and compounded across the stages of the data lifecycle. This exploratory study investigates whether data governors perceive implicit bias as present across these stages. Using a quantitative survey, we …

“I Love What I Do, I Just Don't Love Where I Do It,”: An Exploration Of Job-Related Tension And Well-Being Of Professional Academic Advisors, Cynthia Cruger

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the intersection of job-related tension and workplace well-being among professional academic advisors through the lens of the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model. The purpose of the study is to address a gap in advising scholarship by exploring job demands and resources in advisors’ experiences in different advising models and institution types. A scoping literature review addresses advising as a profession, positive organizational psychology frameworks such as the PERMA model, and job-related tension concepts like role overload and ambiguity. Existing research indicates advisors have high job satisfaction despite job tension, and the JD-R theory is used to set a …

Culturally Engaging Campus Environments Model: A Quantitative Evaluation Of Governors State University’S Summer Bridge Program, Stacy Amedeo

Dissertations of Practice

Culturally Engaging Campus Environments Model: A Quantitative Evaluation of Governors State University’s Summer Bridge Program

This program evaluation assesses the academic and social outcomes of Governors State University’s Jaguar “Live, Experience, and Prepare” (LEAP) summer bridge program, which is designed to support first-year students as they transition into college. Grounded in the Culturally Engaging Campus Environments (CECE) model, this study examines whether LEAP participants differ from non-participants in their experiences of culturally engaging environments, sense of belonging, retention, cumulative grade point averages (GPAs), and total credit hours earned. The study used a quantitative correlational design analyzing two data sources: CECE …

The Hidden Process Of Student Placements: Perspectives From Slp, Ot, And Pt Coordinators, Almara Jane Sidney Hutchinson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This comparative multi-case study examined the unseen processes behind clinical placement planning in allied health education. Clinical placements are essential to preparing students in speech-language pathology (SLP), occupational therapy (OT), and physical therapy (PT); however, little research has explored how Directors and Coordinators of Clinical Education (DCE/CCEs) navigate the complex decision-making involved in planning these experiences. Guided by Greco and Myers’ (2024) framework conceptualizing placement planning as an interaction between process and experience, this study explored how coordinators described their planning processes and the role of student-centeredness within them.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 DCEs/CCEs representing SLP, OT, and …

The Impact Of Artificial Intelligence On Higher Education Enrollment, Shonna L. Jones-Washington

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to examine the influence of AI-driven chatbot technology on the progression through the undergraduate admissions funnel, including application, admission, and enrollment, and to explore how AI outreach intensity predicts these outcomes while addressing potential disparities across student subgroups. The study involved 24,141 data records, including both domestic and international undergraduate applicants to St. John’s University for the Fall 2025 semester. The study found that AI interaction was associated with higher admission rates (83.0% vs. 75.7%) but revealed no significant relationship between AI usage and final enrollment rates. Quantitative analyses, including chi-square tests, binary logistic …

From Deference To Dialogue: How International Gtas From High Power Distance Cultures Adapt To U.S. Classroom Dynamics, Deborah Akua Afi Appiah

Theses and Dissertations

International graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) from high power distance cultures play a significant role in undergraduate education at U.S. universities, yet they face challenges that go well beyond language proficiency. Coming from educational backgrounds where teacher authority is unquestioned and hierarchical, these GTAs must navigate American classrooms that operate on fundamentally different assumptions, where authority is earned rather than assumed, informality is the norm, and students expect to question, negotiate, and be personally known by their instructors. The present study examined how eighteen (18) international GTAs from seven (7) high power distance countries perceived and adapted to these differences while …

Staff Attitudes Toward Ai Adoption At A Private Research University, Ashley C. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

This study addresses the limited research on university staff attitudes toward artificial intelligence use and adoption. Using the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) research framework, the General Attitudes towards Artificial Intelligence Scale (GAAIS), and quantitative survey methodology, the study examines the attitudes of higher education staff toward AI, specifically examining whether demographic or professional characteristics are factors. The findings indicate that staff had moderately negative attitudes toward AI while also expressing some concerns. The results suggest that more resources and support for AI are needed for staff to address concerns. It also suggests that construct-level analysis …