The demand for flexible online learning models, fueled by technological advancements and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has necessitated creative solutions to support millions of students enrolled in online programs. Higher Education leaders, faced with this growing demand and lacking expertise in online learning, have turned to outsourced…

People interested in the field of Rhetoric and Composition are far more likely now than in the past to pursue a career in writing program administration (WPA). Preparation for this work can be both difficult to find and difficult to provide which is problematic for prospective graduate students and WPA professors alike. The purpose of this study…

Physicists, physics students, and community members engage with each other through a variety of informal physics programs. These programs differ in format, such as after school programs, public lectures, planetariums, summer camps, and other non-formal classroom environments. These programs also differ in the physics topics they cover, activities,…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the matching requirement of the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) grant is an arbitrary administrative stipulation of the grant or whether it adds meaningful value to the program. If the GEAR UP grant's matching requirement is a detriment to the program,…

African American women represent an overwhelmingly low percentage of Division I athletic directors compared to White men, Black men, and White women. White men hold the majority, 64%, of Division I athletic director positions, while African American women only hold 3% of these positions. African American athletic directors do not accurately…

Strategic planning is the process in which organizations develop goals and objectives that drive actions for the purpose of fulfilling their institutional mission. This paper addresses how strategic planning can be utilized at community colleges. A review of relevant literature is also included. A qualitative case study research methodology was…

Increasing the diversity representation among students of color is a critical need in colleges and universities of today. Education institutions are tasked with implementing imaginative ways to recruit, retain, and graduate students of color, especially at Predominately White Institutions (PWIs). Multicultural mentorship programs at PWIs have been…

The systemic restructuring of community colleges to better align students on pathways to success (guided pathways) is on the rise. Institutions are transforming their practices and systems on a broad scale to enable students to better succeed. However, many of these initiatives are difficult to implement simultaneously and require planning,…

The purpose of this study was to discover what defines a writing center by interviewing directors of writing centers in the Southern Appalachian area. This qualitative study was based on a single round of recorded telephone interviews with 13 writing center directors who meet the criteria for inclusion in the study. Many researchers have written…

This study examined faculty socialization at the University of Mississippi regarding research and sponsored program administration through the lens of transformative learning. Participants were 10 tenure track faculty who had been employed at the University of Mississippi no less than one year, no more than seven years, and who had submitted a…

This mixed methods study explored co-curricular student leadership development programs that included intercultural learning and were designed for international students studying at higher education institutions in the United States. The study aimed to better understand: (a) common program characteristics; (b) program administrator perceptions;…

Intercollegiate Athletics Directors (ADs) are the primary managers of athletics programs on college campuses. At the Division I level of the NCAA, ADs manage multimillion dollar budgets and programs that relate to their institutions' profitability, visibility, student-interest, student-achievement, and donations, yet little is known about ADs'…

The COVID-19 pandemic was a unique phenomenon that significantly impacted higher education. Programmatic grants were an important source of funding at community colleges during this unusual time, helping to provide vital resources and support services to institutions and their students. This study is one of the first of its kind to explore the…

The aim of this dissertation is to analyze the emergence and development of study abroad program providers as a distinct model of study abroad program through archival research and interviews. This particular focus will allow scholars and international educators to understand how program providers emerged, evolved, and responded to the changing…

Upon graduation from an undergraduate institution, engineering graduates are expected to have a baselevel skill in technical skills related to their discipline. Teaching technical skills comes naturally to engineering programs as the conceptual understanding of the material form the foundation of engineering ability. However, engineering graduates…