As campus leaders called students, faculty, and staff back to in-person courses and student activities after the COVID-19 global pandemic, they were faced with employee retention challenges, burnout, recruitment limitations, and the changing nature of on-campus learning; there is ongoing discourse around these challenges and the extent to which…

This qualitative, multiple case study examined how peer mentors at a public, four-year university supported the transition of first-year college students. Using Schlossberg's (Anderson et al., 2021) Transition Framework the study was guided by the following questions: 1) How did peer mentors, in light of the Approaching Transitions phase in…

This study examines what undergraduate students say they learn about engaging with difference and across cultures in the Michigan Union and the Trotter Multicultural Center at the University of Michigan, a historically white institution. The University of Michigan is a historically white institution because of its majority of white students,…

Dr. Calvin Otis Butts, III is a towering figure in both the Black Church and in higher education. Dr. Butts is the only Black faith-based social activist to have led a famed house of worship and a respected public university concurrently for over two decades. Dr. Butts is the Pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church and was the longest-serving…

This dissertation seeks to better understand how an urban policy, creative placemaking, is adopted within a localized context. Creative placemaking is an ascendant urban policy borne out of a global pressure to adapt to industry changes within the 21st Century knowledge-based economy (Florida, 2002; Howkins, 2001; Jackson, 2012; Nicodemus, 2013).…

Online course enrollments continue to increase, and even more online courses are now offered as a result of the pandemic (O'Keefe et al., 2020). Although some students succeed in online courses (Battalio, 2009; Murray et al., 2012), most either earn low grades or do not complete the courses (Angelino et al., 2007; Wilson & Allen, 2011). Some…

The interconnected nature of today's world continues to permeate most aspects of modern life. Known as globalization, countries, economies, and people are all closer than ever before given increases in technology, innovation, and capital. These external pressures of globalization meet higher education in a process known as…

This 2-phased instrumental case study explored how student affairs educators in the California State University system experience values congruence in their work environments, specifically in the context of neoliberalism. It also examined how position descriptions convey the values of the student affairs profession and job duties related to…

This is a case study that uses interviews and archival data to illuminate how student affairs educators at a large public research university in the south perceive and foster the climate for religious pluralism on their campus. The findings from this study indicate that Student Affairs Educators would like to undergo education and training…

This dissertation examines changes to the publicness of American research universities from the mid-20th to the early 21st century. The changes are discerned by analyzing salient higher education public policies, contemporary pressures affecting research universities, and a "Research University Publicness Dashboard," which contains…

Settler colonialism relies on land seizure and the erasure of Indigenous peoples and culture, and has not ended, despite common belief (Arvin et al., 2013; Patel, 2021). As settler colonialism continues to function, so does its oppressive structures. This study identified dual phenomena requiring investigation. First, the presence of settler…

For over the past 30 years, engagement has sparked a movement of faculty, students, and administrators to build learning cultures that deal more deeply with students taking accountability and involvement in their own learning. The problem is a lack of understanding of the teachers' experiences that influence their classroom engagement, no matter…

A body of research suggests that a significant number of academically and intellectually gifted Black male college students have been psychologically and emotionally drained by the constant, insidious marginalizing they have experienced in their elementary, secondary, and postsecondary educations. Studies also present examples of predominantly…

The purpose of this study was to examine ways in which the 2007 New Jersey transfer law mandating "seamless transfer" between public two- and four-year colleges has been implemented at three community colleges and the state's flagship research university and the forces that have contributed to and limited the extent to which the law has…

Learning Management System (LMS) implementations have become more complex: as new features and capabilities become available, as transitioning between LMSs occurs, and as implementation strategy needs have transformed. The problem explored was the suspected use of outdated frameworks in LMS implementations that may result in user perceptions that…