The Postsecondary Enrollment of Black American Men: The Perceived Influence of Environmental Factors

In the United States, there has been a consistent under-enrollment of Black American men who have enrolled and graduated from four-year colleges and universities. The result of this lack of educational attainment is problematic, as it can be seen in lower employment rates, higher under-employment rates, higher rates of incarceration, poorer health, and even a lower quality life. Institutional leaders and policymakers have struggled to find solutions for increasing the participation of Black American men with largely mixed results. Most of these programmatic attempts, however, have been limited in their approach and have not taken into account family and informal structures that might impact a Black American man’s decision to pursue postsecondary education. Therefore, the purpose for conducting the study was to identify enabling factors that are perceived to encourage Black American men to enroll in postsecondary education. The study employed a transcendental phenomenological research approach, a qualitative research methodology used to explore phenomena in a systematic manner. There were 8 interview participants who were enrolled in seven institutions in the mid-west/mid-south of the United States. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with each individual, and in addition, the Tolerance for Disagreement survey, developed by McCroskey, Richmond, and Stewart, was administered to study participants. The use of the survey was an attempt to explore in-family communication and agreement, and whether those men who decided to attend college were actually in disagreement with their families. Study findings identified a number of variables that impact an individual’s decision to attend college, including personal relationships, interactions with individuals from their social and formal communities, and social organizations that supported them once they were enrolled in college. Broadly, the study demonstrated support for the emerging field-theory of community expectancy that attempts to explain the formal and informal interactions that an individual has on an outlook or decision, and as was explored in the current study, the decision to attend postsecondary education

Management Skills for the Contemporary College President: A Critical Review

This review of the literature related to the contemporary college president attempted to describe changes to the presidential role during the past 30 years. In addition to describing changes to the role, the review explores the personal, organizational, interpersonal, and leadership skills required for leading a contemporary university. The findings particularly note that with the changing demands for accountability in higher education, presidents are being forced to spend more of their time and be more focused on issues of finance, law, and public interactions. These issues tend to collide in discussions of public policy and within the framework of state legislative proposals. Continued professional development for college presidents is recommended, especially in terms of aligning work place priorities with the institution’s mission

The Perceived Family and Parental Influence on African American Men Who Enroll in Community Colleges

Higher education institutions have generally been successful in increasing the number of diverse populations who attend college, especially recruiting and enrolling record numbers of Hispanic and Asian students. African American enrollments continue to lag behind these other diverse groups, with African American men being among the lowest of the multicultural groups to be enrolled in higher education today. Community colleges have been perhaps the most successful in recruiting and enrolling African American men, and the current study sought to describe how the families of these men interact and encourage or discourage enrollment. Using a series of semi-structured interviews, families were found to play a perceived important role in the decision to enroll in a community college. These families mentored the African American men in the study, created expectations for them to have successful life beyond high school, and pushed them to have positive ideas about their future and to plan for that future. These findings were consistent with modeling about college going decision-making, and also reinforced the emerging theory of community expectancy

Presidential Perceptions Concerning Human Capital in College Student Enrollment and Persistence

With a declining population of traditional college aged students, institutions must find both new student groups to recruit and do a better job at retaining them. One obvious pool for institutions to consider are first-generation students who do not have family traditions of going to college. This population, along with others, require institutions to understand the personal development of young adults and the factors that might lead to their college enrollment. The purpose for conducting the study was to identify how college presidents perceive the importance of human capital capacity for college students in their decision to enroll in college. The study made use of a sample of 400 college presidents from different types of institutions, asking them to rate their agreement with different human capital variables and their perception of that variable as being a contributor to college enrollment. President had the highest mean agreement levels with the human capital variables of developing a strong work ethic, developing personal confidence, and developing resilience. They had the lowest mean agreement levels with learning how to take advice, wisdom, and understanding personal and family history and lore. An exploratory factor analysis provided clusters of responses, including larger themes such as self-determination and personal grit