The results indicated that use of nonprofit outgoing postage, window envelopes, and business reply returns lowered the costs per contact and did not significantly impair rate of return. Use of a second-wave questionnaire was a very effective technique for increasing the response rate. (Editor/PG)

Student characteristics, attitudes, and activities are highlighted, based on responses of 204,000 students who entered college in the fall of 1986. (MLW)

The Cooperative Institutional Research Program, the largest ongoing study of higher education in the United States, is discussed in terms of its conceptual framework, technical aspects of data collection, and uses of the data in research and national policymaking. (Author/MSE)

At the end of the 1968-1969 academic year, a survey was undertaken to determine the nature and extent of campus protests, how their frequency and types vary, how institutional responses to them differ, what institutional policies and practices have been changed because of them, and other related matters. The survey instrument was a questionnaire…

Examines the impact of service participation on undergraduate student development based on data collected from 3450 students attending 42 institutions with federally funded community service programs. Results indicate that participating in service during the undergraduate years substantially enhances the students' academic development, life skill…

Fall 1982 data on first-time, full-time freshmen are presented as part of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program. The normative data are presented separately for women and men, and for 38 groupings of institutions. The major stratifying factors are institutional race (predominantly black versus predominantly white), type (two-year college,…

The 23rd annual report of national normative data on the characteristics of students attending American colleges and universities as first-time, full-time freshmen is presented. This project of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program of the American Council on Education and the Graduate School of Education at the University of California,…

This report presents results of the fourth triennial national survey of college and university faculty conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute in the fall and winter of 1998-99. Results are based on responses of 33,785 full-time faculty at 378 institutions (two-year colleges, four-year colleges, and universities). Data are reported…

Increasing the participation of minority groups at lower educational levels appears to offer substantially greater potential for eventually increasing the representation of minorities in graduate and professional schools than do changes in graduate and professional school admissions procedures. Data from a Cooperative Institutional Research…

A national study of 82 college outcome measures on 25,000 students from 1985-89 looked at the relationship of outcomes, institutional environment (emphasis on institutional, student, or faculty diversity), and campus activism. Results suggest emphasis on diversity in all forms is beneficial to student development and also promotes student…

A review of national college student surveys since 1966 reveals that trends in student attitudes focusing more on material goals and less on social problems are beginning to reverse direction. There is growing evidence of increasing orientation toward social activism and protection of the environment. (Author/MSE)

This lecture decries the lack of any real sense of community in the modern university. It argues that the fundamental difficulty of creating a greater sense of community in higher education institutions is a problem of values. Competitiveness and materialism are emphasized more than those values that support and nurture a sense of community. There…

National normative data for fall 1983 on the characteristics of students entering college as first-time, full-time freshmen are presented as part of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program longitudinal study of American higher education. The 1983 norms are based on a statistically adjusted sample of over 254,000 new freshmen entering 489…

A national survey of 212 colleges and universities investigated the strategies and characteristics of institutions that are able to maintain a strong emphasis on both research and undergraduate teaching. Results indicate those that are successful are unique in certain respects that distinguish them from research universities and liberal arts…

National survey file data on college freshmen aspiring to be lawyers were compared to all others in the classes entering college in 1969 and 1981. Students aspiring to be lawyers differed substantially from others in family background, academic preparation, college selectivity, college major, political orientation and interest, and goal…