University First Year Seminar (FYS) programs are diverse in their content and pedagogy. Yet all seek to assist first-year students in the difficult college transition. The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate if grouping similar academic majors into the existing First Year Seminar (FYS) courses would improve social connectedness, use of…

The relevance of the research is related to the fact that the psychological safety of persons with disabilities is the leading characteristic that determines its developmental nature. The research objective was to study students' opinions about the capabilities and abilities of citizens with disabilities and to form a tolerant attitude towards…

Mental health issues have been shown to be more common in LGBTQ+ youths when compared to heterosexual cisgender youths. This study aimed to understand the process of disclosure of sexuality and gender identity in Maltese LGBTQ+ university students and explored dynamics within the individual's family and social circles during this process.…

Several studies point out the link between sociability and academic results. In this paper, we highlight a phenomenon of asymmetry in the perception of friendship. This occurs when a student think he has more or less friends than he really has. We present an experimental method that allows us to analyze this question in relation with the academic…

American colleges and universities consider diversity a way to foster personal growth and a healthy society, challenge stereotypes, encourage critical thinking, and help students communicate and feel comfortable with people they may perceive to be different. Quality interaction that has the potential to grow into authentic relationships between…

More women are now entering male-dominated fields, yet, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) remain dominated by men. We examined the association between boys' and girls' STEM choices after secondary education and friends' gender norms, and whether pressure to conform to traditional gender norms differs depending on the gender…

Alcohol use among college students has received nationwide recognition as a public health concern. The primary aim of this study was to explore students' opinions of when drinking crosses the line from acceptable to unacceptable. This study used qualitative methods to: (a) examine unappealing aspects of drinking by relationship type…

In this study the authors explored factors that influence the degree to which students' campus friends are of a different race or ethnicity. They focused on relationships that were more sustained and that involved greater trust than routine interactions on campus, but were less intimate than best or closest friends. Recent studies show that high…

This article explores the views of six higher education students with autism/Asperger syndrome. The research draws upon social identity theory to explore how participants made meaning of their label. There was consensus that information given at the point of diagnosis generally did not reflect their individual experiences. First-hand accounts…

A mail survey of university graduates from a predominantly White university suggests how limited undergraduate demographic diversity could be leveraged to increase its impact. University graduates who recalled more undergraduate courses in which faculty discussed ethnic and cultural diversity reported more multicultural competence and volunteer…

Motivated by the reality that the benefits of diversity on a college campus will be mitigated if interracial interactions are scarce or superficial, previous work has strived to document the amount of interracial friendship interaction and to examine whether policy can influence this amount. In this paper we take advantage of unique longitudinal…

Homosexuality is now accepted as a normal variant of human sexuality, but homophobia among healthcare professionals is well documented. Establishment of trustful doctor-patient relationships is impossible in the presence of homophobia. We were interested to examine the extent of homophobia among medical students, the future doctors. This article…

Against a backdrop of increasing diversity in the United States, the number of Black women undergraduates enrolled at predominantly white institutions across the country is growing. Yet while colleges and universities are eager to diversify their campuses, often the climate of these campuses has not changed in ways that support the success of…

This study examined the structural validity of the Schedule of Racist Events (SRE), a brief inventory that assesses the frequency and stressfulness of racism in the lives of African Americans. The original three-factor structure of the SRE was examined, along with an alternative structure that was designed to test whether the SRE captured types of…

Students who had enrolled in an innovative university-based service-learning class were asked to reflect on their expectations prior to mentoring youth attending high-poverty high schools, and whether they believed they had met these expectations post-mentoring. Findings indicated that students primarily were motivated by learning about the…