This study surveyed 50 full-time faculty from a doctoral-granting institution regarding their definition of faculty scholarship, through naming and describing scholars. An inventory of 249 attributes of faculty scholarship resulted, confirming the complexity of the faculty scholarship construct. (The inventory is appended.) (Author/DB)

This study focused on how the design of a national student survey instrument was informed and improved through the combined use of student focus groups, cognitive interviews, and expert survey design advice. We were specifically interested in determining (a) how students interpret the items and response options, (b) the frequency of behaviors or…

Over the last decade, policymakers, educators, and researchers have increasingly sought to understand community college policies and practices that promote students' success. This effort has been partly driven by an increased emphasis on outcome accountability, but it has also promoted a productive discussion about improving institutional…

Over 4,500 students from 28 universities, colleges, and junior colleges constituting a state system of higher education were compared on extent of drug use. The largest differences were between universities and junior colleges on alcohol and marihuana. Differences in terms of actual numbers of users were small. Implications are discussed.…

Using the quartile deviation of faculty salary data as a measure of institutional quality, the authors ranked the 138 major universities designated by AAUP as Class I institutions. Since the results were similar to other ranking systems and salary data are readily available, it is argued that studies of salaries hold promise as measures of…

Results from a questionnaire returned from 354 faculty members at a large university showed that their sensitivity to job satisfaction items centered primarily in three areas of concern: extrinsic job factors, department head actions, and promotion and salary. (Author/LBH)

Based on 1,198 responses from chairmen in 38 state universities, this study focuses on the perception of chairmen on where major decisions are made (university, college, or departmental level), characteristics of departments by academic field, and selected personal attributes of chairmen. (Author/LBH)

A national sample of college students who initially aspired to be, or later became, physicians was used to determine the influence of precollege characteristics, college origins, and the academic and social experience of college. Major effects on attainment were college characteristics and academic experience. (Author/MLW)

Women employed in sex-balanced and male- and female-dominated occupations in the public sector have comparable levels of job satisfaction. In private firms, women in sex-balanced careers are more satisfied with the intrinsic nature of their jobs than those employed in female-dominated occupations. (Author/MLW)

A study of 56 small- to medium-sized colleges examines the relationship of faculty and administrator agreement on institutional mission and severity of institutional decline in predicting the type of response to decline and found that organizations with a high internal agreement on mission more selectively pursue responses to decline. (MSE)

Five groups of undergraduate students (dropouts, low stopouts, low persisters, high stopouts, and high persisters) were compared in terms of their use of various campus facilities and their responses to a checklist of personal problems. The use of campus facilities is correlated with continuance in school. (Author/MLW)

Faculty promotion and salary policies at the University of Texas at Austin are analyzed to determine whether male and female faculty members are rewarded equally for equal academic qualifications and performances. This regression analysis tends to support the discrimination hypothesis with respect to both promotion and salary policies. (Author/LBH)

Three surveys, administered a year apart, to 259 newly hired, tenure track faculty at five colleges found their perception of personal control was a critical factor in emotional well-being, stress level, job satisfaction, by itself or in combination with institution type and time. Faculty at liberal arts and comprehensive colleges had most…

A large national data set was used to assess the causal influence of college selectivity on earnings after controlling for a variety of background variables. Using a recursive structural equation model, it was found that for both genders selectivity had a significant direct and indirect effect on earnings. (Author/MLW)

A study to determine the relationship between organizational decline and three domains of effectiveness (academic, morale, and external adaptation) in private colleges and universities is discussed. The results demonstrate that the relationship between decline and effectiveness is not uniform across three types of institutions. (Author/MLW)