"Preserving Culture and Planning for the Future: An Exploration of Student Experiences at Tribal Colleges" aims to share a narrative of the students who attend these unique institutions. Over 1,000 students across 25 tribal colleges responded to the 2017 Survey of Entering Student Engagement ("SENSE"), which collects…

This study is an investigation into a 15-month accelerated undergraduate nursing program and the minority student experience. Using a mixed methods approach, this research addressed the following questions: 1. What was the retention rate for students enrolled in the accelerated nursing bachelor's program and how did that differ by race? 2. What…

In this study we examined the role that high-impact practices play in shaping first-year students' sense of belonging as it relates to peers and institutional acceptance. We used data from the National Survey of Student Engagement (N = 9,371), and results revealed troublesome gaps for historically underrepresented populations in their sense of…

Two previous studies indicated that students at evangelical institutions report the highest levels of religious struggle in comparison to their peers at other institutions. However, patterns and predictors of religious struggle for students attending evangelical institutions have not been thoroughly explored. This study fills that gap in the…

Much of the research about college student engagement is based upon self-reported surveys, but little is known about how students formulate responses to these instruments. The purpose of this study was to specifically address this dearth of knowledge by deepening our understanding of how students' perceptions of their environments and demographic…

Student withdrawal has received increased attention in the context of an expanding and more diverse Higher Education (HE) student population. Students leave University for interconnected, multiple reasons. Some explanations are internal to the University and may include support mechanisms, assessment feedback and quality of teaching and others are…

Assessing campus climate is an important factor in understanding the persistence and satisfaction of all students. This investigation extends this research stream by examining the relationship between perceptions of campus and overall sense of belonging of Asian American students on a diverse campus. Administrators may use the information gained…

The purpose of this study is to examine whether transfer status and type matter for student engagement and if so, what student characteristics affect this relationship. Data from senior students at four-year institutions across the United States who completed the National Survey for Student Engagement (NSSE) in 2009 were used. Descriptive…

Social class is a powerful and often unrecognized influence on student participation in the extracurriculum. Spontaneous student-created extracurricular experiences depend on students affiliating and interacting with each other; student social class is a powerful influence on student affiliations. Students tend to exercise consciousness of kind-…

There is a paucity of African American female students entering engineering studies and the engineering profession itself. The purpose of this phenomenological case study was to examine the context within which African American female engineering students matriculate in engineering programs and to explore the role of environmental influences,…

Although higher education research underscores the importance of sense of belonging (SoB) for students' academic success and degree completion, research on the development and impact of SoB for student-athletes is limited. Informed by Astin's (1993) Input-Environment-Output (I-E-O) model and Tinto's (1994) theory of student departure, this study…

This study explored college transition meaning-making dynamics of emancipated foster care youth and the role campus environments play in that process. It adds to the college student development theoretical base by acknowledging the needs, goals, and values of disenfranchised college students transitioning into higher education. Emancipated foster…

This qualitative study examined how both racial and ethnic identity shaped 23 Black immigrants students' patterns of engagement. Students more often chose to meaningfully engage in culturally based organizations, differentiating between groups with a racial and ethnic focus. Whereas many students perceived the unique benefits of ethnically focused…

Data from 9,760 college students on 20 campuses were used to explore the extent to which fraternity and sorority organizations assert an influence over the manner in which students experience the climate for personal and social responsibility while in college. Results demonstrated greater exposure to fraternities and sororities can function to…

Roughly half of all undergraduate students in the United States fail to persist to degree completion (American College Testing [ACT], 2010; Tinto, 1993; U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2013). Adult students often have higher levels of attrition than traditional-age students (Justice & Dornan, 2001;…