While biographical sketches of many publicly elected leaders in the US exist, little is known about the connection between serving in college student government and running for or serving in elected public office after college. This phenomenological study explored the experiences of 19 former college student government officers in elected,…

The purpose of this narrative inquiry is to better understand why students in higher education are motivated to get involved in student government. We analyzed the responses of ten current student government leaders at public regional comprehensive institutions in the United States. The analysis is guided by Astin's theory of student involvement…

Being politically aware and participating in politics are essential determinants of a society's democratic survival. One source of concerns for researchers of political behavior regarding post-apartheid South Africa is the low rates of youth's political participation. There is however a dearth of empirical studies in the extant literature on the…

The Fallist movements of 2015/16 brought about rapid change to the South African higher education space, which required student leaders to reconsider their roles as agents of change and transformation. Student leaders contribute as stakeholders of and decision-makers in student governance, and some find themselves in a context where their working…

This paper documents the structure and operations of student governments in contemporary Chinese higher education and their effect on college students' political trust and party membership. We first investigate the structure and power distribution within student governments in Chinese universities, specifically focusing on the autonomy of student…

Within institutions of higher education, shared governance is an essential component to a healthy functionality. Among the many stakeholders at these institutions, students are the largest in number and hold primacy. Participation in student governance establishes a sense of shared ownership over their communities while also providing a unique…

This piece is presented from ongoing empirical research exploring barriers to student (re)engagement at a Midwestern university as COVID-19 persists. While college student personnel have worked to restore student life as campus operations have transitioned back in-person, college student engagement has struggled at many institutions across the…

The "Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions" (BDS) movement against Israel is one of the faces of anti-Semitism in the United States. It threatens not only Jewish students and scholars but also the political neutrality of the university. The BDS movement is particularly concentrated in higher education and creates an environment of academic…

Student participation in governance of education is of growing interest. However, it remains unclear what factors render this participation in institutional governance a success or a failure. Another question is: what are the perceived benefits for schools and students? We empirically explored experiences and perspectives of student…

The purpose of this interpretative phenomenological analysis study was to explore how undergraduate student government participants at a state university in California engage in decision-making in their official roles. This study focused on an auxiliary student government organization called Associated Students located at one of the twenty-three…

This investigation reports findings from survey data collected from 5,880 students enrolled at seven U.S. research universities. Building on previous studies, this investigation found that hazing occurred across a range of student groups and included high-risk drinking, social isolation, personal servitude, and humiliation. Although students…

General education requirements are a cornerstone of the U.S. system of higher education, making up approximately 30 percent of the average undergraduate degree program (Brint, Proctor, Murphy, Turk-Bicakci, & Hanneman, 2009). While there appears to be a consensus among U.S. educators and employers that general education is a valuable component…

This research has been designed because it has been realized that there is only little research carried out about the student participation in the administration for the structuring of the democratic authority in the higher education system in Turkey. In the relevant literature, concepts of democratic authority and education have been approached…

Student government is important to community colleges for a variety of reasons, well beyond simply providing students an opportunity to be involved in charting the direction of the college. Student governments provide opportunities for students to learn about the democratic process, how to represent the interests of others, the responsibility of…

Latent Class Analysis (LCA) was used to identify distinct groups of Community college students based on their self-ratings of satisfaction with student service programs. The programs were counseling, financial aid, health center, student programs and student government. The best fitting model to describe the data was a two Discrete-Factor model…