“I Alone Can’t Stop the Spread”: Mid-Level Conduct Professionals Sensemaking Through COVID-19

The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore how mid-level student conduct professionals (SCPs) made meaning of their professional and mid-level leadership experiences during their institutions’ immediate responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study draws on sensemaking as a theoretical lens and literature related to mid-level professionals and student conduct practice to ground its inquiry. Interview data was collected and analyzed from four senior-level student conduct professionals within a single State within the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) accreditation region. Findings center on three key themes voiced by the participants: the importance of maintaining operational processes, feelings of middleness, and reflections on student and personal wellbeing. Discussion and implications for professionals and postsecondary organizations confronting the short- and long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are offered. Here, we highlight the valuable roles student conduct professionals play within postsecondary organizational life and the need for greater attention to these practitioners in both research and practice

Higher Education for Undergraduate Innovation

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of collegiate environments and experiences on an emergent and socially beneficial higher education outcome: innovation. The study is framed using research questions that introduce a longitudinal (first-years) and comparative (first-years to seniors) quantitative design and an interdisciplinary theoretical framework comprising developmental and organizational perspectives. The study next introduces literature – drawn primarily from the fields of higher education and entrepreneurship studies – pertaining to those student inputs, college environments and experiences, and developmental outcomes theoretically and/or empirically associated with students’ innovation capacities. Quantitative methods are next introduced, with detailed descriptions of the mode of administration, sample characteristics, the analysis plan, and limitations provided. Methodological conversation is continued in an appendix describing the development of new constructs designed to measure college experiences and an original outcome measure developed for use in this study: innovation capacities. The results of all correlation analyses, t-tests, ANOVAs, and regression analyses are then introduced. The results broadly indicate that while no significant change in the outcome occurs in the first-year, as assessed using longitudinal data, seniors demonstrate significantly higher innovation capacity scores when compared to first-year students at the same institutions. Additionally, academic (e.g., assessments, faculty interaction, course-taking) experiences were more influential on promoting higher innovation scores among first-year students, even when controlling for pre-test scores; social experiences (e.g, connecting in-class learning to out-of-class challenges, career development), meanwhile, were more closely associated with higher scores among seniors, all else being equal. The study closes with discussions and implications, suggesting that first-year students might be benefiting with regard to innovation more from experiences that encourage idea generation and seniors from opportunities to execute new ideas across a variety of contexts. Implications for future research in this area are offered, as are opportunities for theory building. Finally, practice implications are specifically provided for student affairs practitioners and faculty members; the conclusion reinforces the social importance and timeliness of this study

Higher Education for Undergraduate Innovation

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of collegiate environments and experiences on an emergent and socially beneficial higher education outcome: innovation. The study is framed using research questions that introduce a longitudinal (first-years) and comparative (first-years to seniors) quantitative design and an interdisciplinary theoretical framework comprising developmental and organizational perspectives. The study next introduces literature – drawn primarily from the fields of higher education and entrepreneurship studies – pertaining to those student inputs, college environments and experiences, and developmental outcomes theoretically and/or empirically associated with students’ innovation capacities. Quantitative methods are next introduced, with detailed descriptions of the mode of administration, sample characteristics, the analysis plan, and limitations provided. Methodological conversation is continued in an appendix describing the development of new constructs designed to measure college experiences and an original outcome measure developed for use in this study: innovation capacities. The results of all correlation analyses, t-tests, ANOVAs, and regression analyses are then introduced. The results broadly indicate that while no significant change in the outcome occurs in the first-year, as assessed using longitudinal data, seniors demonstrate significantly higher innovation capacity scores when compared to first-year students at the same institutions. Additionally, academic (e.g., assessments, faculty interaction, course-taking) experiences were more influential on promoting higher innovation scores among first-year students, even when controlling for pre-test scores; social experiences (e.g, connecting in-class learning to out-of-class challenges, career development), meanwhile, were more closely associated with higher scores among seniors, all else being equal. The study closes with discussions and implications, suggesting that first-year students might be benefiting with regard to innovation more from experiences that encourage idea generation and seniors from opportunities to execute new ideas across a variety of contexts. Implications for future research in this area are offered, as are opportunities for theory building. Finally, practice implications are specifically provided for student affairs practitioners and faculty members; the conclusion reinforces the social importance and timeliness of this study

Near-zero cohesion and loose packing of Bennu’s near subsurface revealed by spacecraft contact

When the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft pressed its sample collection mechanism into the surface of Bennu, it provided a direct test of the poorly understood near-subsurface physical properties of rubble-pile asteroids, which consist of rock fragments at rest in microgravity. Here, we find that the forces measured by the spacecraft are best modeled as a granular bed with near-zero cohesion that is half as dense as the bulk asteroid. The low gravity of a small rubble-pile asteroid such as Bennu effectively weakens its near subsurface by not compressing the upper layers, thereby minimizing the influence of interparticle cohesion on surface geology. The underdensity and weak near subsurface should be global properties of Bennu and not localized to the contact point