Excelencia in Education aims to accelerate higher education success for Latino students by providing data-driven analysis of the educational status of Latino students, and by promoting education policies and institutional practices that support their academic achievement. This second brief of a three-part series on Hispanic-Serving Institutions…

Racial minority student persistence is of paramount importance to higher education policymakers and practitioners. This study was aimed at understanding racial differences in the direct and indirect effects of campus racial climate on degree completion using structural equation modeling techniques and a nationally representative sample. The…

This paper traces the genesis of the MIT OpenCourseWare project from its initial strategic precursors in 1999 and 2000, through its launch in 2001 and its subsequent evolution. The story told here illuminates the interplay among institutional leadership, and strategic planning, and with university culture in launching major educational technology…

The APPA (Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers) Thought Leaders Series turned five years old this year--a significant event in a momentous time for higher education. Participants in the 2010 symposium looked back at both the achievements and the missteps of higher education over the last half-decade, a period that posed many…

One prohibitory component to graduation rates in college is the lack of student success in college algebra. The current national passing rate of college students enrolled in college algebra is approximately 40 percent. Lack of success in college algebra creating higher enrollments in remediation courses for students has also been linked to…

Administrators at Union College, worried that the Greek system that dominated the campus was harming the college's students and its reputation, attempted to redefine campus social life in 2000. However, instead of dissolving fraternities, the Union decided to make the Greek system part of a social experiment, working with members of fraternities…

Transfer students are a growing population for four-year institutions and on many campuses, a majority. While much research on transition practices exists, the focus has been on the two- to four-year transition or vertical transfers, which account for less than half of the transfer students at many four-year institutions, rather than on four- to…

Research in higher education over the past several decades has extensively examined the extent to which various aspects of the college environment affect student persistence (Astin, 1962, 1993; Bean, 1980; Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005; Tinto, 1975, 1988, 1993). Furthermore, researchers have noted the importance of the residential living…

In this dissertation, I argue that curricular choices in Composition are overdetermined by the academic labor system and its negative effect on the status of composition theory. Despite the growth of disciplinary knowledge, composition programs are still staffed largely with underpaid and under supported faculty and graduate students, many of whom…

Contributors to this special issue have been asked to provide self-portraits of their intellectual lives and to consider the development of the Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia (PESA) as an organisation. The author approaches this task by keeping the autobiographical details to a minimum and focusing more on the prospects for…

Oman will soon be producing three times more college graduates than there are jobs available in the country each year, forcing graduates to seek employment outside of Oman. Their success in securing and holding employment will be based more on training and performance than might be the case if they were working in Oman. If graduates find that the…

John Carroll University (JCU) is a Jesuit Catholic institution located in University Heights, approximately 10 miles east of Cleveland, Ohio. Founded in 1888, the university has a population of 3,400 undergraduates and 800 graduate students. The Division of Student Affairs at JCU comprises 11 units. The mission of the division is the same as that…

This qualitative study represents perceptions of students regarding campus environment and campus life at University College of the Fraser Valley (UCFV), a public four-year university-college located in British Columbia, Canada. Employing a unique methodology, referred to as reflexive photography, student participants were asked to photograph and…

Few would argue that athletic success depends on both physical and mental health. Given that, it would be reasonable to expect that college athletes avoid using alcohol and other drugs to preserve their overall health and enhance their athletic performance. In fact, college athletes use alcohol, spit tobacco, and steroids at higher rates than…

This performance autoethnography shows the author's struggle in finding his place, scholarship, voice, and body, into the academic setting. Mixing together memories of his lived experience with sugar cane workers, notes, and leftovers of different fieldworks, plus 6 years of life as grad student at the University of Illinois, the author looks for…