Higher Education Commons^™

Research In Brief - Can They Teach Each Other? : The Restructuring Of Higher Education And The Rise Of Undergraduate Student “Teachers” In Ontario, Jennifer Massey, Sean Field

Journal of Critical Scholarship on Higher Education and Student Affairs

Changes to public funding regimes, coupled with transformations in how universities are managed and measured have altered the methods for educating undergraduate students. The growing reliance on teaching fellows, teaching assistants, and increasingly undergraduate peer educators (administering Supplemental Instruction [SI] programs) is promoted as a means toachieve a greater “return on investment” in the delivery of postsecondary education. Neoliberal discourses legitimating this downloading of teaching labour suggest it offers a “win-win” solution to the “problem” of educating growing numbers of undergraduate students. It proposes universities can deliver the same curricula, and achieve the same “outcomes” (primarily measured through grades and …

Research In Brief - "It's Kind Of Apples And Oranges": Gay College Males' Conceptions Of Gender Transgression As Poverty, Daniel Tillapaugh, Z Nicolazzo

Journal of Critical Scholarship on Higher Education and Student Affairs

This paper explores the ways in which gay males in college make meaning of gender variance and transgressions from the gender binary as a form of poverty. Using epistemological bricolage, the researchers analyzed data from 17 self-identified gay cisgender males attending three colleges in Southern California. Participants represented an array of racial backgrounds and were between 20 and 23 years old. The researchers posit that three key elements influence these gay males’ meaning making: (1) gender coding and policing, (2) hyperawareness of gender transgressions, and (3) reifying hegemonic masculinity.

Beloved: “Let Us Love One Another”, Taylor University

Martin Luther King Jr. Day Programs and Schedules

The schedule for Beloved: “let us love one another” celebration in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.

Random Number Simulations Reveal How Random Noise Affects The Measurements And Graphical Portrayals Of Self-Assessed Competency, Edward Nuhfer, Christopher Cogan, Steven Fleisher, Eric Gaze, Karl Wirth

Numeracy

Self-assessment measures of competency are blends of an authentic self-assessment signal that researchers seek to measure and random disorder or "noise" that accompanies that signal. In this study, we use random number simulations to explore how random noise affects critical aspects of self-assessment investigations: reliability, correlation, critical sample size, and the graphical representations of self-assessment data. We show that graphical conventions common in the self-assessment literature introduce artifacts that invite misinterpretation. Troublesome conventions include: (y minus x) vs. (x) scatterplots; (y minus x) vs. (x) column graphs aggregated as quantiles; line …

Yvonne Miller And Carly Conrad, Student Spotlight, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Community Engagement Spotlights

Carly Conrad and Yvonne Miller were t he recipients of t he 2015 Outstanding Student Service Learning Award. They raised awareness about Native Americans living in Whiteclay, NE through showing the documentary Sober Indian Dangerous Indian.

Alma Becerril Salas, Student Spotlight, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Community Engagement Spotlights

Through the Office of Latin/Latino American Studies (OLLAS), Alma Becerril Salas helped create the Latino art exhibition ‘Latino-Latin American Artists: Exhibition & Conversations’. This art exhibit is the first of its kind to feature solely Latino artists from the Omaha metro area.

Breanna Brown, Student Spotlight, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Community Engagement Spotlights

UNO swimmer, Breanna Brown, participates in the Big Brothers and Big Sisters mentoring program.

Turning To Case Studies As A Mechanism For Learning In Action Learning, Denise O'Leary, Paul Coughlan, Clare Rigg, David Coghlan

Articles

Case studies are a useful means of capturing and sharing experiential knowledge by allowing researchers to explore the social, organisational and political contexts of a specific case. Although accounts of action learning are often reported using a case study approach, it is not common to see individual case studies being used as a learning practice within action learning sets. Drawing on a network action learning (NAL) project, this paper explores how the process of coaching, articulating, authoring, sharing and editing case studies provided a vehicle for learning and research within a NAL set. The intended contribution of this paper to …

Of All Days: Critical Pedagogy Outside The Classroom, Lisa M. Tillmann Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

A student at the author’s college pens a racist column on immigration for the school newspaper. Two departments, including the author’s, send campus-wide emails denouncing the rhetoric. A firestorm erupts, as much over the emails as over the op-ed. Years later, the student visits the author unannounced.

Matthew Van Ormer, Student Spotlight, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Community Engagement Spotlights

Matthew Van Ormer worked at The Collaborative and is the co-founder of UNO Be The Match, a student organization aimed at adding individuals to the national bone marrow registry.

Neal Grandgenett, Faculty Spotlight, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Community Engagement Spotlights

Neal Grandgenett, Ph.D, is a strong advocate of advancing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education. As the Haddix Community Chair of STEM Education and the Co-Chair of the UNO STEM Leadership Team, Dr. Grandgenett leads UNO's STEM outreach efforts.

Amelia Squires, Staff Spotlight, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Community Engagement Spotlights

Amelia Squires is the UNO STEM Outreach Coordinator. She engages youth in STEM education opportunities like EUREKA-STEM!, which is an enrichment program that begins with a 4 week summer camp held on UNO's campus for middle school girls.

Sandra Rodriguez-Arroyo, Faculty Spotlight, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Community Engagement Spotlights

Sondra Rodriguez-Arroyo, D.Ed, was the 2016 recipient of the Service Learning Academy (SLA) Faculty Service Learning Award.

Jeanette Harder, Faculty Spotlight, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Community Engagement Spotlights

Jeanette Harder, Ph.D., founded t he UNO nonprofit STEPs.

Anthony Hughes, Student Spotlight, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Community Engagement Spotlights

Anthony Hughes led the Queer Nebraska Youth Network (QNYN) from JAnuary 2014 through May 2015. The QNYN is the only youth-focused, peer-led LGBTQ+ group in Nebraska.

Jacques Musavyimana, Student Spotlight, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Community Engagement Spotlights

Jacques Musavyimana is the president of UNO Students Against Hunger. Jacques founded UNO Students Against Hunger in fall 2015 with the aim to educate people about food insecurity and eradicate hunger.

Krystal Herrmann (Staff) & Alan Kolok (Faculty), Spotlight, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Community Engagement Spotlights

The Nebraska Watershed Network (NWN) is a student-driven organization that aims to promote water quality through citizen science. Dr. Alan Kolok is the NWN director and Krystal Herrmann is the program coordinator.

Alex Bauer, Student Spotlight, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Community Engagement Spotlights

Alex Bauer is highly engaged with her community. "It started out that I'd do these things to make my parents happy and fulfill requirements for scholarships - but then, it really started to become an ingrained part of me. It became something that I was passionate about intrinsically. I want to make change in the world."

Adrienne Cavill, Student Spotlight, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Community Engagement Spotlights

Adrienne Cavill was one of the creators of the Marss Magnet Middle School Financial Literacy Program. Taught by College of Business Administration (CBA) Scholars, the class gave back to the community by teaching financial literacy topics to students.

Joseph Allen, Faculty Spotlight, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Community Engagement Spotlights

Joe Allen, Ph.D., is an associate professor in Industrial and Organizational Psychology. As the director of the Center for Applied Psychological Services and the founding director of the Volunteer Program Assessment- UNO, Dr. Allen has served hundreds of nonprofits.

Alyssa Cardona, Student Spotlight, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Community Engagement Spotlights

Alyssa Cardona organized a fundraiser that saved a maternal and child health clinic in Managua, Nicaragua from closing.

A Critical Policy Analysis Of Texas’ Closing The Gaps 2015, Katherine Cumings Mansfield, Stefani Thachik

Educational Leadership Publications

This critical policy analysis uses critical race theory to provide a counter narrative to the P-16 initiative in Texas known as Closing the Gaps 2015. Findings indicate that while these reforms aim to increase educational access and achievement for people of color, they fall short of addressing systemic inequities such as enduring segregation and unconstitutional school finance policy. Using Texas as a case study illumines the ways the growing number of P-16 councils throughout the US might adapt and improve policy development and implementation to more adequately address educational inequities across racial, ethnic, and linguistic groups. The article closes …

Service Learning Enhances Conceptual Learning In A Rn To Bsn Program, Henny Breen, Melissa Robinson

Faculty Publications

A qualitative study using transcript analysis was conducted to examine the effectiveness of service learning in enhancing conceptual learning in RN to BSN students. As part of their capstone course in an online program, students engaged in 64 hours of service learning in their local community. The transcripts of asynchronous discussions and journal entries formed the data for analysis. The findings illustrated that the student’s conceptual understanding was enhanced from the service learning experience. Further, the students demonstrated higher-level thinking by linking concepts that could be applied to nursing practice. Service learning reinforced the community-based philosophy of the School of …

Recruitment, Retention And Socialization Of Underrepresented Minority Populations To West Virginia Higher Education Administrative Positions, Dedriell Dewin Taylor

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This study contributed to the body of knowledge dealing with recruitment, retention and socialization of underrepresented (UREP) minority populations for academic leadership positions in West Virginia higher education. The purpose of the study was to examine both the institutional and personal factors that are most effective in attracting members of UREP minority groups to administrative leadership positions at institutions of higher education, specifically higher education institutions in West Virginia. The study was conducted using a mixed method research approach consisting of a non-experimental research design in the quantitative phase of the study and individual interviews in the qualitative phase.

Understanding The Factors Associated With Engaged Scholarship: A Case Study Of Sociologists In The University Of Cape Coast, Ghana, Rebecca Maame Ahima Tachie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although initially established for the purpose of training teachers and management staff for the formal education sector, one of the major objectives of the University of Cape Coast (UCC) is to establish partnerships with both local and international communities and organizations in ways that simultaneously enhance academic scholarship and socioeconomic development. For this reason, this study examined the significance of university policies on community engagement and the practice of public sociology. Specifically, the influence of epistemological dispositions and perceptions concerning disciplinary, institutional and social demands on engaged scholarship are addressed. The challenges associated with the practice of engaged scholarship and …

Weitz Cec Building Viewbook, Weitz Cec

Programs and Brochures

Welcome to the Barbara Weitz Community Engagement Center (Weitz CEC), the first of its kind in the country. Since opening in April 2014, the Weitz CEC, and the programs and partnerships it houses, have made a dynamic impact on our students, campus, and community.

The Weitz CEC is an expansive concept in university-community relations. Through its Student Service and Leadership Collaborative, the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) will elevate student volunteerism initiatives by incorporating leadership, civic responsibility, and cultural competence. Our award-winning Service Learning Academy now has room to grow, providing more students with experiences that enhance learning, foster …

A Big Idea: The Rollout Of Open Suny, Karen E. Case

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Leveraging technology may be a viable solution in the higher education industry as enrollments decline and institutions have a hard time meeting their projected budgets. One innovative approach to mitigating this problem was approved in March of 2013 by the Board of Trustees of the State University of New York (SUNY). It is called Open SUNY. Open SUNY consists of nine components: the creation and expansion of online programs to meet workforce development needs, the development of online credit-bearing experiential learning experiences, support for training of faculty who opt to use emerging technologies, support for student access to online courses, …

A Mixed Methods Exploration Of Minority Resource Eligibility For Half White Multiracial College Students, Nicholas Reyes Franco

Dissertations

Over the last several decades, multiracial populations have received increased attention in academic literature, particularly regarding identity development and psychological health and wellness. Less attention has been given to individuals with one minority and one white parent (i.e., half white individuals) in the context of affirmative action and higher education. Existing quantitative studies on this topic suggest, on the one hand, that half white individuals are likely to be considered members of racial minorities, yet, on the other hand, less of a minority—and less deserving of affirmative action benefits—than monoracial individuals or multiracial individuals with multiple minority identities. College students’ …

Documenting Dreams: Undocumented Students In Washington State, M. Elena Calderon Sandoval

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

"This research explores immigration policies that have provided access to higher education to undocumented students through the lens of sociocultural identity theory and cultural identification theory. These theories are fundamental in understanding the construction of identity for undocumented students as a result of their interactions with policies and higher education institutions. Pertinent Washington State legislation includes House Bill 1079, which allows for undocumented students to pay in-state tuition, the Real Hope Act that provides financial aid for undocumented students. Federal policy includes the Executive Order Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which allows undocumented students who meet certain requirements to apply …

Introducing The 17th Annual Promoting The General Welfare Conference, Uno William Brennan Institute For Labor Studies

Programs and Brochures

UNO’s William Brennan Institute for Labor Studies is excited to bring you a one-day conference to explore how to expand the boundaries of democracy.