Travis T York

Institutions looking to make headway into the persistent challenge of recruiting, hiring, and retaining a more diverse faculty are often looking for a playbook of best or promising practices to aid their efforts. While there are no one-size-fits-all solutions for the context-specific challenges facing universities, research on promising practices and the experiences of underrepresented group (URG) faculty provide indicators of the necessary elements of programs, practices, and interventions to increase the institutional and national diversity of faculty.These recommendations for promising practice are grounded in the research literature and should help institutional leaders to structure their interventions to best tackle these challenges. These promising practices urge institutions to:• Foster relationships all along the faculty career pathways.• Democratize knowledge about processes, standards, and norms.• Rethink recruitment and hiring strategies.• Address the conditions of facult...

To improve college affordability and graduation rates, universities are increasingly allocating “completion grants” to students who are nearing the finish line but facing financial challenges. Using an experimental design and common program model across 11 broad-access public universities in ten states, we assessed the impact of a completion grants averaging $1,200 distributed among more than 14,000 students. We find that, despite university expectations that most students were near completion, only two-thirds of students eligible to receive a completion grant graduated within the academic year. Receiving a completion grant did not improve that rate. However, nearly all eligible students (95%) graduated within three years or were still working on their degrees. While completion grants are intended to enhance equity, we do not find evidence that they exerted positive impacts for marginalized groups as designed in this study. Moreover, while there was some program implementation varia...

Community engagement is recognized as a high - impact practice in higher education. However, while best practices in engagement have been broadly accepted, standard metrics for engage- ment across institutions have not yet been established. The purpose of this research study was to explore the relationship between community engagement and a variety of institutional charac- teristics among higher education institutions in a Southeastern state. Findings indicated that a pattern of engagement existed among the 48 participating institutions.

Despite, and perhaps because of its amorphous nature, the term ‘academic success’ is one of the most widely used constructs in educational research and assessment within higher education. This paper conducts an analytic literature review to examine the use and operationalization of the term in multiple academic fields. Dominant definitions of the term are conceptually evaluated using Astin’s I-E-O model resulting in the proposition of a revised definition and new conceptual model of academic success. Measurements of academic success found throughout the literature are presented in accordance with the presented model of academic success. These measurements are provided with details in a user-friendly table (Appendix B). Results also indicate that grades and GPA are the most commonly used measure of academic success. Finally, recommendations are given for future research and practice to increase effective assessment of academic success.

The purpose of this study was to develop a retention model specific to the 2-year college environment using factors not typically combined with the study of student retention. The study operationalized factors representing the basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness combined with elements of Bean and Metzner’s nontraditional student attrition model. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling techniques. The results indicated acceptable model fit and small to moderate effects were noted for competence and autonomy with grade point average (GPA). GPA exhibited the sole direct effect on student retention. The results further indicated the student characteristics of full-time enrollment and completion of 30 or more college-level credits combined with GPA explained a higher variance on student retention than did the factors of autonomy, competence, relatedness, external pull, or external support combined.

As part of a national initiative to recruit, hire, andretain STEM faculty from underrepresented groups, theAssociation of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU)INCLUDES project, funded by the National ScienceFoundation, examined university efforts supportingaccess to, retention in, and progress to the professoriatefor URG STEM faculty aspirants. In addition to conveningacademic experts and institutional leaders, APLUsurveyed member institutions about their practices topromote diversity in these areas. Findings from APLUINCLUDES Activities included: ◊ There are a wide variety of pathways to the STEMprofessoriate, including many non-traditionalroutes. ◊ Many universities have robust programs tosupport URG students during their undergraduateand graduate careers, but that support appearsto diminish at the post-doctoral and early careerfaculty stages. ◊ While existing programs are serving immediateneeds of individual students, the localistic andtargeted focus of these programs display...

This study explored the service-learning experiences of low-income, first-generation college students using a mixed-methods design that drew upon a national longitudinal dataset and in-depth, face-to-face interviews conducted over the course of a year and a half at three institutions in three states. The purpose of this study was to increase understanding of the outcomes related to service-learning participation for low-income, first-generation college students. Findings indicated that participation in service-learning courses was significantly positively related to the development of several academic and affective outcomes related to increased academic success. The presence of divergent findings from the two data streams also indicated particular complexity in measuring development for low-income and first-generation students—a complexity not found in the overall student population. The author discusses specific implications of this study for practitioners, college and university a...

Permission is granted to distribute this article for nonprofit, educational purposes if it is copied in its entirety and the journal is credited. PARE has the right to authorize third party reproduction of this article in print, electronic and database forms. Despite, and perhaps because of its amorphous nature, the term 'academic success' is one of the most widely used constructs in educational research and assessment within higher education. This paper conducts an analytic literature review to examine the use and operationalization of the term in multiple academic fields. Dominant definitions of the term are conceptually evaluated using Astin's I-E-O model resulting in the proposition of a revised definition and new conceptual model of academic success. Measurements of academic success found throughout the literature are presented in accordance with the presented model of academic success. These measurements are provided with details in a user-friendly table (Appendix ...

This study analyzed the sexual attitudes and behaviors of 211 unmarried, traditionallyaged undergraduate males at a small, private, Christian, liberal arts institution in western Pennsylvania. As hypothesized, data were largely consistent with millennial theorists’ projections about current students’ decline in sexual activity in comparison to data from the past. The results of this project also confirm the relevance of the Social Norms Theory to the study of sexual behavior (Berkowitz, 2003). Descriptive data and definitions of sex, virginity, and abstinence are also discussed. This research suggests that student development professionals should invest in education and programming that provides accurate statistics about sexual behaviors.

As part of a national initiative to recruit, hire, and retain STEM faculty from underrepresented groups, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) INCLUDES project, funded by the National Science
Foundation, examined university efforts supporting access to, retention in, and progress to the professoriate for URG STEM faculty aspirants. In addition to convening academic experts and institutional leaders, APLU
surveyed member institutions about their practices to promote diversity in these areas.

Findings from APLU INCLUDES Activities included:
◊ There are a wide variety of pathways to the STEM professoriate, including many non-traditional routes.
◊ Many universities have robust programs to support URG students during their undergraduate and graduate careers, but that support appears to diminish at the post-doctoral and early career faculty stages.
◊ While existing programs are serving the immediate needs of individual students, the localistic and targeted focus of these programs display a limited impact on the most intractable challenges to diversifying the faculty.
◊ The lack of federal unit-level data frustrates efforts to follow aspirants to the STEM professoriate through the career pathways.

This report details the findings of APLU INCLUDES work and calls on higher education leaders, current STEM faculty, researchers, and policymakers to help shift the conversation from focusing on addressing individuals’ needs to create systemic and cultural changes in the
STEM ecosystem to promote diversity and inclusion across the career pipeline.

This study explored the service-learning experiences of low-income, first-generation college students using a mixed-methods design that drew upon a national longitudinal dataset and in-depth, face-to-face interviews conducted over the course of a year and a half at three institutions in three states. The purpose of this study was to increase understanding of the outcomes related to service-learning participation for low-income, first-generation college students. Findings indicated that participation in service-learning courses was significantly positively related to the development of several academic and affective outcomes related to increased academic success. The presence of divergent findings from the two data streams also indicated particular complexity in measuring development for low-income and first-generation students—a complexity not found in the overall student population. The author discusses specific implications of this study for practitioners, college and university administrators, researchers, and policy makers.