This ethnographic study analyzes the barriers women encounter in achieving their goals at Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. Employing a discursive approach, the study seeks to identify symbols promulgated by various policy actions that legitimize or delegitimize specific gender relations. It draws…

Can residential experiences help undergraduates develop holistic competencies? To answer this question, a study was conducted based on the insights of 211 residents in Hong Kong. Deductive and inductive content analyses were respectively used to examine residence life outcomes, particularly in holistic competencies, and to categorise the types of…

This study examines the relationship between student success measures on student achievement to inform our approach to mediating against potential barriers on persistence and retention for first generation and traditionally marginalized populations for students enrolled in a new Living Learning Community. Success measures examine those beyond the…

Religious, secular, and spiritual identities (RSSIs) are an important aspect of the complex experiences of students in higher education. Often dismissed or forgotten by higher education professionals, RSSIs have shifted drastically over the 20+ years since Love and Talbot first wrote about them in 1999. While scholarship on RSSIs has steadily…

Objective: The aim of this study was to formatively evaluate a health communication campaign on body image targeting undergraduate female students. Participants: A total of 331 students at a large public Midwestern university participated in the study. Methods: Researchers used central intercept procedures to recruit students from residence halls.…

Objective: This study differentiated various living arrangements (ie living with two biological parents, living with one biological parent, living with friends, living in a dorm, and other) and examined its relationship with health-related lifestyles as well as the moderating role of gender differences. Methods: This study used data from the…

This study provides empirical evidence related to two critical assumptions in the student engagement literature in higher education--namely, the malleability of study effort and the causality of the relationship between study effort and student outcomes. We merged student-level administrative data on dormitory assignments, study effort in a hybrid…

Foreign language houses, on-campus residences in which students pledge to speak in their target language, offer valuable opportunities for language and culture learning. Scores of such programs exist at universities across North America (Dewey, Baker, Bown, & Martinsen, 2011), yet little is written about them in the research literature. This…

This article examines the experiences of a group of Japanese study abroad students in response to the purposeful replication of a Japanese environment by the New Zealand-based institution where they studied. Data were collected from 12 students via interviews spread over approximately 20 months, and revealed that management provided specifically…

LGBTQ+ students face several challenges and obstacles in college and university residence halls. Prior research shows that living-learning communities can be a space in which students develop a sense of belonging and community, as well as pursue academic success. Using the findings of a qualitative study that explored LGBTQ+ students' experiences…

Previous literature demonstrates the widespread impact of on-campus living for Black college students in terms of a sense of belonging, community building, and campus engagement. In contrast, this study specifically explored within-group differences (e.g., gender identity, sexual orientation, and ability status) in Black undergraduates' housing…

The well-being of college students can be impacted by aspects of the physical environment, especially during key life transitions such as beginning college during a pandemic. This repeated cross-sectional study investigates the influence of a newly constructed living-learning neighborhood on first-year residents' mental well-being, specifically…

Promoting staff well-being has been a challenge for many residence life departments long before the COVID-19 pandemic led to a decrease in the mental well-being of the general population as well as in residence life staff. The stressful work environment and demanding work hours in residence life have been linked to burnout and intentions to leave…

Authors examine how interrogating hegemonic gender roles can enhance recruitment, training, and engagement practices for residence life staff in leadership positions. Under specific focus are issues of gendered expectations of the men as paraprofessional role, dynamics in supervision, recruitment and training of staff, and bystander intervention…

In this study, dormitory room and social group assignment data from a college are used to investigate peer effects on college students' decisions to switch majors. Results reveal strong evidence of such peer effects at both the room and the social group level. Most notably, at the room level, the dense concentration of same-major roommates deters…