A study was conducted to investigate the role of the community college in the lives of students and staff, and to examine the relationship between organizational structure and institutional culture. The study methodology involved in-depth interviews, questionnaire surveys, and observations at one State University of New York community college, and…

The Project on the Status and Education of Women (PSEW) of the Association of American Colleges describes ways in which women faculty, administrators, and graduate students in higher education are often treated differently from men. Under a grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), PSEW investigated negative…

Class attitudes among dental students were studied at Louisiana State University in spring 1986, with attention to attitudes toward leadership, faculty and administration, study habits, labs and clinics, information acquisition, social life, and class unification. Class attitudes became more uniform and deeply held as the classes progressed…

The impact of educational experiences on the 1978 graduates of Baruch College, New York as reflected in their achievements two years after graduation was assessed. Responses to a mailed questionnaire were received from 837 (60 percent) graduates. It was found that the employment of Baruch graduates was very high: 96 percent were employed. Nearly…

Designed for community colleges that wish to improve their accreditation self-studies, strategic planning, and program reviews by gathering information about students and their learning outcomes, this working paper presents a bank of questionnaire items focusing on student and college outcomes. The item bank is organized into five major…

Perceptions of college students concerning the level of stress they experience from 25 potential stressors were studied. The sample consisted of 198 students from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Based on a principal factors analysis with varimax rotation, seven stress-source factors were identified: (1) academic content, (2)…

Strategic planning in higher education is discussed from the perspective of institutional research. Attention is directed to: institutional mission, institutional assessment, institutional leadership, environmental assessment, market analysis, and competitive position. Strategic planning merges incrementalism, which focuses on flexibility,…

The Practice-Theory-Practice Model (PTPM), a method designed to infuse theoretical perspectives into case study materials and to serve as a guide for examining chance processes in institutions of higher education, is described. The PTPM considers the historical and experiential environment that acts upon an institution, its practices and its…

Educational practice and barriers to full participation of Alaska Natives in postsecondary education were examined in an ethnographic study begun in October 1980 by the University of Alaska. Focus was on the institutional placement, organization, and functioning of gatekeeping encounters within the university, primarily the central Fairbanks…

A bibliography of Arthur W. Chickering's works on the college student as an individual is presented. Specific topics include the following: diverse student bodies and a changing society, competency-based education, adult development and teaching-learning implications, lifelong learning by handicapped persons, college curriculum development,…

Institutional vitality in higher education and measures of vitality are considered. Vitality may be viewed as the capacity of a college or university to incorporate organizational strategies that support the continuing investment of energy by faculty and staff both in their own careers and in the realization of the institution's mission.…

The concept and implementation of long-range planning for student affairs is considered, and a simple model for planning that could be useful to chief student personnel officers is presented. Several issues are considered in this process: the conditions and premises crucial to planning, a systematic approach to planning, the locus of the planning…

Alumni attitudes concerning their college experience, present work, and present recreational activities were analyzed in relation to the time in college, using a semantic differential format. Four items were used for each type of rating, one evaluative, another activity-oriented, and two potency oriented. The evaluation dimension concerns the…

In an effort to establish priorities for long- and short-range planning, Palo Verde College (PVC) administered the Educational Testing Service's Community College Goals Inventory to all PVC faculty and administrators, 20 community residents, five trustees, and approximately 200 students. The inventory asked respondents to rate the importance of…

Psychologists have long been interested in the causes of student success or failure in college. In the late 1950's, investigators began to examine behaviors beyond the cognitive realm as crucial elements in the student's adaptation to college life. Research on adolescents' transition from high school to college identified several components of…