<p> Change in higher education is a topic of growing urgency and national prominence. The study addressed the limited understanding through institutional theory of how a team at one traditional university interpreted its changing environment and justified adoption of an educational innovation prior to other actors in the field. This effort used the dynamics of institutional change model (Hinings, Greenwood, Reay, &amp; Suddaby, 2004), which tracks the process of de- and reinstitutionalization to understand how change happens within the isomorphic context of the institutional theory framework. A qualitative single site case study was conducted at one leading university that had initiated a new massive open online course (MOOC)-enabled degree program, an innovation potentially disruptive to the traditional model of university education. </p><p> The study found that perceptions of an external climate of change (exemplified by the perception of disruption in the university field, technology enablers, and societal pressures) and an internal value of innovation (exemplified by larger organizational support for innovation, the college's specific value and excitement around innovation, and successful experiences with innovative efforts) were significant in the adoption of the new program. The study also found that a long list of justifications and motivations were present, including lowering cost and expanding access to education, increasing internal resources and supporting college values around research, and expanding the opportunity for personal impact and influence. </p><p> Conclusions focused on the relevancy and necessity of jolts to the change process, the unique factors that enabled actor agency in this circumstance, the importance of attaching new practice to preexisting values, and the prominent role of legitimacy as a motivating factor within institutional theory. Based on this example, suggestions for practice included supporting a value of innovation, selecting a new practice that aligns with societal issues, and identifying justifications for various audiences. Refinements in institutional theory were offered, focusing on the dynamics of institutional change model and the approach to isomorphic forces. Lastly, suggestions were offered for research, primarily around the role of the entrepreneurial actor and the pursuit of legitimacy.</p>

<p> The purpose of this quantitative study is to investigate whether QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) suicide prevention training is effective in increasing knowledge of suicide prevention among students of color, specifically Latino/a, Asian American, and Black/African American college students. This study involves secondary data analysis of 502 students who participated in a QPR training from Fall 2012 to Fall 2014. The data was collected by a suicide prevention program in Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) at a public university in Southern California. The findings of the study revealed statistical significance in all nine areas of knowledge for all participants before and after receiving QPR training. The findings indicate an increase in knowledge among students of color and the likelihood that the participants would approach someone who may be at-risk for suicide and assist the individual in seeking appropriate professional resources. Implications, recommendations for practice, and directions for future research are discussed.</p>

<p> This qualitative study focuses on the duality of the principal-agent relationship experienced by elected community college trustees in the California Community Colleges system; i.e., their roles as principal to the agent role of employee unions, and the quasi agent role in the districts association with the state. It examines this relationship through the lens of the unintended consequences of Proposition 13, including the centralization of school finance at the state level, the de facto change of the property tax from a local tax to a state tax, and the removal of the power of taxation from local boards. The study includes interviews with nine current or former elected trustees whose service began prior to the 1978 enactment of Proposition 13. Four of the nine trustees still held elective office when the interviews for this study were performed in fall 2014.</p>

<p> Within the health care system, patient safety outcomes have been criticized for many years. Medical malpractice, common errors, and nosocomial infections (i.e., hospital-acquired infections) are safety concerns, and represent a public health problem. Since the Institute of Medicine (1999) published To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System in 1999, changes have been made to improve the use of technology and leverage advancements in research that improve patient safety. Nurse leaders can also help to facilitate process improvements in the patient safety culture. The purpose of this capstone project was to explore the nursing leader role in improving patient safety in a hospital setting. The method utilized for this study was a literature review. Prominent articles identifying the role of nursing leadership were included. Seven drivers of patient safety were identified (Sammer, Lyken, Singh, Mains, &amp; Lackan (2011), and subsequently informed this project. The targeted populations were patients, families, nurses, nurse administrators, and medical personnel. Findings regarding the nurse leader role, patient improvements, and barriers to improvements were reviewed. Nurse leaders were found to be of critical importance to patients, medical personnel, and the health care system. The limitations of this review and implications for policy and practice are discussed. </p>

<p> This study investigated the methods of professional development used for institutional mission education, the role of the senior student affairs officer in delivering professional development, and the frequency of mission education that entry-level staff receives within the Division of Student Affairs at Catholic colleges and universities. The targeted population for the study encompassed senior student affairs officers (SSAOs) working in student affairs at Catholic colleges and universities within the United States. </p><p> The study found that prior knowledge and understanding of institutional mission is important for new entry-level student affairs practitioners to join the Catholic college or university student affairs community. The study also categorized common strategies of education for institutional mission into two subgroups: formal and collaborative. Finally, the research study found that there were no institutional characteristics that were significantly linked to institutional mission education training for new student affairs staff. However research results showed a slight difference in that institutions with Offices of Mission offered mission training with greater frequency than institutions without an Office of Mission.</p>

<p> This qualitative portraiture study examines current issues that surround the experience of third-year and beyond, first-generation college students. There is a need to understand the self-perceptions of first-generation college students. Very few studies follow the group into the third year of college. Most programs track the population for just one year beyond matriculation. Success for first-generation college students is vital, as the group has been identified as a growing population with low college completion rates. This study is presented at a critical time, when the President of the United States claims a college education is necessary to live above the poverty line and achieve middle-class status. The United States government has based public policy and higher education funding upon both student need and institution completion rates. This study used arts-based research and literacy through photography techniques to explore the narrative experience of a small sample of first-generation college students while engaged in interpretative photography. The technique aimed to promote imagination, creativity, critical thinking, and personal reflection. The study engaged participants in literacy through photography and sought to synthesize data in the form of writing samples, interpretative photography, and transcribed interviews to uncover patterns that better explain the tenants of culture leading to academic discourse within a disadvantaged population. The portraiture method was used to provide rich and descriptive data by illuminating themes through participant-researcher collaboration with reflective and narrative components.</p>

<p> After years of courting public audiences, academic art museums have shifted their focus back to their campus constituents. These changes have meant putting a premium on attracting and engaging university students. Museums have been successful in doing so through classes. Yet, what about students as active constituents outside of class? Students' limited free time is one hurdle in engaging students outside of class, but students must know about their campus art museum and its programs before they can decide whether to attend or not. Therefore a study of the challenges, and successes, in marketing these museums and their programming to students was undertaken. Specifically, 29 campus art museums in the United States were surveyed on their relationship with students, current marketing strategies, what types of media are used, and how these forms of media are evaluated. Survey results revealed challenges of limited staff time and the lack of an analytical framework for some marketing materials. Successes in marketing to students were limited, but positive comments and feedback from respondents exhibit several best practices for marketing to students. These include enlisting the help of trusted resources around campus, creating positive word of mouth among the student body, and engaging students in both the creation and marketing of programs. Additionally, best practices from civic museums, and reports on marketing to student-aged individuals, were drawn on in order to offer prescriptive advice.</p>

<p> The purpose of the study is to learn about how students who transfer from community and technical colleges to a private four-year research university experience the transfer process at both institutions. The study followed Merriam's (2009) basic interpretive qualitative design. A sample of 20 participants was recruited for the study. Semi-structured, in-depth, face-to-face interviews were conducted with each participant. Each interview was audio recorded and transcribed by the researchers. Data in the study is presented using Merriam's (2009) narrative analysis format. In the narrative analysis of the data, themes identified through the analysis are described at length including exemplar excerpts from the interview transcripts. Long quotations from the participants and rich description of the interview context from the researcher create the narrative. Quotations from various participants are organized in a way that demonstrates to the reader how the participants' responses form a theme. Aspects of the theories of involvement (Astin, 1984/1999), integration (Tinto, 1993), and engagement (Kuh, 2001; Kuh, Kinzie, Schuh, &amp; Whitt, 2005) were applied by the researcher to the analysis of the experiences of the study participants. These findings can be organized into an institutional strand and a student strand. The institutional strand of findings includes threads related to the institutions' role in engaging students both academically and socially as they travel between the institutions throughout the transfer process. The student strand of findings includes threads related to aspects of the students' experiences that demonstrate how the act of transferring changes how they participate in the academic and social environments of the institutions. The findings of this study have implications for students who transfer from community and technical colleges to private universities as well as for transfer students in general. Recommendations are offered by the researcher to improve future policy, practice, and research related to these student populations.</p>

<p> Medical dosimetry education occupies a specialized branch of allied health higher education. Noted international shortages of health care workers, reduced university funding, limitations on faculty staffing, trends in learner attrition, and increased enrollment of nontraditional students force allied health educational leadership to reevaluate current admission practices. Program officials wish to select medical dosimetry students with the best chances of successful graduation. The purpose of the quantitative ex post facto correlation study was to investigate the relationship between applicant characteristics (cumulative undergraduate grade point average, science grade point average, prior experience as a radiation therapist, and previous academic degrees) and the successful completion of a medical dosimetry program as measured by graduation. A key finding from the quantitative study was the statistically significant positive correlation between a student&rsquo;s previous degree and his or her successful graduation from the medical dosimetry program. Future research investigations could include a larger research sample representative of more medical dosimetry student populations and additional studies concerning the relationship of a prior history in radiation therapy and the impact on success as a medical dosimetry student. Based on the quantitative correlation analysis, allied health leadership on admissions committees could revise student selection rubrics to place less emphasis on an applicant&rsquo;s undergraduate cumulative GPA and increase the weight assigned to previous degrees.</p>

<p> The purpose of this quantitative descriptive correlation research study was to determine if relationship existed between faculty conflict management, emotional intelligence, leadership, and quality in higher education. The conception of service quality in higher education is complex, multifaceted, and disputable. As a result there is no best way to measure service quality in higher education. The research study identified a combination of quality indicators used in analyzing quality in higher education and attempted to explain how these factors affected student satisfaction. Faculty conflict management style, emotional intelligence competencies, and leadership styles were measured against five service quality dimensions, and eight student evaluation of educational quality dimensions. The research instruments included the Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory, the Emotional Competence Inventory, and the Leadership Style Survey for the faculty. The Service Quality (SERQUAL), and the Student Evaluation of Educational Quality (SEEQ) surveys for the students. The findings included a high correlation between academic and nonacademic service quality dimensions with faculty conflict management styles, emotional intelligence competencies, and leadership styles. The findings supported conclusions that appropriate faculty conflict managing styles, adequate emotional intelligence competencies, and appropriate leadership styles contributed to quality and service quality in higher education. Consensus defining service quality would clearly include student satisfaction constructs. Recommendations for future research included attempting to evaluate the level of service quality and understand how different factors impact overall service quality is crucial so that higher education institutions can plan and design their service in the upmost possible manner. </p>