<p> Financial instability is a common fiscal burden for many community college students and can serve as primary barrier to educational success (Quaye &amp; Harper, 2015). Although traditional financial aid is structured to assist students in financing college expenses, many low-income students often face financial emergencies beyond the scope of financial aid (Johnson, 2015). These financial emergencies have been specifically identified as serious obstacles to educational success and have prompted many institutions to establish student emergency financial assistance programs (Geckeler, Beach, Pih, &amp; Yan, 2008). This study explored one student emergency financial assistance program at a public community college and the impact it had on student success, persistence, and completion rates. Although findings from the study lacked positive statistical significance, it could be argued that students who received emergency financial assistance lacked a chance to achieve successful academic outcomes. The association of financial emergencies, to low academic performance (Cady, 2014), coupled with heightened negative impacts of students&rsquo; financial circumstances to educational success (Bean &amp; Metzner, 1985), and the absence of a comprehensive emergency financial assistance program structure at the studied institution (Goldrick-Rab, Broton, &amp; Frank, 2014) all contributed to study findings. These findings imply changes to the structure of emergency financial assistance programs which promote comprehensive services to students, align social and educational policy, and have complete institutional support (Baum, McDemmond, &amp; Jones, 2014).</p>

<p> The perceptions of six community college faculty members about the qualities of college-level writing were explored in a series of guided interviews conducted at Prairie Community College (a pseudonym) located in the central time zone of the United States. The study examined the perceptions of the six faculty members with regard to important characteristics of college-level writing, acceptable multiple discourses within college-level writing, and perceptions of faculty members from different academic disciplines about college-level writing. Interview data were analyzed through the lens of transcendental phenomenology. </p><p> The results showed that the six community college faculty members differed greatly by academic discipline about what they perceived college-level writing to be. The English faculty members believed that college-level writing consists of grammatically correct sentences presented within essay structures. However, faculty members of biology, economics, and mathematics were much more open in their perceptions about what could be accepted as college-level writing. </p><p> The results of the study suggest a need for dialogue among faculty members of different disciplines within community colleges about the characteristics of college-level writing and what community college students need to learn to become successful college-level writers.</p>

Using the detailed evidence of the burgh court records of Selkirk for the period 1503 to 1545, supported by comparative material from the records of other burghs, this study examines the nature and function of social control in an urban community. The burgh court is described through its functions as the chief formal mechanism of social control, and in the case of Selkirk, the organ of burgh government. The operation of the court is examined under a number of headings which reflect those areas of urban life which were of the greatest concern to community and individuals alike. Many of these concerns are revealed to be about the economic affairs of the burgh, and about the perceived need for economic and social stability and continuity. The protection of stability and continuity is a recuring theme throughout the study, in which the burgh court may be seen to be exercising formal and intentional social control. A parallel theme is provided by the evidence for a well developed and effective system of informal social control, based on the existence of a sense of consensus or public opinion. It is argued that this public opinion provided a framework within which the formal mechanisms of social control were able to function, and from this it is concluded that successful control was dependent on consent. The study ends with an explanation of the special role of the burgh court in bringing together the formal and informal aspects of social control through its function as public forum, sounding board, and mirror of the community's shared system of values and beliefs.

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