Community colleges located in urban areas face unique challenges and opportunities. How leaders in these institutions respond to this unique setting requires an understanding of the skills that might be required to adeptly work in these environments. Drawing upon survey research from the past 20 years, a research-team developed instrument was…

This paper examines Informal Learning Spaces (ILS) usage among students from colleges with versus those without a dedicated building in a university, using a mixed method approach. The library is the most visited ILS, while convenience and locales of colleges determine student traffic behavior and ILS usage. Students from dedicated buildings that…

The years 2020 through 2021 have been exceptionally turbulent in the United States. We have experienced a world-wide pandemic, extensive racial justice protests, a bitter presidential election, and more. All include race, gender, socioeconomic, and other social identity implications. All have impacted our institutions of higher education. At the…

This dissertation adds to the economic study of gun and marijuana laws. Chapter 1 studies the impact of stand your ground laws (SYGs) on traffic fatalities. Chapter 2 investigates the effects of campus concealed carry laws (CCCs) on higher education outcomes. Chapter 3 looks at the impact of medical marijuana laws (MMLs) on youth crimes. The first…

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of Black first-generation college students enrolled at historically White institutions as well as their parents and how parental support influences their experiences in successfully navigating the collegiate process at historically White institutions in order to provide a better…

This study examines and elevates the experiences of first-generation, low-income, Black women (FGLIBW) who are navigating the community college pipeline. Three forms of data--biographical questionnaires, phenomenological interview responses, and testimonio share back prompt responses--capture the extent to which participants feel welcomed,…

The integration of diverse perspectives propels scientific innovation (Hofstra et al., 2020; Van der Vegt & Janssen, 2003), enhances scientific capacity to address particularly-challenging problems (Sulik et al., 2021), and better prepares scientists to grapple with the meaning of their work (Harding, 2015; Rolin, 2019); however, present…

Racism pervasively impacts the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and is a substantial barrier to accessing, engaging and succeeding within secondary education. Cultural resilience and support have been identified as critical to Aboriginal success within racist institutions. However, research examining experiences of racism and…

Courses: Rhetorical criticism, public address, persuasion, public memory theory, argumentation. Objectives: Through analysis of public controversies about Confederate monuments on college campuses, students will: (1) explore the concept of "public memory," how groups of people form shared interpretations of the past; (2) examine how…

Student impressions formed during the first day of class can impact course satisfaction and performance. Despite its potential importance, little is known about how instructors format the first day of class. Here, we report on observations of the first day of class in 23 introductory science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) courses. We…

Although honors populations occupy only a fraction of institutional enrollments, they have undeniably changed the nature of higher education. This essay considers the impact of honors on university culture, processes, and infrastructure. Touted as a "critical element" of the comprehensive college experience for both students and faculty,…

Increasingly students from diverse backgrounds are attending university, many from contexts where accessing higher education is the exception rather than the norm. We know that these learners often have a lower sense of belonging when compared to their second or third generation peers but how this is experienced at an individual level remains…

Studying voter turnout in the 2016 presidential election among Asian American college students (AACSs) is timely given that the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has inflamed racism against Asian Americans. In the midst of this global pandemic, US President Trump incited racist attacks and led many to scapegoat Asian Americans for spreading the virus…

Purpose: The current study examines the moderating effect of supportive campus environment on the relationship between cultural diversity and students' sense of belonging in a university in South Africa. Design/methodology/approach: An online survey was designed and used to gather data from a sample of 2,026 registered undergraduate students.…

More than 80 years of literature support the idea that math attitudes and experiences differ by gender. However, such research treats gender as a simple and dichotomous variable, which it is not. As such, our understandings of math affective variables are completely dominated by a cisgender narrative and a false gender binary. In particular, I…