Students' sense of community is at the heart of their college success and can be impacted by many factors, including staff, programming, and hall design, as well as demographic variables such as age, ethnicity, and gender. The purpose of this study is to investigate how gender and student housing type at a faith-based institution influence sense…

Construction and new facility decisions regarding student housing remain difficult for many colleges and universities. Challenges associated with these decisions include rising building costs, waning government funding, daunting facility safety codes, and compliance with evolving accessibility legislation, among many factors. One solution,…

Sense of belonging is critical for students throughout their college experience, and even more so now, given the current concerns about undergraduate graduation rates. The purpose of this study was to explore how students' perception of their sense of belonging on campus is affected by where and with whom they live. We utilized a multidimensional…

This three-article dissertation sought to explore the potential causal link of students' collegiate residence with three broad categories of student outcomes. Using data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education, each article employed propensity score matching in an effort to reduce selection bias associated with a student's…

Living-Learning Communities (LLCs) develop and strengthen students' persistence by providing a greater sense of community, opportunities for co-curricular activities, and socially engaging and academically supportive peer environments (Shapiro & Levine, 1999). While researchers have affirmed the rationale, impact, and efficacy of LLCs, very…

Social integration for lateral transfer students (four-to-four-year) is promoted by a living environment that encourages learning about campus, connecting to resources, and developing peer groups. Interviews with 27 lateral transfer students revealed that those who had previously lived on campus had expectations that residence halls would provide…

Blind dates can go awry, but a roommate mismatch can spoil a semester. Nasty habits. Bitter grudges. Epic stand-offs over square inches. Luckily, most pairings don't get that ugly, whether campuses make them randomly or by running survey responses through a computer. These days many students even control their own fates: More and more colleges let…

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of housing arrangement and selected personal and academic characteristics on the engagement of full-time university freshmen. A sample of 1,119 full-time freshmen was used in the study. A 14-item Likert-type scale, the Student Academic/Social Interaction Questionnaire, was used to measure…

Student perceptions of residence hall environment were studied at Saint Mary's College (Indiana) with a 50% sample of freshmen and sophomores, a one-third sample of juniors, and a one-fifth sample of seniors. Consideration was given to the effects of the type of room (single, double, triple, quad, quint) and choice of residence (first, second,…

Results of a survey of residential students at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, are presented, along with recommendations based on the findings. The Student Housing Evaluation was designed to assess student attitudes about the university's housing policy, facilities, and staff. The 610 respondents (46% response rate) consisted of a…

This study investigated the effects of different types of learning communities in residence halls on the learning and intellectual development of first-year students at the University of Missouri (Columbia). Information sources included existing campus data and responses to the College Student Experiences Questionnaire. Compared to 469 students…