This study proposes a new giving behavior model for higher education institutions (HEI), featuring alumni connectedness as a primary predictor. This contrasts with previous studies that measured variables that showed an inconsistent influence as predictors of alumni's desire to contribute. Alumni connectedness, built from socio-psychological…

Based on Boyer's (1990) principles of community, the purpose of this study was to examine how students' perceived sense of campus community contributed to explaining their satisfaction with school life. Participants were randomly selected from a student email address list obtained by the Office of Assessment at a mid-size university in the Midwest…

This study investigated university students' perceptions of their institutions' learning environments, and related those perceptions to students' academic aspirations and satisfaction with their universities. A sample of 12,423 juniors at 42 universities in Taiwan was used to confirm the validity and reliability of the instrument: CUEI-S. The…

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of religion in creating a campus community to address violence on the college campus. Given the amount of cases and increasing magnitude of the ferocity of perpetrators of violence the study of safety was an important area of research. This study was able to give a voice to students who shared…

This dissertation explored the four-year college experience of first-generation and continuing-generation students at a small private institution. Using Astin's I-E-O model (1970), the following variables in the student experience were considered: precollege student characteristics (input); engagement in academic experiences, cocurricular…

Hypotheses about person-environment congruency, consistency, and differentiation from Holland's theory of careers were tested. Subjects were students who had been given the Self-Directed Search before their freshman year followed by a questionnaire one or three years later. Results support Holland's congruency hypothesis but not the…

A previous study by Edwards and Waters (1982) was replicated and extended by incorporating a personal needs/college climate discrepancy index and a voluntary/nonvoluntary attrition breakdown. The use of undifferentiated, nonvoluntary, and voluntary attrition criteria yielded substantially different results in both the predictors of attrition and…

This study investigated the relationship of parental attachment (Parental Attachment Questionnaire) and on-campus social support (People in My Life) to college adjustment (Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire) among 186 Black students' on predominantly White campuses. Parental attachment was found to contribute to the explanation of college…

A model to distinguish persisters and nonpersisters at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, was developed. Persisters and nonpersisters differed in background characteristics, attitudes toward and interaction with the university, opportunities to leave, and intentions. Responses to a mail survey were returned by 86 first-time freshmen…

University climate differences were examined across paired samples of 32 male self-identified heterosexual and 32 male self-identified homosexual college students attending the University of Virginia. Data were collected during the winter and spring of the 1983-84 school year. Selected students completed a questionnaire packet addressing several…

Grade point average for residence hall freshmen (N=1,167; 52%male, 90% white, 74% in-state) is related significantly to precollege characteristics (high school rank, gender, ethnicity, parental education, divorced/separated parents, self-perception of abilities, expectation of honors or changing major) and environmental variables (learning…

A study was conducted to determine whether factors found to be related to student persistence in public and independent two-year colleges (i.e., positive college environment, realistic student expectations for career and education, and a sense of belonging) were generalizable to the proprietary sector. Three proprietary institutions in New York…

A model of student attrition was synthesized from psychological, sociological, and educational sources, and contains six sets of variables: background, organizational, personal, environmental, attitudinal, and intent to leave. The model was tested with 1,909 full-time and unmarried university freshmen at a major midwestern university. The sample…

Student attrition was studied in relation to the quality of the interaction between the student and the college environment, using a modified version of the Total Adjustment Scale, a self-report rating scale. Academic functioning, social functioning, and bonding to the college setting were assessed for 459 college freshmen at the University of…

This study examined environmental and institutional factors affecting persistence of Hispanic college students. The sample of 324 first- and second-year students surveyed in the spring of 1995 included students who were enrolled in programs at a private, Illinois, bilingual junior college which were established to educate students who were older,…