This study examined the relationships between 1. institutional expenditures on academic support as measured by total amount and student persistence; 2. institutional expenditures on academic support as measured by amount per student FTE and student persistence; 3. institutional expenditures on student services as measured by total amount and student persistence; and 4. institutional expenditures on student services as measured by amount per FTE. It also explored the relationship between student engagement as measured by the five benchmarks (Academic Challenge, Active & Collaborative Learning, Student Faculty Interaction, Enriching Education Experience, and Supportive Campus Environment) and student persistence. Finally, it explored relationships among institutional expenditures, student engagement and student persistence. The study is a non experimental quantitative study utilizing two data sources, NSSE 2005 survey data and IPEDS data source. The study utilized data from 71 public Research Institutions Extensive and Intensive on the 2000 Carnegie Classification of institutions. The findings showed that institutional expenditures on academic support are positively significantly related to persistence. Institutional expenditures on student services are also positively significantly related to persistence. The variance in persistence attributed to difference in total academic support is higher than that attributed to by student services. Likewise, the variance attributed to student support total amount is higher than variance attributed to by student support per student FTE. Examination of the relationship between Student Engagement and Retention showed that four of the student engagement benchmarks were significant. Academic Challenge was not significant. Active and Collaborative Learning and Student Faculty Interaction were significant but both had negative coefficients. Results also showed that there were significant relationships among institutional expenditures, student engagement and persistence through partial mediation in the structural equation model. One benchmark in the model, Student Faculty Interaction was however not significant.

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Both cultural and social capital have been used in the existing literature to understand the differences in student persistence. Bourdieu's theories (1986, 1993, 1973), through their various applications, have provided evidence that the influence of social and cultural capital on student achievement varies based on the context of the study (Sternberg et al. 2011; Farruggia et al. 2018; Grodsky 2007). This research will build on the existing research and expand the focus of the research to a broader application of both cultural and social capital together. Through this method, this dissertation examines differences in college readiness students possess when they enter Urban Center University. This research also examines differences in the type and level of social capital students report activating in their first semester of college, primarily measured through students' sense of belonging. Finally, it will examine differences in support for students' cultural communities as measured by academic/social support for their cultural community and strain with family and friends from home. A binary logistic regression operationalizes all three components of cultural and social capital to investigate the likelihood of the following: persistence to year two and year three, on-time graduation, and attainment of satisfactory academic performance (SAP) toward degree completion. Finally, high degrees of belonging for Latino/a students, men, and first-generation students are compared to overall persistence rates for these populations to examine how belonging impacts persistence for students who identify as members of these groups. / Doctor of Philosophy / Many students choose to attend a college or university and never graduate. This dissertation examines the ways that their high school experience, family and friends, and relationships forged at Urban Center impact their persistence and likelihood of graduating in four years. The research will combine several forms of relationships and academic measures in one model to understand the ways they interact to impact persistence. The research will help colleges and universities understand the way that both pre-college behaviors and academic effort, relationships forged in college, and maintaining home relationships impact the likelihood of persistence. The context for Urban Center was selected because it offers insight into a campus with a very diverse student body based on race, gender, sexual orientation, Pell Grant utilization, and status as the first in their immediate family to attend college.

College student persistence has been the central focus of higher education for decades. Specifically, historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have directed their attention to increasing the retention and graduation rates of African American college students. Postsecondary institutions face greater challenges with college student persistence after a major crisis. This study explored college student persistence at a historically Black university ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. Given the devastation caused by the storm, this study examined college students' decisions for continuing their educational pursuits at the historically Black university which is a temporary trailer campus created by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The temporary campus has 45 trailers designated for classrooms, science labs, a library, a dining facility, and office space for faculty and staff. Students enrolled for the 2007 Spring Semester (N= 301) were asked to complete the Decisions to Resume Educational Pursuits (DREP) instrument that was designed specifically for this study. Predictor variables including, sex, residence status, Pell Grant status, campus housing status, college grade point average, attendance before Hurricane Katrina, and having parents or another close relative attend SUNO were used to predict educational aspirations, campus environment, and financial aid eligibility status as the reason college students continued their education after Hurricane Katrina. The ANOVA for the regression of educational aspirations revealed that the model predicted an overall significant F (7,241) = 4.824, p < .01 and 10% of the variance in educational aspirations was explained by the model. No significant relationship was found with campus environment. As was the case with educational aspirations, the ANOVA for the regression of financial aid eligibility status revealed that the model predicted an overall significant F (7,241) = 4.309, p < .01 and 9% of the variance in financial aid eligibility was explained by the model. A multiple regression model resulted in a statistically significant relationship for attending SUNO before Hurricane Katrina and educational aspirations. Also, results from multiple regression resulted in a statistically significant relationship for sex and financial aid eligibility, along with a relationship for Pell Grant status and financial aid eligibility status.

Magister Educationis (Adult Learning and Global Change) - MEd(AL) / As a Nigerian, I became interested in investigating how Nigerian students, from different cultural backgrounds are able to integrate and persist in their academic programmes. I used Tinto‟s (1993) Longitudinal Model of Institutional Departure as a foundation for my conceptual framework. I adopted a qualitative research approach as this provides opportunities for interpretations by both participants and the researcher. I purposively selected 20 Nigerian students who were at different stages of their Master‟s programmes at a university in the Western Cape province of South Africa, but only 12 students were available and interviewed. The data reveals a significant relationship between intercultural peer group interactions, formal social integration and student persistence, while there was no significant relationship between intercultural peer group interaction, informal social integration and student persistence. Furthermore, informal social integration was partially related to formal academic integration and student persistence. Finally, it emerged that informal academic integration was also strongly linked to social integration and academic success. Due to the limiting nature of a research paper, the research has been restricted to the Nigerian experience to allow an insider perspective.

The English-as-a-second-language (ESL) community college student population has increased notably in the past decade, but a decreasing number of these students are completing courses, programs, or degrees (Erisman & Looney, 2008). These students come to college with unique background experiences, and once in college, deal with challenging linguistic, academic, and social integration issues. Though they are not linguistically homogenous, and they do not have a common purpose, ESL students share the common goal of attending community college to learn to speak English (Szelényi & Chang, 2002). Course completion is a primary measure of progress toward that goal, and is therefore an issue of concern for both ESL students and community colleges, which continue to be the access point for language-minority students progressing into higher education (Laden, 2004). The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that predict in-term persistence of community college ESL students. A mixed methods research design consisting of two phases was utilized, and participants in this study were ESL students enrolled in a large community college in south Florida. Phase 1 students completed the Community College ESL Student Questionnaire (CCSEQ), which collected demographic data and data on entry characteristics, academic integration, and social integration. Discriminant and descriptive analyses were used to report the data collected in Phase I. Phase 2 students were a matching cohort of completing and non-completing students who participated in semi-structured interviews at the end of the term. Data collected in the interviews were analyzed thematically, using a constant comparative method as described by Glaser and Strauss (1967). Students’ self reported demographic data, background characteristics, goal commitment, and integration factors on the CCSEQ showed no significance between the students who completed the term and the students who did not complete the term. However, several differentiating themes emerged from the interview data, which indicated differences in goal commitment and integration between the two groups. The focus of non-completers on getting good grades rather than completing the course, and the commitment of completers to the goal of finishing the class in order to go forward, both raise questions for future research studies.

Student Success continues to be a topic of great interest in the Higher Education Literature. Fifty percent of those students who enter a four-year institution actually graduate and 25 % of first year students do not persist into their second year in college. First-year success courses and peer mentoring along with other programming strategies have been developed to improve retention and success for college students during their first-year of college. This study explored how college students from nine different institutions defined college student success. In addition, students from these institutions were surveyed to find out how and if first-year success courses and/or peer mentoring contribute to college student success. Follow-up interviews allowed for a deeper understanding of how first-year success courses and peer mentoring contribute to college student success. The study found a new comprehensive definition for college student success. Also, first-year success courses and peer mentoring do have positive relationships with college student success however, they also have some shortcomings that were identified in this study.

Many higher education institutions offer first-year college students the opportunity to participate in second-year retention programs in order to support the persistence of college students who seek assistance in navigating the college experience. Research regarding the traits that characterize second-year students and what the second-year experience entails is still in progress. (Braxton, 2000; Hunter et al. 2009; Schaller, 2000, 2005, 2010; Schreiner & Pattengale, 2000). While the existing research has built the foundation for research around the second-year experience, additional research is required to compose a truly holistic picture of the second-year experience. The purpose of this study is to identify the characteristics of first-year students who choose to apply to second-year retention programs and why they choose to apply to such programs. The study will address three research questions. 1. What are the characteristics of students who apply to participate in a second-year retention program? 2. What student noncognitive variables reflect which students apply to participate in a second-year retention program? 3. What factors do first-year students consider when determining whether or not they will participate in a second-year retention program? A mixed methods explanatory design (Cresswell & Plano-Clark, 2007) was implemented to investigate the research questions. The research population was composed of 337 first-year college students, primarily first generation students and students of color, eligible for participation in a second-year retention program at a large research institution in the western United States. This study hopes to contribute to a greater understanding of the characteristics of first-year students who choose to apply to participate in second-year retention programs and why they choose to apply. The findings can inform universities as to how they can offer more effective support of second-year students in a manner relevant to their needs. / text

Despite a long history of providing open-door access to students who might not otherwise have an opportunity to attend college, community colleges have not been as effective in fostering student success. To counter this trend, early intervention programs have been developed to facilitate academic and social integration for first semester students to improve student success. However, there is much that is not known about the influence of orientation programs at community colleges as an intervention strategy. Therefore, this study examines the influence of one new student orientation on first semester student success. Grounded in frameworks developed by Astin (1984, 1993, 1999), Tinto (1975, 1993), and Bean and Metzner (1985), this study examines the ability of a new student orientation to academically and socially integrate students into the culture of the institution. The following research questions are posed: • Does new student orientation influence student retention; • Does new student orientation influence student success; • Does new student orientation influence student persistence; • Does new student orientation facilitate a student’s social integration into the institution? • Does new student orientation facilitate a student’s academic integration into the institution? The focus of this case study is a publicly supported, two-year, comprehensive community college that is part of a multiple college district located in a suburban area outside of a major city in Texas. Participants are students who attended a new student orientation session. Employing a mixed methods research approach, data is gathered on student success, retention, persistence, and through interviews. Findings demonstrate that there was no significant difference in first semester retention for students who participated in a new student orientation and for those who did not. However, students who participated in orientation were more likely to be successful in their first semester in college and much more likely to re-enroll for their second semester at the institution. New student orientation also facilitated students’ social and academic integration into the institution. This study concludes with recommendations for program improvement, recommendations for further research, and a discussion of implications for community college policy and practice in developing new student orientation programs. / text