The use of a social networking site with pre-enrolled Business School students to enhance their first year experience at university, and in doing so, improve retention

A Social Networking Site was explored as a medium for forging early links with students entering a UK University Business School within the North-West region. A Facebook page was specifically created for pre –enrolment contact with students coming to study on one of six pre-identified ‘retention hotspot’ courses within the department. Students firmly accepted offers to study on these courses in August 2011 and from this point, forthcoming students were invited to join the Facebook page. The Facebook page, alongside being informative, introduced forthcoming students to their prospective course mates as well as to the department, university and city. This pre-enrolment contact via Facebook aimed to engender students’ sense of belonging and facilitate social integration, not just to the student group but on a departmental level too. Sense of belonging and social integration are frequently highlighted in the literature as issues pertaining to student retention. An evaluation revealed positive feedback from the students about the Facebook page who reported that it helped to build friendships and networks earlier, faster and easier thus ultimately facilitating social integration and feelings of belonging. Figures revealed that students who were members of the Facebook page experienced higher levels of retention than non-Facebook page member

Free coffee and cake! A retention initiative to promote first year business school students’ social interaction with their peers and staff

This paper discusses the findings from a small case study which involved implementing a social initiative with year 1 students on retention ‘hotspot’ programmes in the Business School. Financed by the internal TLA fund, this initiative involved running four coffee and cake events over an academic year specifically for students on the hotspot programmes. The purpose of these events was to facilitate student interaction with other students and lecturers in the department, to promote social engagement, connectedness to the department and feelings of belonging. With increasing tuition fees and the tendency for students to live off campus, many students attend only formal timetabled teaching events and do not engage in additional activities. Arguably therefore, not all students fully connect to the university or department, thus affecting their feelings of belonging. A sense of belonging appears repeatedly in the literature as contributing towards student retention. Students and staff took part in an evaluation of the coffee and cake events in April 2012 and this paper discusses the findings. Results showed that the coffee and cake events contributed towards students’ feelings of belonging and made students feel valued. In particular, students particularly benefited from the liaisons with staff in a more relaxed, non-teaching environment

Evaluation of a Care Management Program on Family Caregivers of Persons with Dementia

Dementia due to Alzheimer’s and other disease is a growing concern for healthcare providers as the number of individuals in the U.S. population ages. Persons with dementia (PWDs) rely on caregivers, primarily family caregivers (FCGs), for basic and instrumental activities of daily living as the disease progresses. There may be negative outcomes, such as depression, strain, and distress for FCGs of PWDs. Routine assessment and intervention by healthcare providers can address needs of FCGs of PWDs. There are multiple interventions that have demonstrated effectiveness in caring for PWDs and FCGs; one such intervention is care management. The University of California, Davis, Health (UCDH) Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care (ADC) Program is a care management program serving PWDs and FCGs since July 2021. This project evaluates the program’s effect on FCG outcomes, specifically depression, strain, and distress. Despite an increase in the severity of dementia and in the number of basic and instrumental activities of daily living requiring caregiving support, FCGs of PWDs experienced decreased levels of depression, strain, and distress following 12 to 18 months in the UCDH ADC Program. Other notable findings include PWDs experiencing reductions in severity of neuropsychiatric symptoms and remaining at home with FCGs. Encounters in the program were primarily unscheduled, non-billable encounters. Despite limitations, primarily small sample size and lack of sample diversity, this project contributes to literature supporting dementia care management for PWDs and FCGs. Future research should address these limitations to understand the experiences of a diverse population and to make dementia care management programs sustainable

Mission of a Meddler: Mixed Matters of Class, Gender, and Race in Mary Church Terrell\u27s Model of Elite Black Female Activism

In The Mission of Meddlers, published in 1905 in The Voice of the Negro, Mary Church Terrell called to action a cadre of change agents who dared to ask prejudiced, cast-ridden bigots by what right they humiliate and harass their fellowmen simply on account of a difference in color, class or races. As the privileged daughter of Robert Reed Church, Sr., hailed as the Souths first black millionaire, Terrell upon completion of college could easily have complied with her fathers wishes to have her reside at his Memphis mansion and enjoy the genteel lifestyle of a Southern belle. She chose instead to use her mettle as an elite black woman to combat gender bias and race discrimination. The goal of this dissertation is to illustrate how Terrell, meddler on a mission, did not merely react to gender and racial inequality but consistently dictated through transformative leadership the very direction of the national dialogue for the enacting, enabling, and enforcing of federal protective legislation. Terrells autobiography, A Colored Woman in a White World, is supplemented with newspaper articles, excerpts from her diary, reflections from selected contemporaries, Congressional records, and court cases to analyze how her ancestry, affluence, and academic training gave dimensionality, or multifaceted layers, to her class stature. These sources also show how Terrell crafted female concentricity, or common circles with diverse female groups, by building self-help networks with elite black clubwomen; providing community service to poor black women; and forging political alliances with white suffragists. Stuart Hall, the late black British cultural theorist, wrote in a 1978 study that race is the modality in which class is lived. This dissertation argues that transforming the modality of race was the greatest roadblock that Terrell faced in implementing her mission as a meddler; indeed, race was the window through which both class and gender were viewed. Terrells class standing did not exempt her from racial bias, and even elite black women by virtue of their race were not considered ladies. Terrell fought racial inequality through her intrepid service as a liaison with Frederick Douglass in their 1993 White House visit that drew national attention to lynching; as lobbyist on behalf of the Brownsville soldiers dismissed without due process in 1906; and as launchpad for the chartering of the NAACP in 1909. Terrells picketing of Washington, D.C. segregated public accommodations in the 1950s as an octogenarian with the lost laws as her basis was the capstone of her long and fruitful career as a meddler. Terrell remained resolute that the thorny issue of race often overshadowed her class standing and proved darker in tone than gender bias. Though she was a colored woman in a white world determined to limit her to a separate sphere and within racial boundaries, this dissertation will show that Terrell through her writings, speeches, and direct action campaigns led the vanguard of black activists determined to dictate a different direction