abstract: The amount of time and effort that university researchers spend writing grants and executing grant administration responsibilities is one of the biggest challenges for science policy. This study aims to explore the complexity of the phenomenon of burdens in the administrative procedure for principal investigators (PIs) in sponsored research. The findings make a theoretical contribution to the study of burdens and red tape by closely examining the processes in which the burdens emerge, increase, and decrease; in doing so, this research will lay the groundwork for future studies of burdens and sponsored research systems. This study assumes that burdens are embedded in the social process, not merely in the number of required documentation or time spent on the procedure. The two overarching research questions are as follows: (1) What do researchers perceive or experience as a burden in grant proposal preparation and submission in sponsored research? (2) What are the possible factors or hypotheses to explain the generation, increase, and decrease of burdens? This single case study of a large research university examines the burdens faced by university researchers as they prepare and submit grant proposals. Primary data comes from semi-structured interviews with thirty-one PIs in science and engineering schools, and four interviews with research administration staff. Based on the interview data and theoretical arguments, this study illustrates the burdens in two categories: Burdens related to the proposal system, rules, and requirements; and burdens PIs experience with pre-award staff and relations. In addition, this study assesses each PI’s burden level in terms of the number of tasks in the proposal process, and the quality of the pre-award staff and services the PI experiences. This study further examines possible contributing factors and tentative hypotheses of burdens. In the discussion, this study develops theoretical arguments about the nature and consequences of burdens and fundamental issues in the grant system, and discuss prescriptions for PIs, universities, and sponsored research systems. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Science and Technology Policy 2018

<p> Everyone, at some time in their life, has been a target of or witnessed bullying; Think of the grade school bully on the playground taunting a classmate or the high school bully humiliating a peer through name-calling, isolation, or mobbing. It is difficult to believe incivility continues into adulthood and even into the workplace. With higher education in the United States a privilege rather than a right, the academy has become its own entity with its own housing, law enforcement, governing body, and unique population. Institutions mirror societal conventions with a hierarchical organization evincing the same social and professional interactions as a system based on power and privilege. Though incivil interactions may take place, bullying behavior may not be as transparent as seen in children, but research attests to workplace incivility and bullying as an area of concern. The 2017 Workplace Bullying Survey revealed 35% of Americans experienced workplace bullying and 15% had witnessed it happening to others; this equates to at least 50% of people have been involved in workplace bullying, either as a target or a bystander (WBI, 2017). This study examined the phenomenon of incivility among faculty and staff in institutions of higher learning through the lens of descriptive quantitative research. This study also collected information to identify common characteristics of targets and their perpetrators. Study participants were administered the Negative Acts Questionnaire-Revised (NAQ-R), the leading instrument to measure perceptions of workplace bullying. The staff, faculty, and administration subjects were employed at four-year brick and mortar found when examining only the sample of self-identified targets. Meaningful differences were found and patterns emerged with comparative analysis and the inclusion of non-victims with the target population. Demographic factors provided further significance identifying commonalities of targets and non-victims, including race, longevity at the institution, orientation, and gender. The majority of respondents witnessed or were targets of bullying and incivility.</p><p>

<p> According to higher education policy experts, &ldquo;Campus threat assessment is not merely a recommendation, but an emerging standard of care.&rdquo; However, despite evidence of the emergence of this standard and the consistency of recommendations that comport with those made by the Virginia Tech Review Panel, college campuses continue to vary significantly in their approaches to threat-assessment protocols. This study examines the extent to which campuses in the state of Illinois do vary and seeks to understand better the reasons for that variation. This research also examines the status of threat-assessment policies and protocols being conducted on three campuses and how the implementation of recommendations that followed Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois shootings have contributed to the creation of more optimally safe campuses. The study also examines the prevalence and consistency of the barriers that impede institutional efforts to detect and mitigate campus threats of violence. </p><p> Research sites included Northern Illinois University, where an incident of violence occurred in 2008, and the University of Illinois&ndash;Chicago and Illinois State University, where an incident of such magnitude has not yet occurred. The findings suggest that in states where the implementation of threat-assessment protocols and policies has been mandated by state law, campus leaders perceive these required measures to increase the preparedness of the campus environment. The research also suggests that even in Illinois, a state where such policy schemes are mandated, variation in the application of these policies and protocols persists. Findings suggest that even in states where policies are legislatively mandated, campuses continue to experience barriers to full implementation of recommendations that might lead to greater preparedness, including ambiguity regarding how best to balance the obligation to protect individual privacy and community security and to address self-harming behaviors and suicidality, the limited utility in zero-tolerance standards, institutional constraints in policy adoption and participation by the campus community, and insufficient dedication of institutional funding and support. The most significant barrier, however, was the unrealistic expectation that campus personnel be able to predict future behavior and events.</p><p>

<p> Many institutions of higher education are facing significant financial challenges, resulting in diminished economic viability and, in the worst cases, the threat of closure (Moody&rsquo;s Investor Services, 2015). The study was designed to explore the effectiveness of competitive strategies for small colleges in terms of financial performance. </p><p> Five research questions related to small, accredited, private, non-profit, four-year colleges were addressed in the study. 1. What were the range and variance in the Composite Financial Index (CFI) for small colleges in FY2010 to FY2014? 2. What competitive strategies were employed and with what frequency by small colleges in FY2010 to FY2014? 3. What relationships existed between the employed strategies and the related perceived institutional financial performance, as assessed by college leaders? 4. What relationships existed between the employed strategies and the documented institutional financial performance, as measured by the CFI? 5. What relationships existed between the perceived institutional financial performance resulting from the employed strategies and the documented institutional financial performance, as measured by the CFI? </p><p> This quantitative, multi-method, causal-comparative study collected data on a nationwide random sample of small colleges (<i>N</i> = 251). Five years of ex-post facto data on the Composite Financial Index (CFI) were used to determine documented institutional financial performance. Inventory data, collected from vice presidents of finance (<i>N</i> = 51), were used to determine the strategies employed by colleges and the resulting perceived institutional financial performance. </p><p> Based on the CFI scores, many small colleges (46%) were identified as seriously or severely under-performing financially. The most frequently employed strategies (&ge;76%) were: new marketing procedures, new undergraduate programs, tuition discounting, restructured debt, and new or renovated facilities. Significant correlations (<i>p</i>&le;.05) were found between 34 of the 39 strategies employed (87%) and perceived institutional financial performance. No significant correlations were found between strategies employed and documented institutional financial performance or between perceived and documented institutional financial performance. </p><p> The conclusions and recommendations deal with the need for small college leaders not to seek easy solutions, but to apply strategic planning in the selection of strategies to employ; to identify indicators that relate employed strategies to financial performance; and to test their perceptions of financial performance against documented evidence.</p><p>

<p> Two of the most significant changes in higher education over the last decade have been the reconceptualization of faculty scholarship and the increase in the hiring of adjunct faculty, yet these topics rarely merge together in the literature. The purpose of this qualitative narrative inquiry was to understand how adjunct English faculty conceive of and engage in scholarship within their discipline at a large university in the southwestern United States. The research questions focused on understanding how adjunct English faculty conceptualize and understand scholarship within their discipline, engage in scholarly activities, understand and believe their reasons for engaging in scholarly activities, and experience, interpret, understand, and navigate obstacles to engaging in scholarship. Twelve adjunct English faculty were interviewed for this qualitative narrative inquiry. The theoretical framework of Ernest Boyer&rsquo;s model of scholarship was utilized in this study. The data were analyzed using descriptive and pattern coding techniques, thematic analysis, and general narrative analysis. The theoretical implication of this study is that adjunct English faculty and those without terminal degrees are mostly engaged in <i>the scholarship of teaching and learning</i> and scholarly activities that fall into that category, and adjunct faculty members want support and resources to engage in scholarship. Additional research is warranted on support systems for adjunct faculty to engage in research, teaching, and service.</p><p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to understand and perceive how student leaders, and specifically student body presidents, navigated social power and used influence with institutional leaders in the higher education decision-making environment to achieve the goals and objectives of their presidencies. The foundational texts of higher education governance and the literature on decision-making are unclear about or do not acknowledge the role of students as leaders. Meanwhile, the popular press makes it clear students are playing a role in decision-making, and there is growing student consumerism and activism within institutions. The contrast between the foundational texts and the literature on decision-making versus what is occurring with respect to student leader involvement describes the problems of practice and research this study addressed. </p><p> This study applied French and Raven's (1959) bases of social power to the experiences of student leaders, and specifically student body presidents, and situated these experiences in the higher education decision-making environment. The primary research question for this study was: How do former student body presidents at colleges and universities perceive navigating social power and using influence with institutional leaders to achieve the stated goals and objectives of their presidencies? There were two secondary research questions: 1) What do former student body presidents perceive to be the principal sources of support in achieving their stated goals and objectives? 2) What do former student body presidents perceive to be the principal sources of challenge to achieving their stated goals and objectives? </p><p> The conclusions of this study related to: (a) the utility and accessibility of, and relationship between, the various bases of power with respect to the ability of the former student body presidents to navigate power and use influence to achieve their goals and objectives; (b) the availability and impact of support on the ability of the student body presidents to achieve their goals and objectives; (c) the impact of challenges on the ability of the student body presidents to achieve their goals and objectives. Along with these conclusions, the study provided recommendations related to theory, practice for both institutional leaders and student leaders, and future research.</p><p>

As colleges and universities seek to increase the enrollment of low-income students through targeted financial aid strategies, such as no-loans policies, little research has looked into how engaged these future alumni would be as volunteers or donors. Using data from administrative databases at a single institution, this study focused on three alumni outcomes: volunteering, donating, and donation amount over a ten-year period and included sub-sample analyses before and after a no-loans policy was instituted. The main findings revealed that in terms of alumni volunteering, income-status has no apparent effect. With regard to alumni donating behavior, low-income status at enrollment does not appear to be a significant variable. However, low-income status at enrollment is associated with lower donation amounts, both before and after the enactment of a no-loans policy. Middle-income status, on the other hand, is negatively associated with donation behavior and donation amounts but only before the enactment of a no-loans policy. The findings suggest no-loans policies may impact the alumni involvement of individuals from low and middle-income backgrounds in different ways. From a practical standpoint, admissions and financial aid offices should be mindful about how no-loans policies impact the profile of the applicant pools, and advancement offices should think about targeted solicitation efforts that take into account the socio-economic background of alumni at the time of enrollment.

Institutional accreditation in higher education presents a dual reality: Accreditation is intended to hold colleges and universities accountable through external evaluation and, at the same time, accreditation constitutes an opportunity for higher education leaders to assess, improve, and communicate the quality of their undertakings. In an increasingly global field of higher education, quality practices become diffused across national boundaries. U.S. institutional accreditation is one of the quality practices embraced around the world; institutions of higher education, particularly in the Global South, aspire to obtain U.S. institutional accreditation. While important, this phenomenon has gone largely unexamined in research. This study follows an ethnographic case study approach to explore in-depth how a Mexican institution of higher education engaged in the process of institutional accreditation with a U.S. regional accrediting agency. One Mexican university located only a few miles away from the U.S.-Mexico border was selected as the site for conducting this case study. The university obtained initial institutional accreditation in 2012, which presented a valuable opportunity for conducting the study. After analyzing line by line nearly 500 pages of documents and conducting thirteen interviews with faculty and administrators from the university, this project presents findings organized around four major themes: (a) Reputational value is a central motivation to pursue U.S. accreditation given that, through accreditation, the institution in Mexico becomes connected to internationally recognized universities; (b) while desirable from many perspectives, the accreditation process triggers a set of intra-organizational dynamics and stressors, chief among them is a complex division of labor in which faculty members are necessary yet distanced from decision making; (c) compliance with highly challenging--yet perceived as fair--standards legitimizes both accreditation process and the U.S. accreditors that are perceived as reluctant players in a process mainly intended to assist emergent systems of higher education; and (d) language and translation are significant concepts to understand the accreditation process as they also establish power relations in which proximity and similarity to the U.S. grants power to the candidate institution. Based on the empirical findings, different interpretations of U.S. institutional accreditation are discussed along with the implications of the study for policy, practice, and further research.

abstract: The cost of education is increasing, and the use of mandatory fees to offset costs is increasingly becoming more prevalent. Mandatory fees in higher education are not a new occurrence and have been associated with higher education institutions since their inception. However, the use and number of mandatory fees have grown, especially within the last decade, to include more fees that support core initiatives that were once covered by higher education institutions. Despite the vast amount of research concerning costs associated with attendance at higher education institutions, there is less research on how undergraduate students understand these costs, and how understanding of educational expenses may influence students’ behavior. Moreover, there is a dearth of research that explores students' engagement in services and programs supported by mandatory fees at higher education institutions. This investigation fills the gaps, as it studies undergraduate students’ understandings of and attitudes toward mandatory fees while addressing their engagement in fee-supported services and programs. The data collection process utilizes a survey given to undergraduate students at a large research institution in the southwest United States. The survey uses multiple formats (i.e., Likert-scale, open-ended questions, multiple choice), to measure students’ understandings of costs and information about mandatory fees, frequency of use of services, and students’ prior knowledge about higher education institutions before enrollment. Students’ perceptions of costs differ by individual and family, and the costs associated with fees can be a surprise for many students entering institutions of higher education. While fees are utilized to help retain and graduate all students, increasing fees change the total price for students. There are relatively few studies that measure the extent to which students engage in services or programs funded by the mandatory fees. While price is at the forefront for many federal and state policymakers, the need to make college more affordable for everyone without losing quality services and programs, must be addressed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Embargo document / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Policy and Evaluation 2020

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