Which Role Shall I Perform? The Doctoral Experience of Women

Doctoral women experience disparities in self-efficacy, degree completion, and mental fatigue compared to men-identified colleagues. Women pursuing doctorates express hardships mirroring those reported in the 1970s. Applied qualitative methodology yielded emergent themes, contextualized by the frameworks of role theory and academic resilience theory. The experiences shared by the women in this study support that the expectations of women regarding the doctoral process do not align with the situational reality, specifically regarding imposter syndrome, mentorship, family-planning, financial support, and social expectations. Recommendations for departments and universities are provided to create a more just experience

A Hierarchy of Environmental Design for Latin* Men at PWIs

To understand the transaction between the environment and students, this study examines a Latin* cultural center in facilitating community and sense of belonging for Latino men at a predominantly White institution (PWI). This study used critical race theory, specifically LatCrit to interrogate Strange and Banning’s (2015) hierarchy of environmental design. Findings nuanced the understanding and experience of community, engagement and safety of Latino men within a racialized space at a PWI. Implications for practice are discussed to better understand how Latin* cultural center environments contribute to the behavior and experience of Latino men

Campus Apartment Architecture Style and Likelihood to Graduate: An Exploratory Study at a Southern Public Liberal Arts University

Because of increased opportunities for social interaction, undergraduate students living on campus are more likely to persist and graduate than their counterparts.  Residence hall design also contributes to student interaction.  This study explores the relationship between campus apartment design and graduation rates of a sophomore cohort attending a southern public liberal arts university.  Initial findings indicate students living in a communal apartment complex were more likely to graduate than those living in traditional complexes; a multivariate logistic regression finds the strongest predictors of graduation are race/ethnicity and semester credit hours earned.  Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed

Stress Management and Coping Strategies in Undergraduate Students at a Midwestern State University

This qualitative interview study explored the experiences in a purposive sample of nontraditional and traditional undergraduate students, examining their current stressors and how coping strategies to manage stress developed. The study used Schlossberg’s (1995) transition theory in conceptualizing experiences with stress and Lazarus and Folkman’s (1984) transactional theory of stress and coping in defining coping strategies. Four themes emerged indicating that participants used a variety of coping strategies towards maintaining or improving their mental health. Implications for practice are provided to facilitate increased understanding by student affairs professionals of undergraduate students’ coping strategies and stress management

Can Self-determination Theory be Used to Increase College Student Retention?

This paper first introduces self-determination theory (SDT) to retention researchers and higher education professionals. Highlighted are the three basic psychological needs, that when met, are theorized to give rise to intrinsic motivation, which is associated with high levels of human performance. These are the needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. This theoretical overview is followed by a discussion of how this theory has been applied to understand the role of intrinsic motivation in fostering educational success. An outline of how SDT can be applied to increase college student retention is presented. The second part of the paper applies the understanding of self-determination theory to interpret and better understand the results of a focused literature review of 12 retention research articles. This interpretation suggests that meeting or failing to meet the psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness proposed by SDT may explain the results of research reviewed. It is theorized that college environments that meet all three psychological needs postulated by SDT will increase student retention beyond what prior approaches have achieved

People Look at You a Little Bit Differently: Self-authorship and the Homegoing Experiences of First-Generation College Students of Color

First-generation college (FGC) students represent 56% of college students in the United States (RTI International, 2019). Studies on the role FGC family in students’ campus experiences by Covarrubias et al. (2015) along with Orbe’s (2008) work on the role of culture in FGC identity development provide a foundation for understanding FGC experiences. The role of FGC self-authorship (Carpenter & Peña, 2017) on campus also helps support FGC student success. Unexamined are FGC students’ homegoing experiences in their communities of origin. This study helps fill a void in the literature about FGC students’ experiences in their home communities through the voices of one important student demographic

Perspectives on University Student Engagement in England

While national quantitative research has been conducted that measured satisfaction and engagement of undergraduate students in England, fewer qualitative studies exist that focused on the needs of students and their perceptions of the totality of their university experiences. This study examined the multifaceted phenomena of student engagement in a non-US setting to explore student attitudes and needs that contribute to retention and engaged decisions at an English university. Findings suggested that US research has applicability in the English university context. As is the case in the US, English student engagement in academics and societies was affected by factors associated with stress, belonging, career aspirations, support, and social involvement

Computers and Student Services: A Futuristic Perspective

This piece was originally published in the CSPA Journal in 1984, providing a furturistic look at technology in student affairs practice.  This now retrospective piece sheds light on how far we have come and how far we have yet to go

Kent State Revisited - Twenty-Five Years Later

This piece originally appeared in the CSPA-NYS Journal some 28 years ago and represents the reflections of a student affairs professional staff member who was a resident director during the Kent State shootings in 1970