This transcendental phenomenology study was designed to examine the phenomena of the paid internship portion of the North Carolina Principal Fellows Program (NCPFP) through specific graduates of the universities that offer the scholarship. The study aimed to answer the following research question: How does the paid internship experience from the…

The Faculty Conversation Series at North Carolina State University, offered by the Office for Faculty Excellence, is a virtual option to connect faculty across campus to discuss topics immediately relevant to the unique teaching needs that we are currently experiencing, ranging from technical aspects of teaching online to mental health needs of…

A transfer student experience strategic plan provides direction to transfer professionals, advisory teams, and a university's strategic plan. This article describes how one university used surveys, SWOT analysis, and direct experience to create a plan that identified gaps in services and new initiatives to ensure transfer students' persistence and…

Most introductory courses in environmental science are large, lecture-style general education classes. North Carolina State University's ES 100 is no exception, enrolling between 200 and 300 students and holding class meetings in the campus cinema. A key underlying learning objective, however, is to teach students that science is the pathway to…

Community college transfer pathways, whereby students begin their postsecondary enrollment at a 2-year institution, are an increasingly popular option for students looking to complete a bachelor's degree. Designed to increase transfer efficiency, articulation agreements between community colleges and 4-year institutions provide structured pathways…

This article presents a synopsis of an interdisciplinary literacy-science, cross-country, fully remote service-learning (S-L) project prompted by and executed during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The article shares discussions, analyses, and evaluations from both community partners (staff of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences…

This article describes online writing sessions developed for a CPED Community College Leadership education doctorate EdD program at a research-intensive, land-grant university. Sessions were introduced during the summer of 2020 after the existing executive, face-to-face program shifted entirely to online delivery due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The…

Critical Social Justice (CSJ) poses a threat to higher education and to the American way of life. This ideology divides the world into aggrieved minorities and oppressive majorities, reducing people to a group identity grounded in immutable characteristics such as race and sex. It is based on a distorted view of what a human being is, compromising…

Social media platforms like Twitter offer benefits for promoting and sharing scientific research. Each user becomes an instant news source for their work, and are able to report lab updates, news, and discoveries in near real time, increasing the visibility and citations of one's research and allowing for direct and public engagement with the…

In this study, I examine the mentor-mentee relationships of low-income, first-generation students and faculty and staff in the Pack Promise program at NC State University. Through this study I sought to answer the following research questions: (1) What are the mentoring experiences of low-income, first-generation students and faculty and staff in…

In 2017, the North Carolina legislature passed House Bill 527 (now State Law 2017-196) in order to foster free, open inquiry in the state's colleges and universities. One of the provisions ordered the University of North Carolina system Board of Governors to produce an annual report on two major categories of intellectual freedom: free speech and…

The volume of articles, books, and studies about increasing the retention, persistence, and graduation of undergraduate college students is nothing short of prolific (Seidman, 2005). However, only modest gains in undergraduate graduation rates have been made nationally (Chen, 2012; Seidman, 2005). Six-year graduation rates at all four-year…

This report by the Special Committee on Governance, Academic Free­dom, and Institutional Racism in the University of North Carolina (UNC) system considers the influence of the gerrymandered North Carolina state legislature on the systemwide board of governors and campus boards of trustees and how political pressure has obstructed meaningful…

Developing effective educational leaders is fundamentally and irrevocably an interpersonal, relational process--one that requires face-to-face contact, deep thought, deliberation, reflection, engagement, and interaction. It requires cultivation of the habits of heart, mind, and soul. For nearly a decade, the faculty at North Carolina State…

Suicide is the tenth ranking cause of death in the United States (CDC, 2015); however, alarmingly, suicide is the second leading cause of death in the fifteen to twenty-four age group (CDC, 2015). Drum et al. (2009) surveyed undergraduate students (n = 15,010) from seventy U.S. colleges and universities. The researchers found that in one year, 6%…