Given today's hurried pace of change in higher education and its institutions, it is imperative for the higher education research community to reflect on its current composition and resulting ability to understand and respond to the breadth and rapidity of that change. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to identify selected social and academic characteristics of the primary contributors (authors, editorial board members, and editors) to The Review of Higher Education, to categorize institutional affiliations of contributors via the Carnegie Classification System and to synthesize the data in a historical and sociological perspective. The contributions to The Review's articles, editorial board positions, and editorships in its first 25 years have predominantly been from male members of the higher education professoriate affiliated with and receiving doctoral degrees from major research universities ranked highest in the Carnegie Classification System. Trends toward greater gender and disciplinary representation, especially among author contributors, began to appear by the mid-point (1990s) of the study period.

This study, the first comprehensive history of The Chronicle, melds a quarter-century of higher education and journalism milestones.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The fundamental principles colleges and universities use to recruit students have remained largely unchanged for decades. Traditionally, admissions professionals visit high schools and attend college fairs, while colleges and universities hold preview days and publish viewbooks all in the interest of attracting a high-quality and diverse student population. The recruiting process has been greatly improved through the application of modern technology. The analytic abilities of technologies such as geographic information systems (GISystems), which allow for the visualization and analysis of spatial data, presents previously underutilized strategies for higher education recruiting methods. In addition, the incorporation of a Hierarchical Bayesian model will effectively model influential enrollment factors, which successful students possess. Hierarchical Bayesian models use the prior distribution, and likelihood of an events occurrence to create the posterior distribution or Bayesian inference. The intelligence created by combining traditional recruiting techniques with GISystems and Hierarchical Bayesian modeling will allow admissions professionals to improve the success rate of enrollment efforts and expenditures. This paper will explore the application of Hierarchical Bayesian models and GISystems within higher education recruiting.

Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The issue of whether or not English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses should carry undergraduate degree credit has been long-debated. The current work attempts to demonstrate that these courses should contribute toward degree requirements in the same way that other foreign language courses do, on the basis of curricular consistency in liberal arts, language, and academic mission, as well as in keeping with goals toward multiculturalism and internationalization. Utilizing a review of existing EAP or English as a Second Language (ESL) course credit structures at 41 U.S. universities, and a survey of ESL/EAP program administrators, recommendations are made for proposing degree credit for EAP courses. Finally, a proposal is included for changing the EAP course credit structure at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis.

This paper uses a sociological model to compare the residential energy consumption between immigrant students and native-born American students and to explain the difference by demographic characteristics, values, and specific attitudes. Further, it tries to explore whether the relationship between immigration status and residential energy consumption is mediated by value orientation towards frugality and specific attitudes towards energy conservation. The data of an online survey among native-born and foreign-born students at the University of Central Florida are used. The results suggest that immigrants consume less energy at home than native-born Americans, but the time stayed in the US doesn’t have an impact on the energy consumption of immigrants. In addition, the results do not show evidence that value orientation towards frugality and specific attitudes toward energy conservation mediate the relationship between immigration status and energy consumption at home.

Since the late 1960's, there has been a growing body of research seeking to provide explanation for why blacks continue to be underrepresented in higher education enrollment; however, none of these studies provides a full explanation. Ogbu (1969, 1978, 1985), who has given the fullest explanation of black underachievement for students at the primary and secondary levels, suggests that his caste system paradigm be used to explain black underrepresentation in higher education. This paradigm suggests that blacks are members of a caste because of a history of discrimination and exploitation. This past history led to a folk theory of unequal opportunity, which has affected the way that blacks perceive, interpret, and respond to educational barriers. In this exploratory study, the researcher investigated a lower socioeconomic community in Baltimore, Maryland, which in many ways represents the general black population, to learn if Ogbu's caste paradigm explained black underrepresentation in higher education. It was learned that the caste system was in operation, and a very recent history of discrimination and exploitation existed. A folk theory of "unequal opportunity" and a collective identity that "blacks cannot compete with the white man," led to the use of oppositional/counter cultural strategies to "get ahead." Such strategies as pushing drugs, "beating the system" and stealing, coupled with high incidents of homicide, violence and teen pregnancy, impacted upon the ability of residents to graduate from high school and enroll in college. Furthermore, strategies used in the community were operational in the school, which served to detract from school learning. / Ed. D.

The purpose of this study was to develop and test a conceptual model of influences of motivational factors and quality of effort on two freshman-year developmental outcomes. Literature on college effects indicates the importance of student characteristics in determining college outcomes, but does not provide evidence concerning the influences that students' nonacademic goals have on their growth and development. A sample of freshmen dormitory residents responded to the College Student Experiences questionnaire. Goals data were provided by a survey conducted during freshmen orientation. Ordinary least squares regression analyses were used to estimate effects of quality of effort dimensions, motivational factors (including goals for college), and four background characteristics on two outcomes--perceived personal-social gains and perceived intellectual gains. The hypothesized model did not fit the data. Highly intercorrelated quality of effort scores introduced multi-collinearity and led to unreliable estimates of the independent effects of the three quality of effort dimensions. The implications of collinearity and other characteristics of the data for interpretation of results were discussed. Regression results indicated that, among the motivational factors, the importance of social goals contributed the most to student estimates of personal-social gains while educational aspirations and certainty about major and career contributed the most to student estimates of intellectual gains. The relationships were partially mediated by quality of effort although interpretation of the indirect effects was limited by the collinearity of quality of effort dimensions. The social goals variable predicted the quality of participation both in group experiences and in personal-interpersonal experiences; educational aspirations and certainty about major and career both predicted the quality of academic experiences; and educational aspirations also contributed to prediction of the quality of personal-interpersonal experiences. The fourth motivational factor, importance of personal development goals, contributed to both outcomes but had no significant relationships with quality of effort dimensions. This surprising finding was thought to merit further investigation. Among the background characteristics, gender (female) was a strong predictor of both outcomes. / Ed. D.

While a great deal of psychological research is conducted on college students, less has been done on their adaptation to college. These young adults, as they develop ego identity and differentiate themselves from parents and families, must adjust to the social and academic environment of college. Psychosocial adjustment predicts college retention better than academic predictors do. First generation college students face greater than typical challenges adapting to college. The Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program exists to aid first generation, lower income undergraduate student who wish to pursue a doctoral degree. Self-definition scored from thematic apperceptive technique stories reflects an individual’s relative freedom from social role constraint. This study examined the role of self-definition and familial understanding and acceptance in this population as predictors of successful adaptation to college. While neither was found to be a significant predictor, family understanding and acceptance was found to be a more defining characteristic of this sample than was self-definition. This suggests that when social support is sufficient, individuals do not need to rely on self-definition.

The purpose of this study was to examine the expectations of African American and Hispanic males in a for-profit university (TTU). This study specifically explored student perception of the retention efforts of faculty, staff, policies, procedures and services within the institutional environment. It further examined how these experiences promoted or impeded the African American or Hispanic male's persistence to graduation. The higher education institution is identified as TTU throughout this study. It is a commuter university established in the early 1900s. A qualitative case study approach was used and two campus sites were selected. Data collection included interviews of 19 students, along with 2 faculty (identified by students), as well as document analysis, and various on site observations at each campus. The data were then transcribed, coded, and analyzed to ascertain the overall views and perceptions of the participants. / by Carole Comarcho. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2009. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2009. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

The U.S. is the leading nation for international students to pursue higher education; the majority of whom are from countries with significant differences in culture and language from American students. As such, many international students start higher education in ESL support programs. While on the surface international students supposedly add cultural and linguistic diversity to American higher education by contributing to the internationalization of campuses, international students' transition into U.S. life and academe is often fraught with challenges including culture shock, adjusting to the new environment and society, adjustment to norms of academic performance, acquisition of academic and language skills, and negotiating chilly campus climates. Such factors can affect academic success, social/cultural acclimation, and even personal/ethnic identity. However, little is researched about international ESL students' transitions into U.S. higher education. This study employs qualitative research with semi-structured interview and grounded theory as analytical technique and aims to rectify the existing research literature limitation by identifying factors that facilitate and inhibit social, cultural, and academic transitions among international ESL students that best serve and accelerate their academic career in the United States.