Digital Commons Network^™

Core Operating Manual, 2025-26, Butler University

Policy Documents

This Core Operating Manual is intended to 1) provide students, faculty, and advisors an overview of Butler University’s core curriculum requirements and the value of the core, 2) provide faculty teaching in the core information about what is expected in core courses in terms of content, activities, and assignments, and 3) provide guidance on how the core is and should be administered. It is primarily a practical document; those seeking to learn about the original philosophical undergirding of the core should consult the Appendix, which is taken from our core curriculum’s original guiding document.

Face-To-Face: A Sociologist Looks At College Students' Mental Health, Maureen Kelleher

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

While both individual honors programs and their broader campus communities have implemented new initiatives and intervention strategies to address undergraduate mental health, significant needs remain unmet and concerns unaddressed about the long-term implications for students. This paper provides a framework for understanding the current (2023) environment on many campuses by presenting national legislation that shapes campus response, offering cases of specific institutional responses to crisis, and exploring the impact of face-to-face interaction between faculty and students in classrooms. Awareness of these three levels of response—national, campus, and classroom—equips and empowers the honors community to understand and effectively deal with myriad …

In Kinship With The World: Developing A Novel Instrument To Assess Human-Nature Relational Values, Kimberly Post

Educational Studies Dissertations

In the nascent field of human-nature relational values, there is a growing body of literature suggesting their transformative potential in sustainability education. The ability to analytically distinguish relational values from other valuations can both inform pedagogical approaches and help to identify how people understand and value their relationships with the living and more-than-living biospheric inhabitants. To address this need, an overarching question was posited: Can a relational values-specific assessment instrument be designed and validated for use in post-secondary sustainability education? Through a survey of the literature, thematic analysis of validated human-nature connection instruments, and multi-method qualitative research, a pilot instrument …

Growing Identity Over A Decade: Asl-English Interpreter Education, Kimberly Hale

International Journal of Interpreter Education

The employment context of ASL-English Interpretation programs (ASLIPs) has not been analyzed in a decade. In this study, I compared the institutional type and disciplinary category of 38 ASLIPs operating in 2011 and 57 programs operating in 2021 to determine whether there had been a standardization of academic profile. Over half of the programs in 2021 are in doctoral/research granting institutions (52.6%) compared to only 31.6% in 2011. While the number of programs classified under Schools/Colleges of Education has nearly doubled (11 and 20, respectively), the proportion has remained steady (45.8% and 45.5%, respectively). The proportion of language and/or culturally-related …

On The Lower Levels Of The Ivory Tower: What Color Collars Do Adjunct Faculty Wear?, Frederick Tucker

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Institutional reliance on tenure-line faculty reached a historic low after the Great Recession in 2009, remaining at approximately a third of all faculty through 2022. Postsecondary institutions have steadily increased their reliance on full-time adjunct faculty over the last two decades. Part-time adjuncts, meanwhile, were hired in great numbers before and during the Great Recession, as student enrollment increased, but have steadily declined since 2012, as college enrollment waned. Almost all evidence suggests that tenure expansion would benefit both the recipients of tenure and their students, but would come at a cost. There are few studies, however, that distinguish between …

Professional Staff Retention In Higher Education: Making Sense Of Why Advisors Stay, Frankie Roark Weeks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study investigated staff retention in higher education by focusing on the retention of academic advisors. Academic advisors play an integral role in student success and advising is notably one of the fields in higher education with the greatest turnover. This turnover comes at great costs, financial and otherwise, for the institution.

An interpretative phenomenological approach (IPA) was used to study how academic advisors make sense of their persistence in a high turnover field and to identify professional, personal, and institutional factors that contribute to persistence. Eleven professional staff members whose primary role is academic advising at a four-year …

Exploring Teaching Assistants’ Potential To Facilitate Multicultural Group Work In A Multicultural Undergraduate Classroom In Japan

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

No abstract provided.

Faculty Perspectives On Research Mentoring Across A Multi-Level Statewide Lsamp Alliance, Tokesha Warner, Shaniqua Nixon, Terrance Mcneil, Denise Green, John T. Robinson

The Journal of the Research Association of Minority Professors

In this, mixed-method exploratory sequential design study, we examined a multi-level state-wide mentoring program for underrepresented students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This study examined faculty perspectives on the factors involved in, and the impact of, mentoring minoritized students at the critical retention-to-graduation stage. Between 2020 and 2022, an online survey and two rounds of focus group interviews were conducted with faculty members at participating institutions. Data were analyzed using an iterative, thematic coding method. Analysis of the comments from faculty focus groups and a faculty survey revealed eleven themes that codified the faculty member’s perspectives on mentoring. …

Recruitment And Retention Of Black Faculty Women In Higher Education: A Phenomenological Study, Gerald Keith Warmack

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine Black Faculty Women's (BFW) lived experiences concerning recruiting and retention practices. The theory guiding this study was Critical Race Theory (CRT). CRT acknowledges that racism is central and the norm in the educational system. In addition to CRT, Social integration theory plays a critical role in how BFW form relationships, participate in social activities, and integrate into higher education. This research project used a hermeneutical phenomenological research design for BFW’s recruitment and retention experiences. Data for this study was collected using individual interviews, letters of advice, and journal prompts. Data analysis …

Reimagining The Faculty Role In Community Engagement, Nadine Dolby

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

In this Forum commentary, I discuss my experience as a faculty member starting a community-based nonprofit organization, Animal Advocates of Greater Lafayette. Since founding the organization in 2019, I have moved between the roles of faculty and organization president, finding ways to create new pedagogical spaces that lead to community-based social change. I suggest that establishing nonprofit organizations are one avenue for faculty community engagement to address social injustices and inequities

Exploring The Impact Of Community-Engaged Programs On Undergraduate Students’ Attitudes Toward Intellectual Disability, Jennifer L. Jones, Kami L. Gallus, Amber Manning-Ouellette

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

Positive outcomes for students have motivated educators to identify effective strategies for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in people with intellectual disability (ID), a minoritized population often excluded from DEI efforts. The current study investigated undergraduate student attitudes toward ID and compared changes in attitudes following participation in one of two community-engaged programs alongside adults with ID. Findings indicate both programs were effective in changing all three components of students’ attitudes: affect, cognition, and behaviors.

Learning With Maryland’S Immigrant Communities: Digital Storytelling As Community Engagement, Thania Muñoz Davaslioglu, Tania Lizarazo

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

In this article, we explore digital storytelling as a community-engaged pedagogy to create students’ immigration stories in Maryland as part of the project “Intercultural Tales: Learning with Maryland’s Immigrant Communities.” Stories highlight students’ lived experiences of immigration, language, and identity. By envisioning themselves and their classmates as community members, students and their stories challenge the assumption that the university is disconnected from local communities. In turn, this process of collaborative storytelling shapes teaching and learning as student-centered practices where it is possible to learn about immigration from inside and outside the classroom.

Institutionalizing Community Engagement: A Quantitative Approach To Identifying Patterns Of Engagement Based On Institutional Characteristics, Natasha Hutson, Travis York, Daesang Kim, Jamie L. Workman

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

Community engagement is recognized as a high-impact practice in higher education. However, while best practices in engagement have been broadly accepted, standard metrics for engagement across institutions have not yet been established. The purpose of this research study was to explore the relationship between community engagement and a variety of institutional characteristics among higher education institutions in a Southeastern state. Findings indicated that a pattern of engagement existed among the 48 participating institutions.

Lessons Learned From Faculty Service-Learning Mentoring, Elizabeth A. Robinson, Debra A. Harkins

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

Service-learning that targets issues of injustice within a community shares the goal with institutions of higher education of helping students become transformational citizens who deeply question and try to change unjust and ineffective social systems. Unfortunately, challenges to growing and sustaining service-learning pedagogy at institutions of higher education are many. This project discusses challenges and makes recommendations based on a pilot mentoring program at an urban, four-year university in the Northeast for faculty interested in integrating service- learning into their curriculum.

Pursuing Reciprocity In Engaged Scholarship Partnerships Using Community Sustainability Certification Programs, Elyzabeth W. Engle, Michele W. Halsell

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

In recent years, there has been a proliferation of sustainability certification programs at the local, state, and national level to highlight the use of policies, programs, and infrastructure to achieve sustainable development outcomes within communities. In this paper, we use examples from Penn State’s Sustainable Communities Collaborative to demonstrate how institutions with community-engaged scholarship programs can use these certification programs to enhance program operation and reciprocity by identifying projects, engaging new disciplines, and improving relevance.

University-Community Civic Collaboration: Reaching For Social Justice In University Partnership, Jessica T. Shiller

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

A community partnership between the Collins Academy, Jefferson, Texas, and the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture, Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, Texas, developed a plan to manage the 38-acre Port Jefferson History and Nature Center, located on Big Cypress Bayou. Students used knowledge of the resources, GPS (global positioning systems), ArcGIS 10.4, presentations, and posters to complete the project. The reflection and feedback with the community partners continued throughout the project and as guidance for future work. This partnership instilled in participating students the value of incorporating service learning into development of professional relationships for continued cooperation …

Researcher-Practitioner Collaborations: Applying Developmental Science To Understand Sport Participation And Positive Youth Development, Andrea Vest Ettekal, Lily S. Konowitz, Jennifer P. Agans, Richard M. Lerner

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

We report data from the first year of a three-year collaboration between a sport-based youth development program, Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA), and a university-based research institute. The theory of change of PCA was tested with youth athletes, representing multiple sport types (e.g., individual/team) and seasons (e.g., fall/winter), who completed self-report surveys indexing a key facet of positive youth development—character. Noting assets and challenges of such researcher-practitioner collaborations, we discuss the results of the first year of data derived from this collaboration and differences in their use to the researchers and practitioners. Using this collaboration as a sample case, we discuss …

Acquisitions Unit Annual Report 2023-2024, Andrée J. Rathemacher

Technical Services Reports and Statistics

Annual Report of the Acquisitions Unit, University Libraries, University of Rhode Island for FY2024. Covers personnel, work flow, special projects, and serial, monograph, and e-resource acquisitions. Supplemental files include data on library materials expenditures by a number of variables as well as important working documents from the year.

Grounded In Liquidity: Writing And Identity In Third Space, Alicja Syska, Carina Buckley, L Heggie

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

This paper argues that writing for publication has the potential to support the creation, negotiation, and stabilising of the professional identities of third space (Whitchurch, 2013) practitioners in higher education. Caught in the impermanence and unpredictability of ‘liquid life’ (Bauman, 2005), third space opens up unique opportunities in writing that afford its practitioners a means of building and sustaining identity. Third space expands academic writing beyond its normative constraints, creating a tension between the apparent permanence and solidity of writing and the liquidity that allows for the negotiation of meaning andidentity. As such, writing, particularly for dissemination, provides third space …

Navigating The Academic Labyrinth: Describing The Landscape Of Women Faculty In Hospitality Higher Education, Kelly A. Way, Clarissa Mason, Betsy Garrison

Human Development and Family Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose

The purpose of the study was to describe faculty women’s perspectives of the workplace environment in hospitality higher education. Design/methodology/approach

Female faculty members in hospitality (n = ∼50) completed an online survey about their beliefs about women’s experiences, advancement characteristics the glass ceiling and gender equity. Findings

Respondents concurred that being self-directed, assertive and a risk-taker were essential; leadership is the most important characteristic for advancement and the glass ceiling is prevalent and prominent. It may be assumed that the milieu of academia would be free or freer of the glass ceiling, but research, including this study, suggests otherwise. …

Understanding The Internationalization Of Higher Education In The Context Of The War In Ukraine: Critical Conversations From Kazakhstan

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

Special Issue

Education In Exile As A Hope-Making Practice: The Case Of Russian Higher Education Projects

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

Special Issue

Bearing The Woken Bear: Kazakhstani Educators Making Sense Of The Russian Invasion In Ukraine And Its Consequences For Internationalization Of Higher Education In Kazakhstan

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

Special Issue

Antiracism In Higher Education: An Integrated Psychological Perspective, Rhea E. Nesbitt

Dissertations, 2020-current

Antiracism is a complicated and important term with prominent, influential voices claiming that systemic equity and the reconfiguration of white identity are the central solutions to eradicating American racism. Within the profound sociocultural effects of the existing antiracist rhetoric, there is vagueness, conflict, and incoherence. Language serves as a fundamental aspect of human experience, facilitating individual meaning-making and comprehension. Effective communication hinges on the ability to articulate subjective experiences and justifications clearly, a challenge evident in discussions surrounding antiracism. Despite advocating for antiracism as crucial and unending work, scholars recognize significant hurdles, including unclear responsibilities for implementation and entrenched structures …

Jacks Of All Hats: Role Complexity, Ambiguity, And The Experiences Of Short- Term Study Abroad Faculty

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

No abstract provided.

Exposing The Pervasive Culture Of Whiteness At Predominantly White Institutions: A Narrative Analysis Of White Deans Of Students' Understanding And Role In Responses To Campus Racial Incidents, Jennifer Helen Reid

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Deeply embedded in U.S. higher education institutions is a culture of whiteness that benefits white students, staff, faculty, and administrators through racist policies, structures, and cultural norms designed to uphold whiteness. This culture not only minimizes the presence of racism, but also is pervasive on college campuses, where administrators often fail to recognize blatant racism and treat ongoing campus racial incidents as isolated events. Despite the frequency of racial incidents, campus responses are typically ineffective, failing to address the underlying institutional practices that reinforce white supremacy and further harm those affected. This study explored the experiences of white deans of …

U.S. Undergraduate Test-Optional Policies For International Applicants During The Covid Pandemic: An Exploration Of Admissions Webpages, Sugene Cho-Baker, Guangming Ling, José Sotelo, Olasumbo Oluwalana

Chinese/English Journal of Educational Measurement and Evaluation | 教育测量与评估双语期刊

Although the adoption of test-optional policies (TOPs) has risen, there is little research documenting the types of TOPs (e.g., test-blind, test-optional) utilized across higher educational institutions, particularly for international applicants, who have been traditionally required to submit additional application components (e.g., proof of English language proficiency [ELP]). Using the content of undergraduate admissions webpages from 518 U.S. 4-year universities, the current study examined how standardized test policies are implemented in admissions for international applicants. We found that only 2.5% of the institutions explicitly required ACT/SAT scores, whereas 43.1% stated ACT/SAT scores as optional requirements for admissions. Some institutions provided unclear …

A Place To Rest My Soul: How A Doctoral Student Of Color Group Utilized A Healing-Centered Space To Navigate Higher Education, Jessica I. Ramirez

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Students of Color have historically faced explicit and implicit forms of discrimination and oppression in educational settings. Unfortunately, not much has changed over the decades as Students of Color continue to experience white supremacy and other systems of oppression. As Students of Color enter graduate school, there are often fewer Students of Color, making these educational settings isolating and hostile. These experiences often encompass white supremacist policies, practices, and remarks that negatively impact Students of Color. With this in mind and as someone who identifies as a Chicana who was once in a doctoral program, I questioned how doctoral Students …

From Classroom Interaction To Academic Success: Tracing The Mediating Role Of Effective Communication In Faculty-Student Dynamics, Nadia Dahmani, Wael Ali, Mohammed Aboelenein, Mohammad A.K. Alsmairat, Mursal Faizi

All Works

This paper aimed to determine the impact of faculty communication style, student proactiveness, and academic discipline on student academic performance and student-faculty relationship quality in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) higher education context. This study also aimed to contribute to the literature by verifying the mediating impact of communication effectiveness between the selected factors. Using a cross-sectional survey design, the study sample comprised 193 university students, and it was analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results revealed that academic discipline and the professor’s communication style enhanced communication effectiveness, whereas student proactiveness had a minimal effect. The …

“I Know How Much He Cares For Our Learning”: Moral Life In University Elt Classrooms, Leila Tajik, Seyyed Abdolhamid Mirhosseini, Mahsa Kashkooli

The Qualitative Report

In Iran’s higher education English language teaching (ELT) context, we explored the moral nuances embedded in two conversation courses offered to undergraduate students majoring in English Literature at one of the branches of the Islamic Azad University (IAU) in Tehran. We collected data through classroom observations, field notes, and semi-structured individual and focus group interviews. Our content analysis revealed a range of moral values embedded in significant incidents, which we categorized into five themes: (a) relations, (b) rules and regulations, (c) assessment, (d) curricular substructure, and (I) culture. These themes were further subcategorized into more specific concepts that emerged from …