The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of rural students at two selective four-year colleges. Using the framework of cultural, social, and academic capital, I explored aspects of 17 rural college students’ experiences that show how they are able to attain success at college in spite of their potentially disadvantaged backgrounds. Data were collected by interview; the participants were college students who mostly were seniors at the time of the interviews. Two major themes emerged from the data analysis: 1) the challenges students encountered in their rural high schools and 2) the challenges students encountered once they matriculated at college. Subthemes support the theory that rural students should be considered as part of the underserved student population, including microaggressions, code-switching, solo status, and stereotype threat. Other subthemes indicate that rural students are able to use knowledge gained from overcoming challenging situations they encountered in high school to also overcome challenges at college. The study indicates that resilient, resourceful, intelligent rural students can forge their own pathways to persistence and success in college. Keywords: college success, rural students, resilience, underserved students

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the leadership experiences of new professionals serving in entry-level roles in residence life and how those experiences with leadership theory may intersect with their leadership identity development. Guided by Komives et al.'s (2005) Leadership Identity Development Model, this qualitative inquiry gathered data through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with a sample of twelve new professionals presently serving in entry-level residence life roles at four-year institutions across the United States. Three research questions drove this study: (a) how do new professionals serving in entry-level residence life roles describe their leadership experiences; (b) what challenges, if any, do new professionals in entry-level residence life positions experience as they develop and practice leadership in the context of their workplace; and, (c) How do new residence life professionals utilize formal leadership theory as they experience leadership within the context of their entry-level position? Following data collection and transcription, a simplified version of the Moustakas (1994) approach to the Stevick-Colaizzi-Keen method for phenomenological analysis developed by Creswell & Poth (2018) was employed to analyze the dataset. Seven themes emerged from the analysis of the data: (a) leadership is a necessary and expected skill; (b) preference toward a developmental approach to leadership; (c) experiential learning; learning from supervisors, mentors, and role models; (d) challenges navigating new organizational structure, culture, and role expectations; (e) difficulty developing a professional leader identity and skillset; (f) and non-prescriptive, informal utilization of theory. Discussion of the findings in relation to the relevant literature, their implications, and recommendations for future research are provided.

In recent years universities have tried to address fraternity and sorority drinking and hazing culture by utilizing pauses on fraternity and sorority activity. This study of this phenomena appears to be absent from the extent literature on prevention strategies. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the phenomena of campus-wide pauses of fraternity and sorority communities. The two cases examined were at large public research institutions with robust fraternity and sorority communities. Analysis occurred through a process of open coding, theoretical propositions, derived from Bolman and Deals organizational frames and cross case analysis. Data was collected through a series of semi-structured interviews and documents collected through a combination of web searches, public information request and provided by six interviewees across both institutions. Analysis revealed several themes associated with the strategies used during a campus-wide pause of fraternity and sorority communities including policy, people, and message. The study also revealed that campuses engaged some of Bolman and Deals organizational frames more than others. Finally, the study exposed the perceived results of a campus-wide pause which aligned into four categories, attention, relationships, symbolism, and cycle.

Recent researchers have found that when alcohol use and/or abuse is a factor in an undergraduate students' college experience, there is a substantial increase in dependence, decreased academic productivity, an increase in safety and security issues, an increase in suicide ideation and attempts, unprotected sexual encounters, and physical assaults that result in injuries (Amaro et al., 2010). One of the most effective ways that institutions in higher education can combat alcohol-related issues on their campuses is for the institutional leaders to play a role in addressing this issue (Busteed, 2008). In many institutions of higher education, student conduct administrators have been designated as those institutional leaders with the responsibility of addressing alcohol policy violations and establishing a reasonable balance between disciplinary and educational sanctions issued to students (Waryold & Lancaster, 2013). The primary purpose of this research study was to evaluate student conduct administrators' perceptions of the relationship between recidivism and sanctions for alcohol violations at their colleges and universities. More specifically, this study explored the relationship of sanctions that students must complete after having been found responsible for violating the university's alcohol policy.

Mid-level student affairs professionals are leaving the field at an alarming rate. Even though many studies have given considerable attention to the reasons employees leave, less attention has been given to the reasons they decide to stay. The purpose of this mixed-methods sequential explanatory study was to examine factors influencing mid-level student affairs professionals’ retention at two public, medium to small size, 4-year universities in the Mid-Atlantic region. First, the administration of a survey to student affairs professionals at two selected institutions occurred to assess their job embeddedness at the institutions. Interviews, through a narrative approach, with select mid-level student affairs professionals followed that explored in more depth reasons these professionals indicate they have stayed in their positions. The goal in the explanatory interview follow-up was to investigate how the three variables of the Job Embeddedness Model—links, fit, and sacrifice—serve as predictors of longevity in student affairs positions. Additionally, the interviews provided a deeper look into these professionals’ lives and the reasons they decide to stay or leave the profession. The findings of the study are significant to professional stakeholders who want to implement program changes to support their retention efforts of mid-level leaders. Such use of the data may positively impact the student affairs profession by improving retention programs centered on the unique needs of mid-level student affairs professionals. Further, the data may greatly impact the culture of institutions by shifting the nature of their relationship with student affairs professionals.

Previous research has overlooked university employees' dual working student role as a potential antecedent to altered job perceptions. Therefore, a causal-comparative, quantitative study was conducted to examine how enrollment affects the job satisfaction, role conflict, and role ambiguity of non-instructional university staff. The researcher tested demographic variables, such as age, gender, racial identity, parental status, marital status, and years of service to determine if they moderated the relationship between enrollment and job perception. Among the 811 full-time university staff members who participated, 197 were enrolled as students and 614 were not enrolled. Participants completed the Measure of Job Satisfaction, the Revised Role Stressor Scales, and a demographic questionnaire administered through an online platform. Without considering demographic variables, no multivariate differences existed between students and non-students, but univariate tests indicated students were more satisfied with their jobs than non-students. Of the six demographic variables, only marital status had a moderating effect on the relationship between enrollment and the dependent variables. Specifically, married students were more satisfied with their jobs than married non-students, but single and dating students were less satisfied than single and dating non-students. After controlling for marital status, students showed higher levels of role ambiguity than non-students. No significant effects were found for role conflict. The study concluded that enrollment does affect role ambiguity and job satisfaction among certain employees. With this knowledge, considering the singular influence staff have on the operations of a university (Farrell, 2009), administrators should consider accommodations such as working lunches, a student-employee organization, and a specialized orientation for working students to better support staff who want to continue their education. Future researchers may consider testing different moderators or using a qualitative approach that may provide insight into lived experiences of the working student. The latter approach may explain differences found in the study.

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