Investigated the relationship between specific features of the residence environment and the persistence and performance of Black students. Found race, high school grade point average, family income of roommates, and residing in residences with other Blacks was related to college grade point average for Black female freshmen. (Author/ABL)

University residence hall administrators employ a variety of strategies, including group billing, to combat vandalism. Reviews theoretical and practical bases for group billing; examines potential challenges to the practice; and offers recommendations for residence administrators and university counsel. (MLF)

Legal disputes concern limiting access of sales demonstrations to student residence halls. Court cases argue the regulation of commercial speech, the rights of sales demonstrators on campus, the university's censorship of demonstrations, and student privacy and association rights. (SI)

College dormitory residents (n=160) were surveyed concerning their alcohol use, social influences, attitudes and beliefs about alcohol, personality characteristics, and demographic information. Subjects were reinterviewed two years later. Regression equations indicated utility of several variables in predicting self-reports of alcohol consumption,…

Summarizes author's 11 years of experience implementing ecosystems model for assessing resident hall environment at 2 universities. Describes institutionalization of the process, administrative expectations, time commitment, costs, technical problems, student participation, environmental referents, developing change, flexibility, multiple reports,…

Describes how university interior design is responding to increased student demands for wide-ranging services, technological capabilities, and accessibility. Design concepts for dining areas, auditoriums, residential halls, libraries, and computer-friendly classrooms are discussed. (GR)

Presents comparative regional data on school construction activities and costs for 1998 and 1999 projections. Regional data include profiles of new buildings expected to be completed in 1999, college construction completed and projected for starting in 1999, and the types of residence-hall amenities and the percentages of how often they are found.…

Presents data from the American School & University's 10th Annual Residence Hall Construction Report that show dormitories are costing more per square foot to build while also becoming larger accommodations. Data tables are provided as are highlighted discussions that include residence hall design flexibility, environmental concerns and building…

Describes how one university creatively financed its dormitory renovation without imposing undue hardships on students (and with approval from of the university's governing board and elected state leaders). Planners developed a nonprofit foundation to fund the recapitalization and renovation of the dormitories. The foundation owned the…

The variety of problems identified with undergraduate education at large research universities may best be summed up by a disquieting portrait provided by the Boyer Commission. In its 1998 report, called "Reinventing Undergraduate Education", the commission described thousands of undergraduates receiving instruction from novice teaching…

Grade point average and the development of maturity were examined for 229 freshman males at Pennsylvania State University. The results were used to determine differences among students living in residence units in which the resident assistant was oriented either as counselor or as administrator or in which there were no resident assistants at all.…

A newer discipline called environmental psychology has begun to study the effects of noise, particularly on task performance and reactional behavior. In the 1970's college dormitories liberalized their living conditions; this led to fewer quiet hours. College students may not move off campus to find a quiet environment for studying. Dormitory…

An evaluation of the Central Michigan University Counseling Center is presented in this document. Parts of the study methods are described, including the questionnaires sent to 1,000 randomly selected students in residence, use of an optical scan answer sheet, and data collection from 112 users and 324 nonusers of counseling services (a 43.6%…

The ecosystem approach to environmental assessment of college residence halls asks students to identify issues they feel strongly about, and to recommend action the university might take to enhance or rectify a situation. This approach was used to examine life in the undergraduate residence halls at Indiana University. A forced-choice…

Discusses development and use of a new scale which systematically assesses the social climates of university student living groups. A brief discussion of the construction and validation of the scale is followed by a comparison between living units and group climates on two large university campuses. (Author)