A hands-on study for executives, researchers, and students who want to better understand how organizational culture can support or impede decision making strategies in a complex changing collegiate environment is provided. Leadership strategies and institutional problems are described. Seven different collegiate cultures are explored via case…

Stresses experienced by college students at different educational levels are considered, along with ways that colleges can help reduce destructive forms of stress. After discussing how stress and coping are related, problems in defining stress and coping are considered, and models are proposed for understanding stress. Following an overview on the…

Four papers on an ethnographic study of Christian Brothers College (CBC) in Australia, a Catholic college, are presented. In "Christian Brothers College: A View from Overseas," Louis M. Smith discusses research methods, the religious ethos, faculty heterogeneity, diversity in classroom organization, the organizational context of the…

The Success Project was initiated by the San Diego Community College District in 1985 to improve remedial instruction and support services, increase faculty participation in instructional decision making, and provide a means for following up on decisions. In the first year, task forces on instructional assessment, student assessment, remediation,…

The relationship between the structure of decision-making in a college or university and the consensus on values within the university was studied, based on the field of organization theory where cultures and values are helpful in understanding the operations of an organization. Based on a larger study of the academic profession, a qualitative…

Cuyahoga Community College (CCC), Western Campus, has developed an admissions/counseling cooperative program to assist underprepared, probationary, or academically dismissed students to effect positive changes in their educational record and personal lives. The program includes the following components: (1) computer monitoring of students' grades…

The University of Arizona's Precollege Program for academically talented secondary school students, which enrolls qualified students in selected university summer courses, is described. The majority of the students are between their junior and senior year in high school and have a grade point average of at least 3.25 on a 4.0 scale. In addition to…

As part of a multi-phase, multi-method study of the House Plan at Cypress College in California, this study surveyed three student populations as to various House Plan aspects. Questionnaires were given or mailed to 135 students attending graduation rehearsal in June 1976, 256 students eligible for graduation, and 280 alumni who graduated in June…

A conceptual model of undergraduate socialization is presented. The framework incorporates several elements of the models developed by Feldman (1972) and Hochbaum (1968), but combines these models in a different way and incorporates the more recent work of Astin (1978). Of particular concern is an examination of the complex covariation among (1)…

Need-based theories of work motivation are considered with particular reference to university faculty; it is hypothesized that three different types of people are attracted to the academic setting: (1) those who want to teach, (2) those who want to do research, and (3) those who want to do both. According to need theories, certain fundamental…

The status of student political activism in the 1970s and 1980s in such nations as the United States, Britain, India, Japan, Italy, Canada, West Germany, Greece, Zambia and Latin America is examined. The volume consists of 13 chapters written by scholars who all agree that student activism is not now at peak levels of the 1960s, yet student…

For the past four years, Indiana University-Bloomington has used an ecosystems approach to environmental assessment to evaluate the programs, services, and personnel of its residence halls. In October 1981, undergraduates (N=710) living in residence halls completed a questionnaire about the residence hall environment. The questionnaire included an…

A causal model to explain student attrition was tested at a major midwestern land-grant university with a sample of 1,513 full-time, unmarried freshmen who were 21 years old or younger. The causal model was reduced from 23 to 10 variables: an intent variable, three attitudinal variables, and two each of organizational, personal, and environmental…

A study of admission and retention problems for black undergraduate students in seven predominantly white universities was commissioned to identify the principal problems, propose program alternatives to promote retention and graduation, and make recommendations about the responsibilities of the institutions in assuring access and graduation…

The impact of an alternative calendar that was developed to meet the needs of present and projected university constituencies at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh was assessed. The calendar combines a traditional two-semester system of 17 weeks each and an eight-week summer session with an alternative calendar that divides the fall and spring…