Three alumni officers offer ideas for developing unique and appealing alumni events for colleges and universities with large proportions of nontraditional students. They include family events, networking and mentoring opportunities, brown-bag lunches, evening courses and events, travel programs, and programs geared to those professions in which…

A student survey at a metropolitan university examined priorities of both traditional and non-traditional students; the survey resulted from anxieties expressed by some students about not having a traditional college experience. The administration was trying to decide whether to allocate resources to create a football program within this commuter,…

The ability of Vroom's expectancy motivation theory to predict student satisfaction with the college environment, student participation at school, and student academic performance was studied. Specific objectives of the study were as follows: to test the ability of Vroom's valence model to predict student satisfaction, to test the ability of…

The role of the honors student on the urban, commuter campus is discussed with specific reference to the University of New Orleans. Prompted by a noted decline in the quality of the university's student body, an examination of the honor student population was conducted. Data were compiled from the ACT files and student records of all students who…

This report summarizes results of two 1996 surveys of campus safety at public four-year institutions of higher education. Major findings included: (1) liquor law violations and burglary were the most common crimes, averaging 2.5 to 2.8 per 1,000 enrolled students; the incidence of violent crimes was much lower (.1 to .4 per 1,000 students); (2) 58…

A bibliography of research on student attrition is presented. The 175 references, most of which are dated 1970 or later, are categorized under the following headings: research design, models of the attrition process, some historical perspectives, recent reviews of research--performance variables, empirical studies for 1970-1987, and intervention…

Indicators of persistence of nontraditional students at a large commuter state university were studied, and the literature on persistence was reviewed. The literature review covered student variables affecting retention rates, ethnic status and retention, institutional variables affecting persistence, and theoretical models that explain…

Institutional bonding was examined at a public, urban commuter college with exceptionally high attrition and visibly low morale. Changes in bonding and attrition were measured 6 years after a 2-year effort to develop school identity and student feelings of membership. It was found that a simple index of campus morale is provided by level of…

Papers presented include: "Hope, History, and Higher Education in the South," (James H. Smylie, response by Samuel S. Hill, Jr.); "Current Strategies: An Exploration and Evaluation," (Robert L. Wilson, response by Clyde O. Robinson, Jr.); "Trends in Higher Education: A Look to the Future," (Anne Flowers, response by…

Retention at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, was studied, based on the entire population of 29,372 undergraduate degree-seeking students enrolled in a semester between fall 1981 and 1987. Two measures of the retention rate are used: cohort survival, the percentage of the original cohort of entering students that is enrolled in or has…

Youngstown State University is a predominantly commuter campus. A six-page questionnaire was sent to a random sample of 2,000 students in the fall 1976 focusing on attitudes and opinions concerning commuting and associated problems, activities, and student services. Specific areas surveyed include demographic data; general university programs,…

This study examined the effects of race on the experiences and outcomes of first-year students at York University (Ontario). Data were collected through a survey of 1,093 students at their time of entry in September 1992 and a survey of 1,129 students conducted in February-March of 1993. The study found that students' socioeconomic backgrounds…

Describes and evaluates eight elements of a comprehensive market-research program for commuter colleges: secondary research with formal environmental scanning, local business community-needs assessment; adult community-member telephone survey, classroom survey, new student survey, focus groups, brainstorming sessions, and survey of college…

The relationship between community college transfer students' experiences at an urban, doctoral-granting commuter university and their enrollment intentions was studied using Bean and Metzner's conceptual model of attrition for nontraditional students. Of 300 community college transfer students at a state-supported urban university who were…

This study compared the experiences of first-year students in different disciplines at York University (Ontario). Surveys of 336 students in the faculty of pure and applied science, 802 students in the faculty of arts, and 793 students in Atkinson College, the evening college of the university, were conducted during February-March of the first…