This study examined the roles and lived experiences of SCAs engaged in addressing incidents of campus sexual misconduct at public postsecondary institutions in New York State. The primary research question guiding this study was: What are the roles and lived experiences of SCAs as they manage campus sexual misconduct processes? The secondary…

This dissertation studies the market for higher education and impacts of higher education policy on the market. In the first chapter, I estimate the short-run elasticity of supply of higher education using the rollout of state merit grant programs as plausibly exogenous variation in student demand for in-state higher education. I find that public…

This study examined whether the physical location of student support services on a college campus influences the utilization of those services, and if so, whether access to those services relates to student retention. The primary purpose of this study was to better understand whether service utilization, based on location, can and should be…

Academic integrity research has focused heavily on undergraduate students and indicates that students around the globe are unsure about the concept of academic integrity and the dishonest behaviors that can lead to penalization (Gullifer & Tyson, 2014; Ramzan et al., 2012). The limited literature focused on graduate students indicates they…

There are several theoretical models and approaches to define the leadership identity development of college students, however, none of these models adequately frame the specific leadership identity development of collegiate student athletes. The purpose of this grounded theory study is to develop a leadership model to address this gap by…

International students face multiple challenges while adjusting to the U.S. academic culture. The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore and identify the academic problems these students face and how these problems influence academic adjustment. The study also focused on identifying students' strategies to overcome these academic…

The purpose of this research study was to use a phenomenological qualitative research approach to gain insight into how university administrators were prepared to respond to student activism, discover what strategies university administrators used when responding to student activism, and how social media affected university administrator's…

Student members of governing boards, commonly called student trustees, hold important roles in their institution's community. They have the same authority as other board members, having direct input on the myriad issues today's governing boards must consider. Scant literature addresses these students, studies are published sometimes decades apart…

Public institutions of higher education have a dual mandate to provide the best possible education while also maintaining accessibility to students within its state. This study explores the knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences associated with the retention of Pell-eligible, academically at-risk freshmen, and examines an academic…

Bias issues in this country are real. Individuals are not treated equally and equitably because of their identities, their values, and their choices. This bias happens in places of employment, in the criminal justice system, in every day interactions and conversations. Bias is real, whether implicit or explicit, and too often compassion and equity…

This study explored how enrolled freshman college students, ages 18-21, described their experiences and user behaviors while actively using personal communication devices (PCD) and social networking sites (SNS) to complete course-related activities in their introductory psychology class at a four-year public university. Twenty semi-structured…

We investigate relationships between several financial aid policies and student enrollment behavior. Chapters 1 and 2 (co-authored with Robert Rosenman) use proprietary data from a public research university to address institution level policies affecting enrollment. Chapter 3 (co-authored with Benjamin Cowan) utilizes government data address a…

In 2011 the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights released additional guidance to colleges and universities on how they should handle campus sexual harassment and assault. Since that time institutions of higher education have been under significant pressure to improve their processes. This qualitative study adds to this…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to use the systems theory as the analytic framework to examine student conduct systems (SCSs) in Chinese colleges and universities. analyze environmental factors that influence SCSs. and explore administrators' recommendations for improvement of SCSs. Ten public universities were randomly selected from…

A problem facing American universities is heavy drinking by the student body which results in unintentional injuries and deaths, illegal offenses, sexual assault, altercations, and academic demise. The relationship between the type of alcohol policy enacted on campus and alcohol consumption among undergraduate students attending 4-year public…