This document contains papers intended to identify problems and issues confronting institutional research and to assess the measured response of institutional researchers. The following general topics are covered: (1) the campus and its environment, (2) allocation of college and university resources, (3) faculty workload and effectiveness, (4)…

A highly necessary step in the institution of programs for educating and preparing minority youth for the world is periodic evaluation to make certain that the quality of the program is at such a level that the needs of the participants are properly served. One hundred twenty-eight students answered a 44-item questionnaire concerning their…

Ways in which institutional characteristics and student characteristics interact to produce distinctive learning environments and encourage a sense of identity in students are considered. Professional identity is defined as the process of acquiring the values, attitudes, and skills of the single chosen profession. The process takes place on both…

This document reports the methodology and results of the third annual statewide student follow-up study of the Maryland community colleges. Questionnaires were sent to 19,634 persons who were first-time students in a Maryland community college in fall, 1972. Response rate was 48%. A sequential sampling procedure was used to test for nonrespondent…

Five institutions are considering whether the job requirements that they have are having any impact on students' feelings about public-service work and what form that impact takes. All five are private, liberal-arts colleges that require students to hold jobs in exchange for low, or no, tuition. (MLW)

Partial text is presented of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching's recent report, "College: The Undergraduate Experience in America" concerning confused priorities and competing interests jeopardizing the college experience's quality and future. (MSE)

The situation of U.S. Catholic colleges and universities is outlined, and the responses of 110 American Catholic college and university presidents to the Vatican's statement concerning the role and relationships of Catholic universities worldwide are synthesized. (MSE)

This essay examines the ways in which nonprofit universities increasingly emulate businesses, focusing on two of the most direct forms of emulation: the creation of internal university markets at the University of Southern California through adoption of variants of resource center management (RCM) and the privatization of public higher education…

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…

This report records and expands on presentations made by 30 speakers who addressed an April 27, 1992 fact finding meeting on racial tension on college campuses in Connecticut. Section 1 describes the Tristate Project in New England and offers background information on the state and its colleges. Section 2 summarizes the remarks of opening speakers…

This paper considers the question of faculty as "community." The study examined community-building efforts at one institution, which had been initiated in response to negative outside judgment about faculty effectiveness and that threatened the continued existence of the teacher preparation program. A "community committee" survey asked 32 faculty…

This study used publicly available information to identify institutional controllable variables that influence graduation rate and to group colleges using these factors. The dependent variable for the correlation analysis was the six-year graduation rate of the fall 1993 freshman cohort (as reported by US News and World Report) at more than 1,400…

This report discusses a study involving 37 Canadian college and university students with disabilities and 30 Disabled Student Services (DSS) personnel that explored the use of computers in postsecondary education. Students were enrolled in community and junior colleges, universities, and postsecondary distance education institutions. Results…

The population of immigrants to the United States is both growing and changing, and entering an economy in transition. A recent study focused on their impact on access to higher education and on the institutions themselves, including efficiency of operation and campus diversity. Unresolved issues include need for English language skills, student…

Using data on degree completion among black and white community college students, a study investigated how rates in different postsecondary programs vary for blacks and whites, changes over the course of the 1980s, and institutional characteristics encouraging program completion for the two groups. The most striking result was a decline in…