This chapter synthesizes research on women in STEM undergraduate fields and aims to sharpen our empirical and theoretical frameworks for future higher education research. Institutional research implications are discussed here and throughout the volume.

The education of doctoral chemists contributes to the chemical research enterprise and thus to innovation as an engine of the economy. This quantitative analysis describes trends in the production and diversity of chemistry Ph.D. degrees in the top-50 U.S. Ph.D.-granting departments in the past two decades. Time series data for individual…

This study examined whether female college freshmen have higher first-year retention rates when a greater percentage of their classes are taught by female faculty, especially students in science, math, and computer science (SMC) courses. Data from the admissions, course, and student files at Binghamton University (New York) were analyzed over a…

Sexual harassment of Penn State students by school employees was studied in 1982. The research focused on harassment by employees who had power over the student or who were in a position to affect the student's educational experience. A random sample of 515 full-time female students was asked whether university employees had ever: stared at or…

Sexual harassment at the University of California Davis was studied to provide information for campus officials. Attention was directed to: campus attitudes about sexual harassment; the incidence of sexual harassment among survey respondents; the circumstances and characteristics of sexual harassment incidents; the effects of sexual harassment on…

Two hundred sixty-six white freshmen (128 males, 138 females) were administered the Situational Attitude Scale (SAS) to assess their attitudes toward blacks in a number of personal and social situations. Results of two-way analyses of variance indicated that significant differences occurred by sex and form of the SAS. Differences between the two…

Assessments of institutional effectiveness in affirmative action tend to take either a simple, bottom-line approach (tracking number and percentage of female/minority faculty) or a sophisticated multiple regression-based approach (evaluating rank or salary equity). Either approach may obscure or overlook positive changes occurring within…

Discipline is generally recognized as among the more important determinants of faculty salary. Discipline differences in faculty salary are normally accepted at face value, assumed to be the result of market forces. (The same assumption is commonly made about wage differences among occupations.) This paper reports on findings from an analysis of…

Student attitudes and awareness of the health services program at Salem State College were studied. A questionnaire was administered to 312 randomly selected students, or 7 percent of the school population. Ninety percent of the respondents were between 16 and 25 years old. Findings indicate that although nearly 90 percent of the respondents were…

A study was conducted at Harcum Junior College in order to ascertain what modes of learning students preferred and to determine which of these learning modes afforded the students the most enjoyment. A survey was distributed to the student body; a 50% rate of response was achieved. Results indicated that students felt they learned most from class…

With the increasing number of part-time and adult students entering universities over the past several years, students who tend not to follow the traditional pattern of study, the task of accurate enrollment predictions has become increasingly difficult. The use of the Statistical Analysis System (SAS) software package to effectively track both…

Incoming students' needs at a medium-sized, state university were assessed using a needs inventory, which was adapted from an instrument used at Pennsylvania State University, SNAPS (Student Needs at Penn State). The random sample of 356 incoming freshmen participating in the 1982 summer orientation program consisted of 135 males and 221 females,…

A sample of University of Maryland, College Park, undergraduates from 1969 was compared to one from 1979 on the "type" of student they considered themselves to be, based on the Clark-Trow model. Compared to 1969, in 1979 there were fewer Collegiate types (8 percent vs. 26 percent), more Academic types (34 percent vs. 20 percent), and…

A survey of 740 students at the University of California, Davis, was conducted in the spring quarter to provide the Physical Education Department with recent data on overall student interests, including a male/female comparison, and to document male and female athletic interests for Title IX purposes. Thirty- six sports offered in the athletic…

Lifestyle and career plans of Boston College undergraduate students were studied, along with the influences of family and religious background, the college academic environment, and the college social environment. A total of 298 male and 634 female students completed a study questionnaire in 1981. Although both men and women expected to have…