<p> Christian college environments remain connected to Biblical doctrine that can create a challenge for student affairs practitioners responsible for supporting all students but then instructed to take &ldquo;corrective&rdquo; (e.g., disciplinary) action against LGBTQ students. This study examined experiences of ten student affairs staff at Christian campuses negotiating institutional context, professional relationships, and personal values when interacting with LGBTQ students. Interview data was organized along three themes: campus culture, tensions, and strategies to manage tension. Participants perceived campus culture as familial, but also as silent, fearful, and confusing on LGBTQ issues. Consequently, they experienced tensions between personal beliefs in serving students versus supporting institutional values about LGBTQ identity and behavior. Participants employed cognitive, interpersonal, and intrapersonal strategies to negotiate these tensions and balance service to their institution with advocacy for LGBTQ students. Recommendations provided relate to staff development, graduate level training, and sustainability of the Christian college approach to human sexuality.</p>

<p> A significant issue facing high schools is preparing students for their transition to college. High school students who are the first in their family to attend college have more difficulties preparing for this transition. Studies have explored the transition experiences of first-generation college-going students participating in partnership programs, showing that not all program components strengthen the transition experience for this population (Domina &amp; Ruzek, 2012; Jordan, 2006; Watt et al., 2008). Since participation in these programs may contribute to a successful transition experience, it is crucial to expand our understanding of how participation helps these students overcome the numerous challenges in the transition process (Barnett et al., 2012; Choy, 2001).</p><p> This qualitative study involving interviews of 20 first-generation students examined how a district-level high school to community college readiness partnership program facilitated a successful transition from high school to community college for first-generation college-going students. The study drew on a conceptual framework involving cultural capital (Bourdieu &amp; Passeron, 1977) beyond the &ldquo;deficit&rdquo; model (Ovink &amp; Veazey, 2011), social capital (Coleman, 1988), and ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1977).</p><p> Participants described both partnership program components and individualized attention through human resource relationships as being pivotal contributors to their positive transition experience. Although participants stated that the partnership program addressed many barriers to support their successful transition to community college, their transition experience remained challenging at times. Participants shared that their parents&rsquo; inexperience with the college process gave them a feeling of &ldquo;being on their own&rdquo; during the transition from high school to community college. As a whole, however, participants stated that they had a successful high school to community college transition because the partnership program gave them the background knowledge they needed. In addition, participants shared that with guidance from the partnership program, they felt more prepared than they would have had they not participated in the partnership program.</p><p> Based on participants&rsquo; transition experiences, this study offers a deeper understanding of the aspects of the partnership program that support a successful transition experience, with implications for existing and future programs, as well as policy.</p>

<p>This prospective, exploratory, single case study is about health care simulation as a learning approach for faculty to develop as teams of interprofessional facilitators. The research was aimed at understanding how simulation-based team training, designed around an interprofessional theme, promotes both teamwork and interprofessional facilitator competencies among participants representing 6 health care professions (medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, physician assistant and pharmacy). The central research question asked how faculty attitudes, knowledge, and skills/behaviors in the areas of teamwork and interprofessional education (IPE) facilitation are characterized after experiencing a faculty development workshop designed as interprofessional simulation based team training (IP-SBTT). Four sub-questions focused inquiry into the workshop&rsquo;s: use of TeamSTEPPS^&reg;, unique instructional design, impact on the peer-to-peer attitudes of faculty, and impact on faculty&rsquo;s personal perspectives about simulation-based learning (SBL). </p><p> The examined case was the shared experiences of 9 faculty who participated in a 2-day, 14-hour workshop conducted in a university based simulation center. The workshop entailed immersion in team-based scenarios involving IPE issues. Learning objectives focused on facilitation skills. Data from multiple sources included video recordings of all activities, media material, observation notes/tool, surveys and a focus group interview. An iterative analysis of the evidence employed the use of HyperRESEARCH, qualitative data analysis software for video and text. Twelve key findings are based on triangulation of the frequency of coded behavioral markers on 12.5 hours of video, quantitative and qualitative data from post-simulation survey data, as well as focus group interview results. </p><p> Triangulation via analysis using 3 theoretical constructs lead to the study conclusions which are presented in 3 thematic clusters: (a) IP-SBTT enhances attitudes of mutual trust and team orientation, and the knowledge achievement of shared mental models; (b) the TeamSTEPPS framework is an effective approach to developing teams of IPE facilitators, and the Tension Triangle framework closely aligns with SBL components; and (c) Interprofessional-Meta-Simulation Based Team Learning (IP-M-SBTL) fosters an increased awareness of the emotional vulnerability associated with SBL, and enhanced self-reflection skills, increasing competence in interprofessional facilitation. The IP-M-SBTL model for faculty development is strongly recommended for building teams of interprofessional facilitators. </p>

<p> This study examines African American student perceptions of persistence in engineering. The research design is methodologically qualitative using a purposefully selected population of engineering students. Semi-structured interviews were designed to develop an in-depth understanding of what completion of the engineering degree means to African American engineering students. This research seeks insight into the linkages between African American student perceptions of persistence as it relates to both the academic and social culture of the engineering department. </p><p> Vincent Tinto&rsquo;s model of Institutional Departure (1975, 1987) is one of the most commonly cited models of persistence in higher education (Braxton, Milem, Sullivan, 2000). Tinto&rsquo;s model was leveraged in this study to understand perceptions obtained through student interviews. Tinto suggests that exploration of student goal commitment and perceptions of institutional commitment are key to understanding student persistence. Results of this study suggest that African American students have perceptions about the university that may influence the decision to persist in engineering. Ultimately, this study may prove useful to researchers and administrators interested in improving access and success for African American engineering students.</p>

<p> This study explored the interplay of a community college&rsquo;s vision, its leaders&rsquo; behaviors, strategic planning, and the use of data that contributed to an organizational culture that led to the improvement of student success. The researcher used a grounded theory approach to delve into the relationships and connections between these four institutional characteristics at three award-winning institutions: Bunker Hill Community College, El Paso Community College, and Guilford Technical Community College. The overall goal of the study was to develop a grounded theory regarding organizational success factors necessary to improve student success. The researcher visited each college for a two-day site visit, conducted twenty-three interviews of college leadership, faculty, and staff along with a document review of select publically available documents. The study yielded five findings leading to a grounded theory of five organizational characteristics that promote improving student success in the two-year institution. At all three award-winning colleges, there was a shared vision built upon a collective, unwavering commitment to student success along with frequent and consistent communication on student success. All three award-winning colleges believed their participation in Achieving the Dream which is focused on increasing student success was a key factor and pivotal point in propelling these colleges forward in their student success initiatives. The three award-winning colleges took action to effectuate the desired future. The college&rsquo;s cultures invited innovation and supported initiatives resulting in engaged employees. All three award-winning colleges understood the importance and transformational power of being accountable to themselves and to others. The colleges were growing in their use of data, were courageous in reviewing data, and cultivated a continuous improvement mindset. Finally, each college had a firm belief in understanding that people, passionate and purposeful, are the institution&rsquo;s greatest asset.</p>

<p> Gambling disorder is a behavioral addiction that disproportionally affects college students as a population group and can disrupt college careers. While gambling disorder has not traditionally been one that institutions of higher education have addressed, the rapid growth of legalized gambling in the United States and the resulting widespread availability and acceptability of gambling in general have led to calls for policies and programs to prevent the negative consequences that even mild to moderate gambling disorder can cause. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to determine the stage of readiness of a university campus community to address the issue of students&rsquo; disordered gambling, to identify the barriers and needs of the community prior to the implementation of disordered gambling prevention on campus, and to explore the reliability of using the Community Readiness Tool (Oetting, 2014) as a repeated measure tool over time to appraise changes in levels of community readiness, particularly when re-interviewing the same key informants. </p><p> Eleven mid-level university administrators participated in the study. Each participant was interviewed using an adapted version of the CRT. All interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and scored according to the standard scoring procedures. Grounded theory analysis was used for the purpose of identifying barriers and needs of the community not fully captured by the CRT. The results indicated an overall lack of awareness of problem gambling as a higher education issue. Eight barriers and nine needs emerged from the qualitative analysis. To examine the use of the CRT as a repeated measure, four participants were re-interviewed one year after their initial interview, and scores were compared to both their own original scores and the scores of a second cohort of participants who were interviewed only once but at the same time. There were no significant differences in overall CRT scores from time 1 to time 2, or between the two cohorts of participants. Implications for appropriate prevention programming and future research are discussed.</p>

<p> Certain coaches seem to have a basic blueprint for success that consistently puts them at the forefront of their respective industries. Within this blueprint are various components of leadership. The purpose of this study was to identify how successful NCAA Division I baseball coaches understand their roles and responsibilities as leaders in a higher education context. Eight NCAA Division I college baseball coaches were interviewed. Each guided his respective program to at least three regional playoffs over an 11 year span (2005&ndash;2015). A qualitative analysis indicated two major themes, and one minor theme. The two major themes were Winning and Coach as CEO, and the minor theme was Need for Personal Life. First, the coaches recognized that their main responsibility was to win. Before the team can win collectively, each member of the program had to win individually. Second, as the CEO of the organization, coaches understood that it was their responsibility to create a culture of winning throughout their program. This was done by setting high expectations for assistant coaches, and focusing on the overall development of student-athletes. One of the main challenges in strengthening a culture of winning was the entitled beliefs and behaviors of student-athletes. Third, coaches realized that in order to truly be a successful leader, they had to balance their personal and professional responsibilities.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to increase the understanding of the factors that contribute to or detract from the educational preparation of graduates between associate (AD) and baccalaureate degree (BD) respiratory therapy programs through the use of graduate and employer survey ratings, Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT) credentialing success, and document analysis of various institutional and program mission, course content, and goals.</p><p> This study employed quantitative analyses to compare the perceptions of AD graduates and their employers with the perceptions of BD graduates and their employers regarding the educational program&rsquo;s ability to prepare graduates for entry into the profession. Graduate and employer ratings of cognitive, psychomotor, and affective competencies obtained from the follow-up surveys from 16 BD and 88 AD respiratory therapy programs were analyzed to determine whether there were perceived differences in preparation of associate and baccalaureate degree graduates. Credentialing success data for graduates of 361 AD and 57 BD respiratory therapy programs were also analyzed to determine whether differences in program type had an effect on RRT credentialing success. Multivariate analyses of variance, Welch&rsquo;s F tests and Mann-Whitney two-sample test were used to analyze the data. Additional information obtained from 22 AD and 22 BD institutions were also analyzed to explore similarities and differences in mission, vision, learning outcomes and coursework.</p><p> The three most significant findings in this study were that (1) Employers rated BD graduates higher than AD graduates in the cognitive (mean ratings 4.442 and 4.256 respectively) psychomotor (mean ratings 4.508 and 4.308 respectively) and affective domain (mean ratings 4.642 and 4.496 respectively); (2) BD employer survey ratings were also higher than AD employer ratings (mean ratings 4.49 and 4.21 respectively) on the mean rating for the single item that asked graduates to rate the overall quality of their preparation for entry into the profession and (3) Findings from the document analysis revealed that BD programs required courses beyond the minimum general education, prerequisite and RT course requirements. Thus, the results of this study support the &ldquo;2015 and Beyond&rdquo; recommendation that the BD be the minimum entry-level education required for entry into the profession.</p>

<p> This explanatory mixed method research study investigates instructor and student perceptions regarding the factors that enhance or inhibit the self-directedness of American Sign Language (ASL) I students enrolled in institutions of higher education. This methodology was employed to learn from interviews with 10 participants, both students and instructors, as well as 20 students who participated in the Self Directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS) aka the Learning Preference Assessment (LPA) developed by Lucy Guglielmino (1978). The SDLRS survey answered the first research question. As it is shown in research, the interviews clarified the numbers with the personal narratives to support the development of the conclusion of the study. The data collected were videotaped and transcribed by the researcher. A total of three themes emerged from this study to answer the six research questions. The goal of this explanatory mixed method study was to gain more knowledge of what the students in the introductory ASL class perceive their self-direction to be and to identify what works for them in regards to learning strategies. Findings from this study could provide deeper understanding and a rich source of information for the future ASL instructors to help reduce frustration among ASL students. </p>

<p>Not since the Cold War and the launch of Sputnik has there been such a focus on producing college graduates in fields related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). As manually driven careers disappear, new diverse careers are created and they have one thing in common, STEM. As students move into these challenging curriculums they will need to have faith in their abilities to achieve their goals. This self-efficacy is vital component for their collegiate and career success. This mixed methods study examines the unique pre-college STEM outreach phenomenon called Mind Trekkers. Mind Trekkers uses the `WOW? of experiential learning in the areas of STEM to motivate K-12 students to engage in STEM related fields. The focus of the study is on the first-year college freshmen that join this program, becoming STEM serviceteers, and how being part of this STEM phenomenon impacts their self-efficacy. The findings can be summed up in a quote I get to help people understanding in a different way than I would if I was just doing volunteering like I did in high school. It?s cool. I just love it and it gives me the confidence that what I am doing is the right thing here at (the university). (Jean) The results of the study indicate that the Mind Trekkers program acted as a catalyst to increase the self-efficacy of the students that participated in it, through personal social and academic impact.