This mixed methods study collected data from a sample of Deans of Students in the Florida State University System (SUS). The study sought to determine deans of students’ definitions for crisis and crisis management with an analysis of the institutional chain of command for a more in depth understanding of crisis management response processes. The study also sought to identify development levels of deans of students’ leadership competencies as crisis managers, gauge crisis management training frequencies for each dean of students as it related to 14 crisis scenarios commonly found on higher education campuses, and identify crisis management program foci for the institutions participating in this study. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

A relatively small number of research articles have been written about one of the most challenging positions in higher education, that of a department chair. Chairs must wear many hats and assume many tasks including management and oversight, budget and financial management, teaching, research, working with students and faculty, evaluations, community relations, and legal issues, to name a few. This qualitative descriptive study aspires to ascertain the perspectives of department chairs on what they believe constitutes their effectiveness as leaders in higher education. Attempting to identify and analyze requisite personality traits, skills and behaviors of department chairs is vital for understanding the nuances that influence and shape their abilities to become accomplished leaders in their field. Surveys containing 12 open-ended questions were electronically distributed to department chairs at a private college in central Florida. Analysis of the data collected resulted in the development of four themes, supported by three styles of leadership. The themes were correlated with their corresponding research questions and the correlation process was used to draw several conclusions. First, department chairs incorporate a variety of skills and a combination of leadership styles that best fit their abilities and personalities, into their work performance. Second, department chairs in higher education require specific skills and tools to help them achieve their strategic vision they set for their departments. Some of these tools are learned and acquired through experience, while others inherent, grounded within instinctive and innate personality traits and values they already possess. Third, personal and interpersonal skills, knowledge, and competencies form the cornerstones of a leaders’ abilities, successes and failures. Building upon the foundation established in this study, future researchers could expand upon the scope of this research to include a larger sample size, more diverse participants, private vs. public educational institutions, gender, race and ethnic specific sampling, national and international sampling, and more in-depth research questions that include personal and environmental influence. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2021. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

This study explores the relationship between diversity within executive decision-making teams at institutions of higher education and their propensity for strategic change. Previous research in the areas of strategic change, group decision making, and higher education was drawn from in this study. Statistically significant relationships were discovered the demographic background of executive decision-making teams at public colleges and universities, as measured by both the pursuit of new degree and certificate program offerings and multiple measures of student retention. The results also indicated the presence of an insufficiently diverse pool of potential executives for colleges and universities to draw from.

The purpose of this study is to determine the soundness of the graduate educational-administration programs in the leading colleges and universities of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Colorado, and New Mexico, in the light of criteria derived from psychologies of learning, and the etiologies of desirable traits such as leadership. A second purpose for setting up such criteria is to have a basis from which to draw recommendations and suggestions for improvement.

The purpose of this study was to develop a prediction model for graduation rate at non-residential research universities. As well, this study investigated, described, and compared the student characteristics of non-residential and residential institutions. Making distinctions between significant predictor variables at non-residential research universities and significant predictor variables at residential institutions was also an aim. The researcher obtained data from the Integrated Postsecondary Data System. Student and institutional variables were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent samples t-tests, analysis of variance, and regression analyses. Results indicated that student and institutional characteristics can be used to significantly predict graduation rate at nonresidential institutions with student variables yielding greater predictive power than institutional variables. As well, residential status was found to moderate the relationship between undergraduate enrollment and graduation rate. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

In 2013, the U.S. Department of Education published revised guidelines for emergency response planning for colleges and universities in the United States. These guidelines reflect the collective work of numerous government intelligence, law enforcement, and preparedness agencies that have taken into account the past successes and failures of schools in response to natural disasters and man-made disasters such as cyber hacking and targeted violent incidents on campuses. With a collective enrollment of over 20 million students annually and valuable physical resources such as libraries, stadiums, and medical centers at institutions of higher education (IHE), an effort to identify the current safety personnel, practices, and services was conducted. The purpose of this research was to identify areas of IHE compliance with the government guidelines and to identify differences, if any, by school enrollment size and region of the country. A cross-sectional design was used to describe compliance with the government guidelines and examine the differences based on a random sample drawn from all accredited 4- year public colleges and universities (n=708) in the United States. A sample of 17% of all eligible institutions was selected (n=120), and a 70.8% response rate was obtained (n=85). Directors of public safety were interviewed by telephone and reported information regarding their school’s availability of mental health counseling, crime prevention programs, emergency communications plans, emergency operations plans, and personnel training. The major findings of this study revealed that only 64 (75%) schools offered disaster response presentations to new students and staff, while 9 (11%) reported that their written emergency operations plans were not available to their communities, and that only 53 (62.4%) offered presentations regarding cyber-security and safeguarding online information. This study also revealed that 40 (47%) of the respondents either did not have or did not know if their school had an emergency operations plan for dealing with database theft, and 55 (64.7%) either did not have or did not know if there was a plan in place to safeguard the private contact information used in their emergency communications systems. With an estimated 300,000+ college students annually studying abroad, only 44 (51.3%) respondents reported offering travel safety presentations to their communities. Few differences were identified based on enrollment or regional location. The implications are discussed within the context of increasing national trends of gun violence, armed civilians and officers on campuses, cyber hacking, and increased participation by students and researchers traveling abroad.

D. Ed. (Educational Management) / The cornerstone of this research is to understand the role of the Private Higher Education (PHE) sector in South Africa, including the challenges and problems encountered by the Private Higher Education Institutions (PHEIs) in competing in the public HE sector that is legally accountable to and funded by government. The country’s HE sector is deeply fragmented owing to the past racial divisions and inequalities, and the research thus intends to contribute to the debate on implementing a unified and inclusive model for HE. The model will include Private HE as one of the major stakeholders, offering much-needed programmes and requisite skills. The research focuses on how PHEIs perceive the policies and regulations that govern them, in terms of governance, management and funding, based on their quest to operate on the same level and standards with public HE institutions. There are many existing problems, tensions and contestations in the HE sector. The research method is quantitative, designed to elicit the views of PHE institutions, private providers, authorities and regulatory bodies. A structured questionnaire consisting of 50 items was sent to 500 private HE management staff, lecturers, trainers and owners, with a return rate of 61, 2%. After two successive factor analytic procedures the responses to the 50 items were reduced to two factors or dimensions, namely responsive governance (27 Items with α = 0.75) and policy intervention (14 Items with α = 0.63). On reflection, the items were renamed as aspects facilitating management (FB2.1) and aspects impeding management (FB2.2), and were used as parameters for the quantitative research paradigm. The responses from participants were coded and analysed, and themes or factors emerged from the first-order analysis of the data. The results of the data analysis revealed that holistic management models are developed by engaging all the stakeholders through the process of merging collegiality and managerialism, by adapting to change and transformation in higher education. There was a striking similarity between the literature review and the structured questionnaire in that the integrated management model is composed of the various emerging themes, such as systemic tensions, aspects of restrictive governance, government funding, regulatory constraints, franchising concerns about outsourcing and equity issues. The recommendations in this research are based on the six identified themes on the findings from the literature review as well as the findings from the structured questionnaire.

Career centers in higher education must create environments that serve the needs of students and alumni. Alumni not only are a served population, but also are beneficial to student career development, and serve dual purposes as clients and volunteers. One program frequently offered by career centers that engages alumni volunteers is an alumni mock interview program. While the alumni volunteers act as interviewers to share their insights and professional experience, they too are clients, so their learning must be considered. Existing mock interview program research primarily examines the student learning experience. This study addressed the research problem of the unknown learning experience of alumni mock interviewers. The purpose was to explore with a group of alumni volunteers their perceptions of their learning experience as interviewers within a mock interview program. To achieve this purpose, the researcher employed a qualitative, single-case study approach drawing upon the experiences of alumni mock interviewers within a particular setting. Data was collected from 43 participants providing questionnaire ratings and 25 subset participants completing critical incident written responses and interviews. Four major study findings emerged: (1) All described what they learned, with a majority learning the importance of creating a comfortable environment, delivering feedback, offering the program for students’ preparation, and understanding current students’ experiences; (2) All found aspects that contributed to their learning, with a majority describing having sample interview questions and staying in touch with students as helpful; (3) All found aspects that inhibited their learning, with a majority describing the lack of connection with fellow alumni mock interviewers and lack of industry knowledge of specific fields as hindering; (4) All described program design recommendations to foster alumni learning, with a majority recommending matching students with alumni based on industry and background, providing an opportunity to hear about alumni experiences, and offering advanced training to students. The principal recommendations of the study have implications for higher education career service professionals on how to design mock interview programs to engage alumni in lifelong learning by considering the sources of knowledge within the program and utilizing adult learning theory and learning from experience frameworks as guides.

Learning Agility (LA) is catapulting our understanding of the relationship between the measurement of LA and leadership success, a critical component for succeeding in a volatile, uncertain, complex (VUCA) environment. While the business sector has benefited from the research and practice around LA, this exploratory study takes an initial look at the applicability of LA to higher education leadership through in-depth interviews with eleven college presidents, coupled with the results of the Burke Learning Assessment Inventory (BLAI). Administered to the presidents and their senior teams, the BLAI was created by W. Warner Burke to measure nine dimensions that demonstrate specific behaviors related to LA. Overall, both the interviews with the presidents and BLAI scores evidenced strong LA views and behaviors. A close examination of the senior team roles and the need for LA revealed strengths and alignment with key dimensions of the BLAI, while noticeable gaps surfaced between the presidents’ views and BLAI self-ratings, illuminating opportunities for growth and further research. A strong relationship was revealed between presidents’ BLAI scores and those she deemed higher performers across the critical dimensions, providing a snapshot of the LA behaviors of successful higher education leaders. All presidents acknowledged a relationship between LA and higher education leadership success, with 64% stating that there was a strong relationship, and the remaining 36% stating that there was a relationship, but to varying degrees, identifying some of the key dimensions as less applicable to higher education.

For nearly three decades, the United States of America has been the consistent leader in incarceration rates worldwide. A number of structural social problems have contributed to this reality (e.g., the school-to-prison pipeline, the 1994 Crime Bill, and aggressive surveillance and policing of poor and minority neighborhoods). Recently, a number of structural solutions have presented themselves in effort to decarcerate prisons and consider pathways for returning citizens with emphasis on housing, healthcare, and education. This dissertation focuses on the education component with an eye toward higher education-in-prison programs (HEPPs). The last decade denotes an inflection point for mass incarceration and HEPPs in part due to increased funding from public and private sectors as well as bipartisan support for making higher education accessible for incarcerated people. In the midst of cross-sector support for these programs, the colleges and universities providing the core elements – teaching and learning – have been mostly silent actors. This study looks at partnerships between prisons and higher education institutions and centers the voices and narratives of higher education faculty and administrators responsible for leading HEPPs. Drawing on the civic mission of higher education, as well as participants’ conceptions of their work, this study considers how faculty and administrators describe the intent and function of their HEPPs and the extent to which they align with the civic mission of higher education. Through a qualitative multisite case analysis of three higher education institutions in New York State, the findings of this study reveal that these programs view themselves as being responsive to historical structures of inequity in higher education and broader society. They also conveyed a desire for their programs to become an institutionalized component of their college or university. There were five patterns, across cases, that provided insight into these programs and multiple levels including: (1.) program professionals, (2.) program place and space, (3.) programs in service to the institutional mission and civic mission, (4.) program attentiveness to external factors, and (5.) program conceptualization: the two-way partnership misnomer. These patterns might also prove relevant to university partnerships more broadly. The study concludes with implications for theory, practice, and future research related to HEPPs with emphasis on the need to situate all aspects of these programs not, as they often are, in economic and workforce metrics, but rather in the experiences of faculty, staff, and students participating in college-in-prison as well as returning citizens attending college.