The purpose of this study was to examine the use and determine the preferred method of social media among 4-H alumni in Louisiana. Based on a review of literature, communicating with youth through social media has become a major trend and necessity, especially among 4-H Youth Development and Cooperative Extension Service professionals. The Zammit Social Media Questionnaire, a 24-item instrument that includes multiple choice, multiple answer, open-ended, ranking, and Likert scale questions, was developed and administered online to 161 Louisiana 4-H alumni who received the 2011 Louisiana 4-H Senior Honor Cord and provided usable e-mails. The final response count was 32, representing a 19.9% response rate. The overall preferred method of social media among Louisiana 4-H alumni was Facebook and text messaging. A majority of 4-H alumni use their smart phones or personal computers to utilize social media. Some of the primary reasons that 4-H alumni use social media are to communicate friends, view photographs, and become updated with current events. Less than 13% of surveyed 4-H alumni use blogs, less than 7% use Google Circles or discussion boards, and less than 4% use Flickr. Overall, 100% of surveyed 4-H alumni use some form of social media. Majority of the respondents were Caucasian, females, lived in rural areas, and have completed or are enrolled in a 4-year college program. They participated in 4-H for 9 years and were not a member of a parish 4-H Junior Leadership Club.

This study compared College of Agriculture (COA) alumni of a research university (RU/VH) in the Southern U.S. on selected demographic characteristics and contact information by whether or not the alumni are donors to the university. The target population was COA graduates from 1862 Land Grant Universities located in the Southern portion of the United States. The accessible population was Louisiana State University (LSU) COA alumni graduates. The sample was alumni who completed their degree program from the years 1950 through 2000. The instrument used was the Tiger Advancement Information Lookup System (TAILS) database. Universities have become burdened by financial instability due to the increasing number of students enrolled in college and state budget cuts to higher education. Alumni donations acquired through fund raising efforts have been put in the forefront of raising money to support and sustain the mission of higher education. Targeting alumni is a way to increase funding and endowments for support to higher education. Alumni have become an integral component in the fund raising scheme of higher education. The methodology of this descriptive exploratory study involved downloading alumni data from the university foundation database. The study found that alumni donors and nondonors were different on a number of demographic characteristics. Additionally, models were found explaining number of donations, largest donation, total amount of donation, and total donations specific to agriculture. In addition, a logistical model was identified that correctly classified 84.1% of alumni on donor status. The researcher concluded that non-employment university affiliation and total number of contacts were important explanatory factors. Recommendations included establishment of more affiliation opportunities and increased frequency of contacts with alumni. The researcher recommended increasing non-traditional methods of contact and involving alumni through various forms of affiliation by creating new types, especially within areas identified by this study in the states with cluster groups of 50 or more alumni. Furthermore, the researcher recommended studies on contact information, and non-employment university affiliation be conducted in an effort to increase the percentage of classifying alumni donor status. The researcher recommends student involvement through club affiliation in an effort to build relationships prior to graduation.

Studies concerning spirituality and higher education, particularly for the college student, are beginning to appear in journals, conference papers, and presentations. However, there is little research conducted with professionals in higher education on the construct of spirituality. Spirituality has so many different definitions in the literature, it is difficult to define, and perhaps even more complex to study academically. Using a research-based conceptual model for religious faith, developed within the study of family sciences, this study examines the lived experience of how and why Catholic women administrators connect their faith and leadership in a setting of public institutions of higher education. Using a grounded theory qualitative approach to research the how, why and processes of the faith and leadership connection for women administrators, interviews were conducted with ten Catholic women administrators. Findings include four emergent themes which begin to explain and deepen the understanding of how religious faith and leadership are connected at work. These themes, with sub-themes, include: Faith at the Core of Identity, Using Faith and Leadership Connection for Performance Management (Management of Self and Management of Supervisees), Specific Actions of Faith and Leadership (Use of Faith in Decision-Making: Prayer; Faith as Action: Service Orientation, Valuing Others, Relationship Building, Doing the Right Thing), and Challenges in Practicing Faith (Public Institution Factors; Implicit/Explicit Actions/Thoughts). These findings begin the research agenda to study faith and leadership, particularly in settings of public institutions of higher education. One research recommendation from the study was continued qualitative study approaches interviewing a wider sample of women leaders, including those of other faith denominations and geographically diverse regions of the United States. Practical implications for Human Resource offices, as well as Catholic parishes and diocese are included. As the women themselves articulate the connection of faith and leadership as inseparable, with faith as the foundation of their leadership, more is understood about the way women of faith lead in public institutions of higher education. Universities and the Catholic parishes and diocese are positioned to provide time, space, and training initiatives for leadership development.

During the current tough economic times volunteers are playing an increasingly important role in making human services widely available and in building collaborative community partnerships. Volunteers are most likely to be productive, to be satisfied with their experience, and to sustain their volunteer service when the opportunities provided to them are aligned with their motives for volunteering, which may include building the kinds of knowledge, skills, and interpersonal awareness that are the cornerstones of leadership. Organizations that purposefully recognize, support, and develop their volunteers leadership potential generate positive outcomes not only for themselves and their volunteers, but also for the clients they serve, and for whole communities. Across the country more than 240 affiliates of the HandsOn Network (HON), the nations largest volunteer network, serve as clearinghouses for individuals seeking both long-term and short-term (episodic) volunteer opportunities, and for nonprofit agencies seeking volunteer services. In its commitment to civic engagement and innovative problem solving, HON is investigating opportunities and technologies for volunteer and community empowerment, and is actively engaged in the inquiry as to how best to serve volunteers who want to cultivate their leadership at every level. In partnership with HON, and using the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991), an elicitation study was conducted as formative research to determine the most salient factors that predict volunteers intentions to develop their leadership via their attitudes toward leadership development, subjective norms regarding leadership development, and perceived behavioral control of leadership development. Themes derived from the elicitation study provided the content framework to create a survey tool, which was then administered in a pilot study to HON volunteers across the country. Content analysis of pilot study responses produced a solution in which items reflecting the respective theoretical constructs of the Theory of Planned Behavior separated with near-exact fit in a six-factor solution. This research resulted in the production of an instrument, the Volunteer Leadership Development Questionnaire (VLDQ), which can identify the factors influencing intentions of HON volunteers to express and develop their leadership. Recommendations are made for ongoing validation and refinement of the instrument.

Little research has been done to examine how the awarding of bachelors degrees, by community colleges, influences the traditional associate degree-granting role of these institutions. This quantitative study investigates the impact of this change on the community colleges that have been allowed to award bachelors degrees, examining how this change affects the traditional associate degree granting output of these institutions. The population for this study is all public community colleges in the United States that offer associate degrees, including those awarding bachelors degrees. A data query was used to collect the data for this study from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) database. In the full sample, there was a correlation between the number of associate degrees awarded and whether a bachelors degree was offered. Schools that offered bachelors degrees tended to have higher numbers of associate degrees awarded. In the subsample of schools that offered bachelors degrees, there was a moderate positive correlation between the number of bachelor and associate degrees awarded. The number of associate degrees awarded was undiminished by the initiation of a bachelors degree program at two-year schools. As such, this study may indicate successful higher education marketplace competition, with community colleges evolving to offer bachelors degrees while successfully continuing their traditional associate degree-granting role. This study indicates that the awarding of associate and bachelors degrees is not mutually exclusive. The one can be conducive to the other. A successful synergy can be established. The community college bachelors may make sense as a competitive, market driven response to a societal need. Public community colleges that began to offer, over the last ten years, a four-year baccalaureate degree to meet higher education needs, in addition to the traditional two-year associate degree, are accomplishing this dual mission effectively. This conclusion is supported by the findings of this study and facts in the published literature. More states need to allow community colleges to offer bachelors degrees. In this way, the legislatures could recognize the reality of the educational and economic development needs of place-bound, non-traditional students who have increased the demand for localized bachelors degree programs.

This study investigated the impact participating in S.T.R.I.P.E.S., an extended orientation program, had on student satisfaction and retention. Student satisfaction was determined through a calculated total score on the College Student Satisfaction Evaluation. Retention was determined based on a students enrollment status beginning with their first fall semester and continued to the beginning of their second fall semester. In addition, the study investigated the relationship between student satisfaction and retention. Finally, the study sought to determine if selected variables explained a substantial portion of student satisfaction and contributed to the predictability of retention. The target population was all first time, first year students entering a large, public, research institution in the southeastern United States in the fall of 2009, 2010, and 2011. The accessible population for the objectives on retention was students that had complete information on selected variables in the study (N=12,466). The accessible population for the objectives on student satisfaction included all students with a valid email address (N=13,983). Data analyses were conducted utilizing correlations, stepwise multiple regression and stepwise logistic regression analyses. Results indicated a small relationship exists between participation in an extended orientation program and student satisfaction. No relationship exists between student satisfaction and retention. Students who participate in S.T.R.I.P.E.S. are 30% more likely to be retained to the second year than their peers that did not participate in the program. Finally, 8 variables: percent high school rank, S.T.R.I.P.E.S., on campus first semester, gender, fathers education level, first semester cumulative GPA, ACT, and ethnicity (white/non-white) are statistically significant predictors of student satisfaction and 9 variables: first year cumulative GPA, Pell Grant in the second year, Pell Grant in the first year, percent high school rank, fathers education level, residency status, on campus first year, gender, and S.T.R.I.P.E.S. are statistically significant contributors in predicting student retention. In the case of student satisfaction, the effect size was small with a small amount of variance being explained. Even though the effect sizes for the correlations and regression models tended to be small, the large sample size gives reason to believe that the effects matter.

Cities everywhere are struggling to develop strategic responses to vast and rapid economic changes brought about by globalization while mediating the social impact of economic change. Workforce development is a policy area that straddles the divide between economic development and social welfare imperatives. This thesis examines local networks supporting workforce development activities in three Ontario cities in order to better understand the dynamics of urban governance in Canada. The analysis focuses on the two central questions of whether cities have the political autonomy to develop their own strategic workforce development networks, and if so, do these networks reflect efforts to integrate economic development and social welfare considerations. It engages with three theoretical perspectives that offer different explanations for local governance dynamics: neo-institutionalist theories argue that higher institutional structures shape and constrain local governance efforts; the critique of neo-liberalism argues that local governance dynamics will be dominated by the interests of capital for economic development; and theories of urban governance argue that cities have the autonomy to shape their own governance efforts. Theories of urban governance also focus analytical attention on how the patterns of interaction between local state and non-state actors shape local governance dynamics. The study does find evidence of local workforce development networks, and finds that these networks vary according to the patterns of interaction between local state and non-state actors. From a neo-institutionalist perspective, however, the study also finds that macro-institutional policy frameworks shape and constrain these local governance efforts.

The purpose of this study was to describe university Academic Administrators, Tenured Faculty, and Tenure-track Faculty at RU/VH: Research Universities (very high research activity) universities as designated by the Carnegie Foundation in the southeastern region of the United States based on demographic characteristics, as well as determine the knowledge and the perceptions of the three aforementioned groups regarding Stopping the Tenure Clock. Researcher-designed surveys were used to collect data. There were 49 participants identified as Academic Administrators, defined as employees who have administrative decision making authority over an academic unit at the level of department chair, director, or dean. Additionally, there were 346 Tenured Faculty who participated in the study while 180 Tenure-track Faculty participated. An important finding was that 78.3% of the Tenure-track Faculty participants were not aware of the Stopping the Tenure Clock process. It was based on this finding that the researcher recommended future research be conducted to determine the preferred and most effective method(s) of communication to the university community. Lack of awareness of Stopping the Tenure Clock may be a result of inadequate publicity of the policy or procedures. Administrators should consider a variety of communication methods such as website postings (on all related stakeholders websites), periodic announcements at faculty meetings or orientation, inclusion in applicable policies, employee handbooks, or print publications. Another important finding is that Tenure-track faculty had more positive perceptions than the Tenured Faculty of Stopping the Tenure Clock. This finding was based on the comparison of perception of Stopping the Tenure Clock by employee groups, whereby a significant difference was revealed between two or more groups. The post-hoc analysis indicated that there was a significant difference between the Tenured Faculty and Tenure-track Faculty groups. University administrators should acknowledge the reasons behind any negative perceptions and address them directly by opening up the dialogue and the appropriate medium of how they can be addressed.

The primary purpose of the study is to investigate the trends in soil nutrient levels from soil samples submitted to the LSU AgCenter soil testing and plant analysis laboratory during 2008 to 2012. This study indicates the trend for soil pH, soil phosphorus and soil potassium for corn, cotton, rice, grain sorghum, soybeans, and sugarcane. These six crops were analyzed in this study because of the economic significance to the Louisiana agricultural industry. The trend in soil nutrients studied were generally within the recommended levels for sustainability and environmental stewardship. This study describes the trends for soil pH, soil phosphorus and soil potassium for Louisiana soils during the years 2008 2012. The value of this paper lies in calling attention to broad nutrient needs and challenges faced by the crop producers. Finally, the study findings demonstrate the importance of monitoring soil nutrient trends and environmental stewardship.

A competency model, for supporting student learning, was developed for the paraprofessional position (R.A., Community Assistant, etc.) in residential college or living/learning programs. The researcher developed the model through a two-stage process. In the first stage, the critical incident technique was applied utilizing the experiences of paraprofessionals at 15 different universities to develop an initial set of competencies and related tasks. In the second stage, the Delphi Technique was used to allow faculty and staff from 17 universities to refine and validate the competencies and related tasks. The final competency model includes twelve competencies related to linking hall community programs and activities to learning community curriculum, serving as a subject-matter resource, providing students opportunities to interact with faculty, connecting students with academic resources, assisting in registration/class selection processes, motivating academic success, guiding the application of academic survival skills, establishing a sense of community, providing emotional support, communicating and collaborating with faculty, role modeling, and establishing an environment that facilitates diversity. The competency model supports the notion that a set of competencies, different from those utilized for traditional housing paraprofessional positions, is needed for paraprofessionals in residential college or living/learning programs to support their students' learning.