Discusses a research study that examined the perceived value of a residence hall space for students interested in gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender concerns at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Provides information for other campuses as they debate the need for and the value of special interest residential areas in college campuses.…

Recounts how the students and faculty at the University of Wyoming responded to the murder of a gay student. Offers postcrisis critique about the elements of the Crisis Intervention Team's response that were identified as helpful: involvement of the college president, flexibility and responsiveness of the study activities staff, discussion forums…

Offers a theoretical explanation of the student's experience of higher education by reframing the viewpoint from a focus on surface/strategic/deep approaches to learning to a focus on alienated or engaged experiences of learning. Focuses on alienation and offers seven different perspectives on how to understand this experience of higher education.…

Describes how collective bargaining has emerged as an important factor in higher education, with some faculty resisting unionism as a threat to status and dignity. Seeks to refute the source of such resistance, the "myth of academe," or the belief that faculty lead lives devoted to selfless pursuit of knowledge in institutions carefully…

Interviews Bill Kibler, former Bonfire Advisor at Texas A and M, about the bonfire's special place in the college's culture. Describes how the community is coping after the accident, and what has been the response to the recent independent report on the accident, which cited numerous physical and organizational failures as a cause of the disaster.…

Used in-depth, semi-structured interviews to explore the experiences of women academics at a South African university. Found positive and negative experiences: positives included the lessening of overt discrimination and flexible work hours. Negatives included the "double workload" of traditional female duties combined with work life and…

Reports on a longitudinal study that partially supports Chickering's hypotheses about the relationship between collegiate experiences and psychosocial development. Results indicate that development of purpose and sense of competence were related to collegiate experiences. However, measurement issues emerged regarding development over extended…

Using a campus climate assessment instrument developed by Rankin (1998), we surveyed students (n = 7,347) from 10 campuses to explore whether students from different racial groups experienced their campus climates differently. Students of color experienced harassment at higher rates than Caucasian students, although female White students reported…

Describes a study to assess perceptions of campus judicial officers/members of the Association for Student Judicial Affairs (ASJA) regarding the effectiveness of the Clery Act (Campus Security Act) on campus judicial practices. In addition it provides information regarding overall effectiveness of Clery as perceived by the respondents. (Contains…

This paper examines college commencement, a formal campus exiting ritual orchestrated for students as they conclude their academic careers. The manuscript is focused on a single commencement ritual that illuminates the power of rituals to transmit cultural norms and provides an anthropological perspective that benefits scholars, practitioners, and…

Author presents observations related to college students' informal manner of addressing authors when writing critically about literary works composed in the first person. Topics analyzed include students' relationship with the author depending on the literary work, and students' familiarity when addressing their elders and authority figures in the…

Cooperative learning is viable yet generally underutilized method of instruction at the college level (Paulsen and Faust, 2008). This paper highlights the work of teacher educator Dr. Paul J. Vermette in his implementation of cooperative learning based practices in a graduate level Multicultural education course. In analyzing the "Five…

Although critical pedagogy has been discussed in the Teaching Sociology literature for nearly twenty years, dialogues about the difficulties in practicing and implementing critical pedagogical strategies in everyday classroom life are less common. In this note, we discuss a predominant theme of our workshop: challenges and concerns that may arise…

Understanding the prime-time television portrait of college helps educators better understand the expectations our entering students may hold of college life.

The current national political context has brought Islam (as both a practice and an identity) into the media forefront. The events of 9/11 and the resulting war in Iraq have sparked renewed interest in the religion of Islam and the life of Muslims. This context has made the discussion undertaken in this article of the issues faced by Muslim…