The purpose of this study was to examine the influential effects various factors
had on the recruitment and the retention of African American undergraduates at Texas
A&M University, as perceived by those African Americans who had successfully
completed their plans of study and received baccalaureate degrees between May 1998
and December 2003.
Data were acquired through e-mail surveys in which three massive e-mailings
were broadcast from the collected files of The Association of Former Students of Texas
A&M. In this survey, the questionnaire contained closed-ended questions with five-part
Likert-type responses. Additionally, the African American alumni were provided the
opportunity to recommend additional practices for future recruitment and retention of
African American undergraduates at A&M.
An extensive review of the literature that supports this record of study regarding
recruitment and retention of African American undergraduate students was made, and
in the review, family involvement in education and home/school/campus characteristics revealed numerous studies that support the positive relationship between family
involvement in education and success. There is, however, evidence of barriers,
frustration, and discouragement experienced by these African American undergraduate
stakeholders in their campus relationships.
Research findings of this study included:
1. The research showed that for this population, the academic standing of
A&M is the most influential recruitment practice. Recruitment efforts
should concentrate on the most effective recruitment strategies by
developing materials that highlight and focus on academic standing as
reported by leading publications indicating how A&M is ranked against
colleges and universities across the nation.
2. The research showed that the available curriculum at A&M is also an
influential recruitment practice. From data discovered in this research,
engineering, computer technology, psychology, and journalism were the
most popular curriculum attraction to African American students.
Implications from the research include:
1. One significant difference was the finding that the African American
females looked more favorably on an institution of higher learning that had
a larger enrollment.
2. The other significant difference was the finding that African American
males looked more favorably at institutions of higher learning that held
higher national ranking in sports in which they were interested.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/2721 |
| Date | 01 November 2005 |
| Creators | Harnsberry, John Gabriel |
| Contributors | Stark, Stephen |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Record of Study, text |
| Format | 319004 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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