This quasi-experimental study examined the impact of living-learning communities on GPA and fall-to-fall retention rates for college freshmen at Regional University (RU). The specific focus of this study was the effect of these communities on students of different ethnic groups and on the potential of these communities to reduce the academic performance gap. RU was a small public university that offered both undergraduate and graduate degree programs. RU required all freshman students to live on campus in living-learning communities beginning with the 2007-2008 academic year. This study utilized the 343 student freshman cohort class of 2008 in the living-learning communities as the treatment group. This treatment group was compared against the 193 student freshman cohort class of 2008 living off campus and against the 643 student freshman cohort class of 2006 living on campus prior to the implementation of living-learning communities. In addition, the statistics were analyzed by ethnicity to examine the impact of these communities on White, Hispanic, African American, and Native American students and their ability to reduce the academic performance gap. The research revealed that the communities implemented at RU were not statistically significant at improving academic performance or at reducing the achievement gap. The results of this study were not consistent with the literature available on living-learning communities. Current research identifies six fundamental factors critical to the success of living-learning communities: positive working relationship between academic affairs and student affairs, involvement of faculty in the residence halls, appropriate funding, assessment strategies, university wide buy-in to implementing these communities, and commitment from institutional leadership. Examination of the inputs and processes on which these learning communities developed and operated indicated that the majority of these were not well developed to sustain these communities. The divergence of these findings from the literature may be attributed to key departures from the literature regarding the set-up and operation of these communities at RU.

In recent years, attention to the number of students struggling to meet basic needs such as food and housing has grown, and services such as food pantries, emergency grants, and assistance accessing public benefits have become increasingly common on college campuses. However, much is still unknown about why colleges and universities are adopting basic needs services, how colleges and universities are incorporating basic needs services into organizational functioning, and what challenges may make it difficult for colleges and universities to provide basic needs services. The current coverage of basic needs in higher education largely focuses on documenting the prevalence of food and housing insecurity among students and advocating for basic needs services as a strategy to promote student success. To date, little research has been done to explore what it means for higher education to provide basic needs services from an institutional perspective. To better understand what it means for colleges as institutions to provide basic needs services, the dissertation uses qualitative interviews with individuals from community colleges, public four-year colleges, private four-year colleges, and highly selective private four-year universities to examine the influence of external environmental pressures as well as internal organizational dynamics on the provision of basic needs services. I find that while external pressures and internal dynamics are conveying the message that colleges should provide basic needs services, they offer little guidance over how to do so. Basic needs services tend to operate on the periphery of organizational functioning, with limited institutional support, and faculty and staff are struggling to define the extent of higher education’s responsibility. The study contributes not only to organizational theory research in higher education, but also to policy research regarding strategies for strengthening the social safety net. It concludes by highlighting remaining unanswered questions about the role of higher education in addressing students’ basic needs and offering recommendations for new research into strategies for enhancing the role of cross-sector partnerships in supporting students’ basic needs and maximizing the potential of college-based basic needs services.

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Orientador: Eglé Novaes Teixeira / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Civil, Arquitetura e Urbanismo / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-22T20:55:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dutra_BrunoRicardoMarques_M.pdf: 14252007 bytes, checksum: 1327c4c986a7ffc6b82fbdb55f2ef7e0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: A fração de matéria orgânica biodegradável pode atingir patamares superiores a 50 % do resíduo sólido gerado em diversas localidades. Sua disposição inadequada está associada a diversos problemas ambientais como: proliferação de vetores, contaminação de recursos hídricos e desprendimento de gases que podem ter odor desagradável e causar efeito estufa. Uma das formas para minimizar este impacto é pelo processo de compostagem, que pode ser realizado em Unidades de Compostagem, onde a fração orgânica do resíduo sólido doméstico produzido por agrupamentos humanos pode ser tratada o mais próximo possível do local onde foi gerado. Realizou-se a caracterização gravimétrica do resíduo sólido doméstico gerado na Moradia Estudantil da UNICAMP com o objetivo de identificar o potencial de geração da fração orgânica compostável. Além disto, com base nos dados obtidos por esta identificação, tanto no trabalho de iniciação científica realizado pelo autor desta pesquisa, como neste trabalho, estudo bibliográfico e no levantamento histórico do sistema de coleta e segregação de resíduo da Moradia elaborou-se uma proposta de plano para otimização do sistema de gerenciamento do resíduo sólido orgânico doméstico para o local. Com isto, verificou-se que a geração per capita de resíduo sólido doméstico pelos estudantes da Moradia foi muito inferior à de diversas localidades estudadas, pois uma percentagem significativa dos estudantes permanece grande parte do dia na Universidade e por isto grande parte do resíduo gerado é ali descartado. Ainda assim, a produção de resíduo sólido orgânico predominou, correspondendo a 41 % do resíduo sólido doméstico gerado. Observou-se também, que a Moradia possui área disponível à instalação de uma Unidade de Compostagem e que, se implementada, ainda que em caráter experimental, no contexto universitário, pode ser de suma importância, pois a Universidade é o local onde se formam pessoas que têm papel fundamental em difundir valores e práticas de sustentabilidade, assim como a formação de futuras gerações que precisam vislumbrar, endossar e implementar propostas sustentáveis / Abstract: The fraction of biodegradable organic matter can reach levels higher than 50% of solid waste generated in some locations. The improper disposal is associated with various environmental problems such as: the proliferation of vectors, contamination of water resources, and loosening gases of unpleasant odor and that cause the greenhouse effect. One way to minimize this impact is the composting process, which can be held in Composting Units. In this Units the organic fraction of domestic solid waste produced by communities, neighborhoods, condominiums can be treated as close as possible to where it was generated. In this sense, it was carried out the gravimetric characterization of the domestic solid waste generated in the Student Dorm. It was made in order to identify the potential for generation of compostable organic fraction. Besides that, a plan for optimize and expand the system of segregation, collection and treatment of organic household solid waste was organized. It has been made based on the work of undergraduate research conducted by the author of this research, the literature research and the survey history of the collection and segregation system of the Student Dorm. With this, it was found that the production of per capta domestic students housing was much lower than the values found for other locations. It happens because a big part of the students stays almost the whole day in the University, and most of the waste is discarded on this site. Nevertheless, the organic solid waste production prevailed, corresponding to 41% of solid domestic waste generated. It was also observed that the Student Dorm has an available area to install a Composting Unit and if it is implemented, even experimentally, in the University context, can be very important, because the University is a place where occurs the formation of people with a fundamental part in spreading sustainability values and practices, as well as the formation of future generations, who needs to discern, endorse and implement sustainable approaches / Mestrado / Saneamento e Ambiente / Mestre em Engenharia Civil