Because of the increasing emphasis on the accountability of higher education, constituents of the academy have searched for reliable and valid measures of institutional effectiveness. One measure of institutional effectiveness, gaining in popularity with accountability proponents, has been the assessment of overall student satisfaction. To build a link between student satisfaction and institutional effectiveness, past researchers have made the assumption that a relationship exists between these two constructs. This assumption has been grounded in a further supposition that a congruency exists between the criteria used by students to determine satisfaction and the criteria used by higher education administrators to evaluate institutional effectiveness. However, neither the assumption of relationship nor supposition of congruency have been established in empirical research. Utilizing a qualitative research design, 8 focus group sessions were conducted with 94 undergraduate students who attended on-campus, day classes at a southern, comprehensive, regional university during the fall semester, 1995. Four focus group sessions were conducted with 24 administrators in the internal dominant coalition of the same university. An interview was held with the university president. Content analysis was used to analyze the data from each focus group session. Data from the undergraduate student sample were reduced into 7 attitude patterns. Each attitude pattern included student discussions on different aspects of the college experience important to overall student satisfaction with the academy. Furthermore, the data were analyzed for attitude pattern differences based on grade cohort and demographics. Several important differences in student satisfaction attitudes were reported. The data collected from the administrator sample were reduced into 5 attitude patterns. Each attitude pattern included administrator discussions on important variables in the evaluation of institutional effectiveness. Student satisfaction and institutional effectiveness criteria were gleaned from these attitude patterns. (All attitude patterns are reported in detail.) Twenty-one student criteria for determining overall satisfaction were grouped into 5 criteria categories: (a) career aspirations; (b) personal development and growth; (c) education; (d) characteristics of the ideal university; and (e) accomplishment. Twelve administrator criteria for evaluating institutional effectiveness were collapsed into 3 categories: (a) inputs, (b) operations, and (c) outcomes. Based on the findings of this study, a congruency was found between the criteria students use to determine overall student satisfaction and the criteria administrators use to evaluate institutional effectiveness. Recommendations were made for the improvement of student satisfaction assessment and the utilization of satisfaction assessment results in defining institutional effectiveness.

The problem of this study was to determine the difference between industrial practices and perceptions of management toward training and education programs in selected manufacturing industries. The survey was conducted within a 50-mile radius of a regional university to determine how academic institutions could better assist industries with training and education programs. Data were collected through the use of a two-part instrument sent to 426 industries in North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee. Part I collected data on the perceptions of industrial management. The perceptions were grouped into five categories: (1) employee assistance, (2) employee participation, (3) responsibility assignment, (4) employee benefits, and (5) program planning. Five null hypotheses for these categories were formulated to be tested at .05 level of significance. Part II identified the practices of industrial management toward training and education. Ten research questions were formulated to report the practices. The analysis of variance was used to determine significant differences between manufacturing industries by SIC classification and size in each perception. If a significant difference was revealed, the Newman-Keuls Multiple Range Test was conducted to determine which industry groups were significantly different. The testing of the null hypotheses revealed that no significant differences existed in the perceptions under employee participation; eight significant differences existed in the perceptions under the other four categories. Thus, null hypotheses 2, 3, 4, and 5 were rejected and the research hypotheses were accepted for employee assistance, responsibility assignment, employee benefits, and program planning. Major conclusions from the study revealed that manufacturing industries were strongly involved in training and education in 1980. The most utilized methods were in-house activities and outside conferences. The principal needs indicated by manufacturing industries were supervisory, management, technical, and skills training. There was little or no agreement between the perceptions of management toward training and education and the actual practices in the firms. Recommendations included suggestions for university and industry collaboration and future research in training and education.

Researchers have attempted to untangle the complexity of a generation through four primary effects---time interval, cohort, period, and attitude---based on personal and societal attributes. The Millennial generation, born 1982-2000, has received considerable attention through the media, in educational institutions, and in the workplace. The seven persona characterization of the Millennials of Howe and Strauss (1991, 2000) has been extensively cited, yet not been widely scrutinized. Higher education personnel, in particular, have utilized Howe and Strauss' theory to explain changes observed with the current college student population.;This case study sought to discover the relationship and interrelationship between the four-generation effects and to develop a more sophisticated understanding of the Millennial generation. This study explored the perceptions of twenty-eight, traditionally aged college students from two mid-Atlantic universities. The findings reveal that generations are more complex than the four-generation effects, and the Millennial portrait has been understated. The personal attributes, specifically related to the family, serve as the foundation for the values, attitudes, and beliefs the participants develop about the societal attributes. Generations have been examined only from the perspective of heterogeneity between and homogeneity within generations. This viewpoint is limited, and the converse is important to consider. Generations appear to develop as a kaleidoscope rather than in distinct groupings.

Cooperative educational partnerships in Australia are considered to be innovative ventures where universities join with industry in a working relationship, sharing resources to develop and provide professional development education for the industry employees. The distinguishing feature of a cooperative education partnership is that all partners contribute to the development, design and delivery of academic courses in the workplace.This research assesses the role and key aspects of professionalism developed by professional development education for industry employees. More specifically, the investigation examined the conditions that contribute to building mutually beneficial, reciprocal cooperative education partnerships between a university and its tourism and hospitality partners.A qualitative approach was adopted to analyse and to understand five cooperative education partnerships situated within the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management Southern Cross University, Lismore, Australia. The investigation used the ‘Tit-for-Tat’ strategy (Axelrod, 1984; Ridley, 1996; Davies, 1999) based on the old French game of ‘Prisoners Dilemma’ (Campbell, 1983; Trivers, 1983) to examine reciprocity.The investigation revealed that providing university-level professional development education through cooperative education partnerships contributed to the development and enhancement of professionalism in the tourism and hospitality organisations involved in the study. Two aspects of professionalism, a renewal of learning, and establishing a positive professional reputation, were found to be important for advancing professionalism in this education arena.A further finding was that when a university, tourism and hospitality businesses and industry associations join together in cooperative education partnerships, they generally respond and adapt to each other in reciprocal ways to ensure the sustainability and success of their partnership. Adjustment, adaptation, responsiveness and synergy were found to be important reciprocal concepts that underpin cooperative dynamics in this investigation.

This research explores the work associated with collective action framing in the increasingly prevalent graduate labor movement. Specifically I examine the discursive aspects of mobilization efforts within the structures of academia and organized labor. This is achieved through the utilization of ethnographic, participant observations within a local union chapter. I also rely heavily on interview data. I conduct both group and individual, in-depth interviews with labor activists associated with Graduate Assistants United at the University of Florida. In terms of my organizational focus, I am interested in the actualities and organization of work graduate union organizers perform. In terms social movements, I am investigating the use of narrative in organizing and framing efforts. This research offers insight into the dynamic relationship between framing processes and the intended audience and documents the tools used by social movement organization activists. Furthermore, I am utilizing this case as a window into the changing dynamics of academia and organized labor in the twenty-first century.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the factors and events associated with the derailment of presidents at public, Master’s level institutions. The research study was guided by three questions: 1) What factors are perceived to be associated with the derailment of public, Master’s level college presidents? 2) What events are perceived to be associated with the derailment of the president? 3) What relationship, if any, may be found between derailment factors emerging from previous Center for Creative Leadership research and factors emerging from this study? Data were collected from 19 in-depth interviews of current presidents, board members, faculty members, and vice presidents who were familiar with the derailed president. Field notes, media accounts of the derailment, and board minutes also served as sources of data. Findings of this study supported three of the enduring themes of derailment stemming from the Center for Creative Leadership’s research. Those include: failure to build and lead a team, problems with interpersonal relationships, and failure to understand and value the institutional culture (inability to change or adapt during a transition). Three unique factors emerged: failure to communicate effectively, the inability to work with key constituencies, and ethical failures. These findings suggest that college presidents must take time to understand and value the mission of the institution that they serve, as well as work hard to maintain effective communication with key constituency groups so if problems arise he or she will have social capital to draw on and help them avoid derailment. Implications for practice and recommendations for future research are discussed.

This dissertation includes three articles that explore the relationship between gay identity and the college environment. The college environment has been shown to affect students’ attitudes, beliefs, and personal development in various ways, including aspects of individuals’ identity and attitudes towards social and political issues in society. D’Augelli’s (1994) lesbian-gay-bisexual (LGB) identity development framework provides both a priori knowledge of issues associated with gay identity and a lens through which findings are analyzed in each of the articles included in this dissertation. The first article examines the relationship between first-year college students’ personal characteristics and their attitudes towards same-sex relationships. Given the importance of peers as “valued others” to gay individuals, as well as the role that students play in establishing campus climate, the first article has implications for how the college environment is experienced by gay individuals. The second article explores the identity development of Black gay male college students. This article attempts to test the applicability of D’Augelli’s framework for racial minorities and for contemporary college students who also identify as gay. The third article included in this dissertation focuses on the representations of gay male college students in the online community called Facebook. Since representations are expressions of identity, this article has significance for understanding how gay male college students internalize information about their gay identity and selectively represent that identity to others. Considered together, these articles hold significance for researchers who study LGB individuals in higher education and administrators who work with LGB individuals on college campuses. Additionally, a revised theoretical framework that accounts for the findings discussed within these three articles is presented in the final chapter.

Understanding one’s own personal journey provides for effective learning, growth, and development of self (Madsen, 2010). Reflection on the influences and experiences of successful women leaders is essential to understanding the factors that have enabled them to obtain and sustain leadership positions in nontraditional career fields. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the lives of women deans in agriculture in an attempt to conceptualize the leadership styles they have developed as a result of their positions as deans in a predominantly male field, as well as their upbringing and life experiences. Six women deans of agriculture were interviewed and observed in an attempt to recognize the impact their personal journeys have had in developing their leadership styles and sustaining their leadership role. Reflection on the influences and experiences of the women deans produced five overall conclusions: 1) the women deans were essentially all first-born children; 2) encouragement from parents and mentors as well as spousal support were crucial factors in obtaining and sustaining their role as deans of agriculture; 3) challenges imposed by gender discrimination motivated these ambitious women to achieve their leadership goals; 4) each of the women deans exhibited traits of The Big Five Personality Trait Model such as surgency, conscientiousness, agreeableness, adjustment, and intellectance which correspond to specific characteristics found relevant for leadership emergence, advancement, or effectiveness; and 5) participants lead with a transformational leadership style, an asset which has been valuable to their success as deans.

An assessment of campus police departments across Mississippi's public community and junior colleges

<p> When elite men's colleges began to open their doors to women in the late 1960s, elite women's colleges were faced with a dilemma that threatened their institutions' continued existence. These colleges needed to redefine their purpose and communicate a new image in order to remain successful in a challenging environment. To investigate this process, I studied how three elite women's colleges responded to the challenging landscape of the 1970s, particularly the specific challenge of responding to elite men's colleges' conversion to coeducation. These elite women's colleges were successfully able to promote a new image of their institutions that argued for their validity, and the women's movement was an important influence on that process. Mount Holyoke, Smith, and Wellesley decided to remain single-sex colleges for women after the elite men's colleges moved to coeducation, and I argue that they were able to do so because student opinion drastically changed in the early 1970s due to the influence of the women's movement. Despite similar goals, the elite women's colleges and the women's movement have not always supported each other. Although their relationship was strained, women's colleges benefited from the women's movement, not only because it changed students' opinions, but also because the women's movement opened up career opportunities and encouraged women to pursue them. This made it possible for women's colleges to successfully create and disseminate a new image based on the assertion that they best prepared young women for professional careers. This new image, grounded in an attack on coeducation that also borrowed from the women's movement, made it possible for women's college to justify their continued existence.</p>