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Epistemology, Wisdom, And Social Transformation: Strategies At The Forefront Of The Contemplative Movement In Higher Education, Nicola Smith

Doctoral Dissertations

American society is currently experiencing a surging interest in contemplative practices. The secularization and professionalization of contemplative practices can be seen in the adoption of mindfulness-based approaches in sectors as wide-ranging as technology, nonprofit, and higher education. Amongst all these fields, institutions of higher education play a unique role within the contemplative movement in that the academy lays claim to the powerful social roles of producing and disseminating knowledge and, subsequently, of shaping societal values and behaviors.

In conducting this qualitative study, the researcher analyzed 1) what the academics in the contemplative movement expressed through their speech regarding the activities …

Improving Learning Center Usage Verification Processes Using Six Sigma, Latricia C. Hylton

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The Academic Learning Center at the University of Northern Iowa provides tutoring and advising services to enrolled students at the university. As Iowa legislatures consider performance based funding, having accurate and timely student usage data is imperative for the Academic Learning Center as the data is used in making funding decisions. The purpose of this research is to improve the student usage verification process and increase the accuracy of data collected by a math and science tutoring center located in the Academic Learning Center. An Access database was designed to record and track the math and science tutoring services provided …

Athletic Ticket Pricing In The Collegiate Environment: An Agenda For Research, Craig A. Morehead, Stephen Shapiro, Timothy M. Madden, Lamar Reams, Chad D. Mcevoy

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Faculty Publications

s pressure mounts for intercollegiate athletic departments to be more selfsufficient, administrators must respond by increasing generated revenues. Despite the importance of ticket sales in this endeavor, however, little is known about the underlying ticket pricing structures and policies used by National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) institutions. Of the limited existing scholarship focused on managerial pricing decisions in the field of sport management, only professional sports settings have been addressed. Given the unique operational differences between professional and intercollegiate sport, this paper is designed to establish a foundation from which to build future research concerning the pricing of college sport …

Determined To Make A Difference: A Qualitative Study Of College Women Student Leaders, Heather Yattaw Wagoner

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

While research has grown related to the experiences of gender and leadership in the workplace, little research exists on the experiences of gender and leadership in collegiate student organization settings. This study explores the experiences of college women holding executive leadership roles in highly visible on-campus registered student organizations. More specifically, the study seeks understanding of how social role expectancies interfaced with the women’s perceptions and experiences as college leaders.

Data were generated with undergraduate women leaders at a large, public research institution in the southeast during the fall of 2014 using qualitative methods including individual interviews, group interviews, and …

Stem Education Discrepancy In The United States And Singapore, Elizabeth K. Worsham, Aaron Clevenger, Kelly A. Whealan-George

Beyond: Undergraduate Research Journal

One of the hottest topics over the past several years has been science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. The United States is lagging behind in the STEM education rankings as compared to its counterparts in Europe and Asia, including Singapore, ranked second overall in math and science based on the Program of International Student Assessment. Even as such a small country, Singapore has one of the best education systems in the world, one of the busiest ports, and is a leader in the science and technology market. One factor of this is the family life and the culture that …

Journal Of Research, Assessment, And Practice In Higher Education (Volume 1, Issue 1)

Journal of Research, Assessment, and Practice in Higher Education

Full Issue (34 pages, 0.74 MB)

Utilization Of Change Theory To Implement An Appreciative Advising Model, Matthew A. Cooney, Joseph Pernick, Kelsey Rice, Emily A. Monago

Journal of Research, Assessment, and Practice in Higher Education

It is important that student affairs professionals lead organizational changes to provide the best service to students in light of outside factors. Utilizing a theoretical model for participating in organizational change can enhance the ability for a change to meet its intended outcomes.

This article details how the Office of Multicultural Affairs at Bowling Green State University utilized John Kotter's eight step change model to implement an appreciative advising model. Information on appreciative advising, the eight-step change model, and the implementation is provided.

University Update - November 2016, Academic Affairs

University Updates & Communications from the University President

Included in this Update:

• Where We Stand Update
• Recent Media Highlights

Critical Cultural Student Affairs Praxis And Participatory Action Research, Oiyan A. Poon, Dian D. Squire, Delia Cheung Hom, Kevin Gin, Megan S. Segoshi, Aaron Parayno

Journal of Critical Scholarship on Higher Education and Student Affairs

This paper explores how student affairs practitioners may engage in critical cultural praxis through participatory action research (PAR). As authors, both researchers and practitioners, we partnered with one another to conduct a needs assessment of Asian American students through PAR methods at a university in the northeast United States. Unfortunately, the PAR project as initially designed did not come to fruition. We used autoethnography to understand the many barriers that prevented the completion of the project, such as lengthy and unclear IRB processes, lack of organizational stability, and limited institutional support. Finally, we offer insight into how scholar-practitioners and institutions …

Navigating A Social Justice Motivation And Praxis As Student Affairs Professionals, Nadeeka D. Karunaratne, Lauren Koppel, Chee Ia Yang

Journal of Critical Scholarship on Higher Education and Student Affairs

While diversity and social justice are espoused values of the field of student affairs, student affairs professionals are socialized to varying degrees in regard to the awareness, knowledge, and skills necessary to be social justice advocates. Through qualitative interviews with nine entry- and mid-level student affairs professionals, we explored the motivations and experiences of student affairs professionals who enact values of social justice in their praxis. Participants shared strategies to navigating the field and their advocacy, the influence of theirs and others’ identities on their work, techniques for implementing intentional social justice praxis, challenges faced in their advocacy, and how …

Workshop: Improving Communication Skills For The Bargaining Table, Michael Shay

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

No abstract provided.

Otterbein Towers Fall 2016, Otterbein Towers

Towers Magazine

What We Stand For. Articles include: A Promise for the Future - Beth Daugherty, A Spotlight on Otterbein Values, The Faculty Student Connection with Alan Goff '75 and David Deever '61, A Campaign Update, and "A Place to Belong" about Annie Upper '86.

Leadership Perspectives Of Chief Student Affairs Officers, Jeff Beavers

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Leadership in student affairs continues to be a challenging enterprise for universities. Colleges are expected to help students succeed while providing for abundant needs through graduation. Chief student affairs officers have increasing demands of students and faculty amid decreased funds. This exploratory study took an in-depth look at the leadership perspectives of 19 chief student affairs officers at 4-year, public universities across the Midwest. The researcher sought responses on common leadership perspectives, challenges faced, and opportunities encountered. The three emerging themes were elements that inform leadership, knowledge and skills, and mindful leadership outlook. These emergent themes formed the basis for …

Case Study: Applying Communities Of Practice In Graduate Enrollment Management For A Cultural Interpretation Of Workplace Learning, Dean Campbell, Nadielka Bishop, Sanjiv Sarin

Journal of Research Initiatives

This paper undertakes a cultural interpretation of the roles professional expertise play in the workplace with a community of post-secondary administrators at one institution. To better understand and evaluate Wenger’s (1998) concept of communities of practice, this case study explored boundaries, intersections, and learning communities in communities of practice in graduate enrollment management (GEM). The paper examined communities of practice at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The study defined the following interventions as indicators of a community of practice in graduate enrollment management: a) boundaries of position; (b) constellations of communities; and (c) learning communities. The paper also considered implications …

Back Matter, Teacher-Scholar: The Journal Of The State Comprehensive University

Teacher-Scholar: The Journal of the State Comprehensive University

List of contributors.

University Rankings: Evidence And A Conceptual Framework, Jonathan G.S. Koppell, Jacob Fowles, H. George Frederickson

Publications from President Jonathan G.S. Koppell

University ranking has high public visibility, the ranking business has flourished, and institutions of higher education have not been able to ignore it. This study of university ranking presents general considerations of ranking and institutional responses to it, particularly considering reactions to ranking, ranking as a self-fulfilling prophecy, and ranking as a means of transforming qualities into quantities. The authors present a conceptual framework of university ranking based on three propositions and carry out a descriptive statistical analysis of U.S. and international ranking data to evaluate those propositions. The first proposition of university ranking is that ranking systems are demarcated …

Implementation Of State Developmental Education Policy: A Multiple Case Study Of Community College Faculty Perceptions Of Involvement, Shirley Davenport

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Numerous studies have indicated that developmental education as it is currently offered in many colleges and universities produces dismal results, with student success rates averaging as low as 25%. To address this issue, legislators in some states have begun to intervene, adopting policies that vary from suggestions for improvements to mandated pedagogical approaches. However, given the higher education organizational environment, the manner in which any change is implemented can be key to its success.

The purpose of this comparative multiple case study was to describe and interpret the perceptions of developmental education faculty regarding their level of involvement in developmental …

Cultural Influences Of Resource Dependence: Community College Administrator Perceptions Of Implementing Initiatives Related To Tennessee’S Performance Funding Model, John Owen Driskill

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological research study was to describe the cultural influences of resource dependence for community college administrators responsible for the implementation of initiatives related to Tennessee’s new performance funding program. Tennessee’s funding formula, considered one of the most aggressive and robust in the country, is among a second generation of performance funding programs commonly referred to as performance funding 2.0. Cultural influences of resource dependence were defined as values, beliefs, and customs that influence administrator efforts to improve institutional outcomes and acquire additional resources through performance funding.

A top performing community college in terms of the performance …

My News

My News (2014-2020)

• Georgia Southern University welcomes Jaimie Hebert, Ph.D., as 13th president
• Wherever life takes you
• Georgia Southern Multimedia Development Center wins Emmy® Award for Best Live Audio
• Daniel J. Cox, Ph.D., to serve as founding chair of the Department of Manufacturing Engineering
• Georgia Southern faculty continue excellence in 2016
• Georgia Southern student films featured at Cannes

Birth Of A Powerhouse: How One University Reimagined, Restructured, And Revived Outreach, Slone H. Cansler

Dissertations

Today’s modern higher education landscape presents myriad challenges to higher education leaders and administrators. Among those challenges is how universities respond to demands for accountability, growth of alternative models of postsecondary education delivery, the need to serve and increasingly diverse society, and reduced state and federal appropriations. Research suggests that the biggest changes for American higher education are imminent and will necessitate new business models, new forms of collaboration and partnerships, and innovative about the enterprise of higher education. This study sought to gain understanding about the development process and structural framework that allows a university’s outreach unit to be …

Engaging Race And Power In Higher Education Organizations Through A Critical Race Institutional Logics Perspective, Dian Squire

Journal of Critical Scholarship on Higher Education and Student Affairs

Engaging today’s issues in higher education requires strong analytical tools that can address the complex nature of our institutional systems and their involved actors. This paper forwards a critical race institutional logics perspective (CRILP). CRILP examines both organizations as they are embedded in a neoliberal and racist society and actor identity, agency, decision-making, and their relation to power. It is important to centralize actor-level racial identity and intersecting identities as race and racism are still pervasive in today’s society. Additionally, the current state of higher education as a market-driven entity leads to thinking about the ways that neoliberalism have permeated …

A Case Study On The Influence Of Organizational Structures And Policies On Faculty Implementation Of Learner-Centered Teaching, Kevin Scott Piskadlo

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

In their seminal 1995 article, Barr and Tagg encouraged higher education to think differently about undergraduate education and suggested that a new paradigm be adopted that focused less on what is taught and more on what is learned. Dubbed the learner-centered paradigm, this reframing of education challenges long standing practices and removes the instructor as the literal and figurative center of the classroom, requiring that students take a more active role in their education and in the creation of knowledge.

Despite the fact that empirical research consistently finds that practices congruent with the learner-centered paradigm greatly benefits students, full-scale adoption …

Maneuvering In A Large Organization (Case Study), Kristopher Budi, Catherine Elliott, Todd Siegel, Alexandra Wong

The International Undergraduate Journal For Service-Learning, Leadership, and Social Change

No abstract provided.

The Glass Ceiling Is Not Broken: Gender Equity Issues Among Faculty In Higher Education, Jillian Wood

Educational Studies Dissertations

Gender discrimination is an ongoing topic, including discrimination that occurs in higher education. Previous studies have shown female faculty experience a variety of workplace discrimination including sexual harassment/bullying, salary disparities, and lack of worklife balance. This dissertation aimed to analyze equity issues for female faculty at a private university. The researcher utilized a narrative inquiry methodology, conducting interviews with five full-time female faculty. The purpose of this dissertation was to understand the participants’ everyday stories and lived experiences. The researcher utilized critical feminist theory and leadership theory to examine the notion of equity at this campus. The findings, shown through …

Administrators' And Faculty's Perceived Online Education Barriers And The Role Of Transformational Leadership At A U.S. University In Lebanon, Sahar El Turk, Isabelle D. Cherney

Education Faculty Publications

The purpose of this quantitative study was to identify the perceived barriers obstructing the implementation of online education by administrators and faculty at the School of Arts and Sciences of a U.S. university located in Lebanon. The aim of this study was to offer a solution to the most important perceived barriers to online education that informs administrative decisions concerning the appropriate modalities of online instruction that may be implemented at the university. The exploratory factor analysis identified 8 factors out of 35 possible perceived barriers to online education. Faculty and administrators perceived the structural barriers and the pedagogical barriers …

Leading Evangelical Seminaries In German-Speaking Europe: A Transcendental Phenomenology, Johannes Schroeder

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This transcendental phenomenology describes the essential experiences of lead administrators of evangelical seminaries in German-speaking Europe. Changes on a global scale in the educational sector are influencing the seminaries, and lead to processes of organizational academization and leadership professionalization. These developments have a profound influence on the role of the leadership of these seminaries. Each of the six lead administrators was interviewed three times to gather in-depth, thick, and rich descriptions of their lived experience with the phenomenon. For triangulation, observations, analyses of documents, and audio and visual data, as well as research memos and journals were included. The theoretical …

Online Cte In The Community College, Brian T. Dietz, Rachal Etshim

Research and Creative Activities Poster Day

Community colleges serve the most diverse student population with regard to age, race and ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. These characteristics mirror those of students who enroll in career and technical education (Bragg, 2001, 2014) and online courses (Aslanian & Clinefelter, 2013). Yet only a handful of studies have been conducted about online technical education in community colleges. Given the continued growth in online education (Allen & Seaman, 2015; Lokken & Mullins, 2015), increasing use of technology in the classroom, and the emphasis on career and technical education (CTE) as a means of increasing degree production, more information is needed about …

Organizational Development And Learning Technology In The Workplace: The Migration Of University Reporting Tools, Anne C. Pinder

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation study focused on organizational development (OD) as it related to implementing a new technology, the Cognos reporting tool, within working groups at a mid-sized University, in southern New Jersey. In this study, I intended to understand how these two work groups accomplished this change on an individual, team, and organizational level, while they achieved success through dealing with stressors associated with the software implementation. I was especially interested in how individuals in the two workgroups dealt with a major change within their organization. I was also interested in evaluating my personal leadership skills as a contributor to the …

Embracing A Culture Of Evidence: A Phenomenological Study Of Faculty Experience Within A Transitioning Assessment Culture, Jennifer A. Galipeau

All Theses And Dissertations

This phenomenological study sought to give voice to the lived experiences of faculty within a transitioning assessment culture at an institution of higher education accredited by the New England Association of Colleges and Schools (NEASC). Current literature concerning outcomes assessment (OA) in higher education is highly focused on the need for campuses to foster a robust and pervasive culture around assessment, often termed a culture of evidence. The study site provided a unique opportunity to examine this phenomenon as it was at the mid-point of a multi-year initiative focused on transforming institutional assessment culture. During the study, full-time faculty at …

Experiences Of Students With Specific Learning Disorder (Including Adhd) In Online College Degree Programs: A Phenomenological Study, Seleta Bunch

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Enrollment in online degree programs is rapidly expanding due to the convenience and affordability offered to students and improvements in technology. The purpose of this hermeneutical phenomenological study was to understand the shared experiences of students with documented specific learning disorders (including Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) enrolled in online degree programs at a large, faith-based university in the Southeast United States. Colleges and universities must follow federal mandates as recommended by the Office of Civil Rights for students with documented disabilities in both traditional and online settings. Research is lacking in the area of understanding the experiences of students with specific learning …