Enrollment and retention in higher education can be challenging under normal circumstances, but combined with a global pandemic, institutions will need to look at strategies to help navigate these uncertain times. This dissertation provided the needed research on the processes of decision-making related to enrollment, retention, institutional…

Many colleges and universities utilize faculty advisors for academic advising. In this model, faculty advise students in their discipline on curriculum requirements, as well as career and academic goals. Faculty often report feeling that they have had little training or support for their role as an academic advisor. Faculty advisors in the field…

In 2021, like far too many states around the U.S., educators in Pennsylvania have been forced to wade through a myriad of attacks against educating students for liberation and justice under the guise of combating Critical Race Theory (CRT). There is a fair amount of "racial policy whiplash" in educators, as many states are simultaneously…

Recognizing that higher education settings vary considerably, librarians at Gettysburg College sought to better understand textbook spending behaviors and the effects of costs on our students. We adapted the Florida Virtual Campus 2016 Student Textbook and Course Materials Survey to suit the context of our small, private, liberal arts college.…

From 2015 through 2019, the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) conducted a project that was intended to test the utility of Shared Shelf to the teaching and research needs of small colleges. Shared Shelf (now called JSTOR Forum) made it possible for a collection of material assembled by one faculty member--for example, butterfly specimens--to…

Gateway testing is an important pedagogic tool employed by many university mathematics departments in calculus and precalculus courses. With a goal of ensuring that students attain needed basic skills in courses with a conceptual "reform" orientation, these tests provide an efficient means of assessing a large volume of student work,…

Historically, empirical research exploring the roles, responsibilities, and challenges of department chairs has been limited and narrow in scope. In addition, these studies have not kept pace with the rapidly changing nature of higher education. The current study consists of data collected from a survey of current and former chairs at a small,…

This profile describes the first three years of initiating new writing-intensive seminars for the General Education curriculum at a small, career-focused, Catholic University. The primary reason for implementing the program was to initiate new writing-intensive seminars to replace existing writing-intensive General Education introductory courses…

This paper explores post-secondary faculty perceptions of awareness and preparedness relating to Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Institutions of higher education are businesses. The largest threat to sustained viability for many businesses is litigation. Business-related litigation is often the result of non-employment discrimination or…

Data from the National Science Foundation (2014) indicate that at least one PhD in economics was awarded to a Swarthmore College graduate in every year since 1966. The authors' purpose in this article is to consider factors that may have contributed to the high number of PhDs in economics awarded to Swarthmore College graduates. While there is…

Overweight and obesity are major risk factors for a number of chronic diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer (World Health Organization, 2011; National Institutes of Health, 1998). Children with high BMI often become obese adults (Serdula, Ivery, Coates, Freedman, Williamson, & Byers, 1993). According to the World…

The author reports on how colleges could work together more closely in areas like the library, the colleges' technology infrastructure, human resources and payroll, and, ultimately, their academic programs. Higher education has some famous collaborations--the best-known among them are the Claremont Colleges, where seven institutions, each with a…

This essay describes the successes and challenges of skills-based literature survey courses in the small liberal arts college setting of Westminster College (New Wilmington, PA). It considers the overall purpose of the survey in the skills-based English curriculum and then focuses on the integration of literary theory and creative writing as means…

Whereas maps primarily represent the 2-dimensional layout of the environment, people are also aware of the 3-dimensional layout of their environment. An experiment conducted on a small college campus tested whether the remembered slants of familiar paths were precisely represented. Three measures of slant (verbal, manual, and pictorial) were…

This collaborative self-study examines the impact of taking a listening stance in the collegial relationships and practices of three early-career teacher educators within a small, private liberal arts institution. We consider the consequences of a listening stance on students' experiences of our practices and their education program. In addition,…