In order to attract strong faculty members, many of whom may not realize initially the distinctive strengths of small colleges, small schools need to work hard and plan well to recruit and hire qualified faculty in communication and theatre. A search and screen process which presents an accurate and attractive picture of the small college is an…

A review and synthesis of the literature on factors influencing faculty decisions to leave an institution are presented. From this review, Lazarsfeld and Rosenberg's "empirical analysis of action" methodology was selected as the foundation for a survey of 37 Arts and Sciences faculty, for whom the response rate was 51%. Each received a…

Faced with high rates of student attrition, Santa Barbara Community College (SBCC) established a committee to assess the effectiveness of the college's support services; review research on student retention; and recommend ways of improving student success through academic skills assessment, student academic advisement, articulation and…

A description is provided of a conference session that was conducted to explore the structure and function of an environmental scanning/forecasting system that could be used in a community college to facilitate planning. Introductory comments argue that a college that establishes an environmental scanning and forecasting system is able to identify…

The motivations of black faculty with doctorates to teach in the relatively few predominantly black colleges and universities at a time when there is heavy demand for black faculty in most American higher education institutions are explored. Black faculty are in short supply, constituting 5% or fewer of the total American professoriate, and this…

It has been hypothesized that college students develop differently in various areas of experience, that they learn to deal with interpersonal relationships early in their college experience, but that they may not have time to develop leisure interests. Instruments designed to assess growth on three of Chickering's student development vectors…

The concept of student-institution fit in higher education is clarified, and an approach that can be applied to different types of campuses is described. Also considered is the theoretical framework, including the concept of "person-environment interaction." Three sets of factors are important: student characteristics, institutional…

The use of the Values Inventory to clarify institutional identity at California State University, Long Beach, is described. The inventory was used as part of a project that sought to: (1) identify institutional values shaping decision-making: and (2) promote awareness of value issues in higher education. The Values Inventory was used to interview…

A review of student development literature reveals that the goal of student affairs has changed from the mission of controlling and serving students to that of developing students. Implementing a residential life program grounded in student developmental strategies requires careful planning. Three developmental strategies incorporated with sound…

This paper presents a two-year primary prevention intervention aimed at reducing institutional racism and sexism at a large midwestern university. A case study format is used to describe the history, process, and outcomes of the consultation that resulted in proactive change in the institution. Definitions of primary prevention are given and the…

A model for the analysis of college closing is tested and illustrated using the existing literature of college closings. Since the literature on college closing provided little analysis or material upon which theory might be developed, attention was directed to the work that has been done on the somewhat parallel subject of the closing of…

A major purpose of this study was to identify the five most outstanding black scholars in the social sciences and humanities in the United States and to determine how they achieved eminence. The study focuses on their unfolding careers, the decisive events in their lives, interconnections in their life histories, and social interaction between…

The purpose and effect of a college education today is examined in this book by a graduate of Harvard, Oxford, and Princeton and a former professor at three institutions. "Group memory" is defined as the knowledge of how to survive that is passed from one generation to the next. The heart of the book is two survival manuals--one for…

Because residence life supplements the students' classroom experiences with personal and group learning related to cognitive, affective, and physical development, the appropriate role for residential living units in the Indiana University community was explored. The learning disposition of students living in the residence halls was examined,…

A project was undertaken at two state universities to investigate the physical dimensions of college classroom environments and their effects on student attitudes and the determining factors of such attitudes. The attitudes of 789 undergraduate, introductory psychology students toward 11 college classrooms were surveyed through administration of…