Do College Rankings Matter? Examining the Influence of “America’s Best Black Colleges” on HBCU Undergraduate Admissions

College rankings have become a ubiquitous part of American higher education. As the popularity of rankings has increased, so have the number of research studies attempting to better understand the impact rankings have on college/university admissions outcomes. In the past, these studies have focused almost exclusively on elite national universities and liberal arts colleges. This study broadens research in this area by examining how the introduction of U.S. News and World Report’s “America’s Best Black Colleges” section influenced undergraduate admissions among historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). The findings suggest that college rankings have little correlation with admissions outcomes at HBCUs

Option to Purchase as an Interest in Land

Option to Purchase as an Interest in Lan

Supporting emotion communication in information systems

Society is becoming increasingly reliant on Information Systems to meet its everyday communication requirements, yet many current implementations lack support for important conversational cues. One such cue is emotion communication. Emotion communication carries with it many signals that affect our behaviour, the interpretation of the message and provide a catalyst to other forms of communication such as empathy and the formation of social ties. Emotion itself can affect the very decision to communicate, or the way in which one may respond to a given communication. To explore the ways in which systems may better support emotion communication between members of a social group, a cloud-based information system was developed and trialled which both large and small groups. This paper presents results on how Information Systems can best support emotion communication in social groups.<br /

Editorial: From organisation to community?

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Motivations for Volunteering in a Faith-Based Mentoring Program

Abstract Adolescent males are being suspended or expelled at high rates. Faith-based organizations have developed programs to address these problems by using adult male volunteers to mentor high-risk youth; however, recruiting sufficient mentors is a problem because organizers lack an understanding of the factors that motivate men to volunteer. If this problem can be alleviated, then faith-based organizations will be better able to recruit volunteers to serve students. Guided by the functionalist theory, the purpose of this study was to determine what demographic characteristics and motivating factors discriminated between volunteers and non-volunteers. A causal comparative design was employed and the Volunteer Function Inventory was administered to determine differences between volunteers (n = 112) and non-volunteers (n = 202) in terms of motivating factors, demographic characteristics, and future intentions to volunteer. In alignment with the functionalist theory, multivariate analysis of variance revealed that volunteers were more motivated by social, value, understanding, and self-enhancement factors than were non-volunteers. Descriptive data analyses indicated that volunteers were older, unmarried, employed full time, and less educated than non-volunteers, and revealed no difference in future intentions to volunteer. Based upon the findings of this study, it is concluded that faith-based organizations recruit and retain adult males as role models who exhibit social, value, understanding, and self-enhancement factors to provide support for adolescent males. It is recommended that faith-based leaders use the Volunteer Function Inventory as a screening tool to identify volunteers who would mentor high risk male students. This practice may enable male at risk students to remain in school, graduate, and lead fulfilling lives, thus resulting in positive social change

A Growth Curve Analysis of Mandatory Student Athletics Fees

This study used growth curve modeling to estimate the growth trajectory of mandatory student athletics fees at public NCAA Division I universities from 2004–2016. We specifically focused on three measures of athletics fees; total athletics fees, athletics fees per FTE, and athletics fees as a percentage of total student costs. We found that in general the growth trajectory of athletics fees was positive, but that the rate of growth has declined over the years. We also found that on average less than 5% of student costs are directly attributable to athletics fees and that the growth trajectory of athletics fees differs significantly based on NCAA Division I subdivision affiliation. These findings have implications for policymakers and commentators interested in the role athletics fees play in college student costs