This study examined the impact on student success of district structure, organization and other institutional characteristics in California Community Colleges (CCCs). Controlling for institutional characteristics related to demographics of the student body, urbanicity, and institutional size, the study asked if the structure of the district (in which CCCs operate) accounts for variation in institutional student success measures. The study further asked whether student success significantly correlates with the proportion of a college’s expenditures related to student instruction, the percentage of full-time faculty, or the ratio of faculty to administrators. Using Mintzberg’s (1979) organizational structures as a theoretical framework, the study contrasted sing single-college districts (SCDs) and multi-college districts (MCDs). The research used data gathered from both California Community College Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO) DataMart, as well as from the Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). The data was examined quantitatively using regression analysis, bi-variate correlation analysis, t-tests, and F-tests. The study found a significant association between the type of district that a college belongs to and several measures of student success. The study also found a significant association between the percent of full-time faculty at the college and student success, and a significant association between the percent of the budget spent on instruction and student success. Outside of the research questions, the study also found a significant positive association between college size, as measured by full-time equivalent students (FTES), and student success and a significant negative association between the percent of students on BOG (Board of Governor’s) waiver and student success.

Accessing financial aid is a complex process. Navigating this process can be difficult for all students, but obstacles to financial aid most negatively affect students whom have the least familiarity with institutional culture and whom most rely on financial aid to afford their education. Using data collected from interviews, observations, and documents, this study seeks to answer the following questions: 1) how do first-generation college students at a broad-access 4-year university describe their experiences while accessing financial aid services at their institution and 2) how do these first-generation college students navigate the financial aid process. This study illuminates students’ personal experiences while dealing with a process that was not only complicated, but also one that was perceived to be dominated by policing efforts. Although these efforts are intended to deter individuals from abusing the financial aid system, they resulted in what participants described as a climate of fear and anxiety. In order to navigate a financial aid process that they felt was not created with them in mind, students utilized social capital to access additional resources outside of the financial aid office and relied on internal motivators through the forms of community wealth brought with them from their families and home communities. The implications for this study provide insight into improving institutional policies that create barriers to accessing financial aid so that financial aid can serve its intended purpose: to increase equity and access to higher education.

With the enrollment of community college students at four-year institutions increasing in recent years, this study examined the institutional efforts of three private religiously affiliated universities in California to aid transfer students in their transition to the new college setting. With the critical issue of transfer student retention in mind, the study sought out to find the institutional, personal, and interpersonal elements community college students identified as influential to their transition. Additionally, student affairs officers were asked to provide their reflections on the individual and institutional factors they deemed were the most salient in the retention of transfer students at their respective campuses.

Data collection was in the form of an online survey provided to all community college transfer students who had entered the university in the fall 2016 semester. Students were sent the survey after the completion of one semester at each of the three institutions studied. The survey was comprised of questions about the various aspects that affect a student’s academic and social experiences while in college. Additionally, two student affairs staff at each of the sites were interviewed to learn more about institutional efforts in relation to transfer student programming, on-boarding, and assimilation to the new campus community.

The findings of the study suggest the importance of students’ academic and social experiences as they transition to the four-year setting. Transfer students experience culture shock when arriving to the university and events such as new student orientation help them acclimate to the campus culture. Furthermore, survey and interview data showed the importance of academic advisement for smoother transitions, how financial aid exacerbated transfer versus native student disparities, and the influence of on-campus housing on persistence. Lastly, the campus religious context as either a facilitator of or barrier to adjustment was discussed. These findings support the notion that multiple factors are at play when it comes to the retention of transfer students at private religiously affiliated liberal arts universities in California. Various offices within the institution need to work collaboratively to support the needs of transfer students in this transitionary period.

Increasing the production of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) undergraduate degrees is a critical component of maintaining the U.S.’s scientific edge in the face of increasing global competition in the areas of science and technology. Lagging graduation rates in STEM are a partial reflection of outdated, instructor-centered approaches that fail to engage students in the learning process. Shifting pedagogical practices in STEM undergraduate classrooms from traditional to student-centered teaching strategies has been recognized as a key strategy to avert projected shortfalls in the number of talented, well-trained baccalaureate graduates. As the country faces increasing pressure to boost the number of STEM graduates, a thorough understanding of the factors that influence STEM faculty’s use of active learning strategies in the classroom and the barriers that inhibit their adoption is warranted. This study draws upon cross-sectional data collected in the 2016 administration of the Higher Education Research Institute’s (HERI) Faculty Survey and semi-structured interviews with 17 STEM faculty to illuminate the factors that shape the extent to which faculty incorporate active learning pedagogy in their courses. Resource Dependence Theory (Pfeffer & Salancik, 1978) and Organizational Citizenship Behavior (Bateman & Organ, 1983) provide a framework for understanding external and internal factors and characteristics that motivate faculty to opt for student-centered instructional strategies. Situating influential factors and decision-making processes within an institutional and departmental environment provides greater context and clarity to the understanding of how a faculty member’s teaching style has evolved throughout the course of their career. Results indicate that faculty teaching approaches are strongly influenced by intrinsic factors, professional characteristics, and environmental pressures. Faculty who are employed as a non-tenure track faculty member, participate in professional development activities, curriculum development, and interdisciplinary research, and have higher levels of undergraduate engagement are associated with higher levels of student-centered pedagogy. Physical science and mathematics faculty are significantly less likely to incorporate active learning in their courses – relationships that are corroborated by interviews demonstrating the significant role of departmental culture in shaping faculty teaching. While peers, department chairs, and university administrators can promote or inhibit the adoption of more effective teaching strategies via messages, policies, and model behavior, a lack of available time and (dis)incentive system prevent or delay faculty from incorporating more effective teaching practices. Implications for higher education policymakers and research universities include expanding professional development opportunities, rewarding teaching excellence, and changing departmental culture.

Enrollment of vertical transfer students across four-year colleges and universities has been increasing over the past decade (Shapiro et al., 2018). From 2012 to 2017, data from the Beginning Postsecondary Students (BPS) survey showed that White students represented the largest group of transfers to four-year colleges and universities. Racial and ethnic minoritized populations continue to face challenges in successfully transferring to a four-year from a two-year institution due to systemic barriers (Crisp, Potter, Robertson, & Carales, 2020); and students of color who do successfully transfer from a two-year into a four-year face additional barriers that stem from institutional racism and lack of a transfer receptive culture (Jain, Herrera, Bernal, & Sol�rzano, 2011; Umbach, Tuchmayer, Clayton, & Smith, 2018; Wawrzyski & Sedlacek, 2003). This study aimed to identify factors that shape and sustain the graduate degree aspirations of community college transfer students of color. Specifically, this study examined graduate degree aspirations across institutional characteristics and measures used to determine a campus climate experience to examine how graduate degree aspirations varied for transfers of color enrolled across colleges and universities within the U.S. Key findings include students’ experience with a hostile campus climate contribute odds toward graduate education and whether students finance their education through personal income, loans, or grants—overall these measures appeared to contribute odds toward graduate aspirations than having no aspiration to obtain a graduate degree. Frameworks of Critical Race Theory and a Transfer Receptive Culture (Jain et al., 2011) offer critical discussions for implications, research, policy, and practice.

Professional and support staff provide the labor that enables the very function of the university, yet they are omitted from formal governance structures. Further, their perspectives are underrepresented in the campus climate body of literature despite growing calls to incorporate staff into campus climate studies (Hart & Fellabaum, 2008; Hurtado et al., 2008; Vaccaro, 2014). Meanwhile, studies that examine staff job satisfaction and turnover intent in higher education typically lack a race-conscious lens despite evidence that Faculty of Color experience differential outcomes from their peers based on negative experiences with the campus climate (Buttner et al., 2010; Jayakumar et al., 2009; Niemann & Dovidio, 1998). The purpose of this study is to better understand the relationship between campus climate and employment outcomes for staff in higher education using a race-conscious lens. The study uses the 2020 Staff Climate Survey (Study Sample N= 2,945) from the Higher Education Research Institute to answer the guiding research questions. It adapts the Multicontextual Framework for Diversity Learning Environments (Hurtado et al., 2012) for staff application to define various aspects of the campus climate and test if they can be connected to job satisfaction and intent to leave. Existence, Relatedness, and Growth theory (Alderfer, 1972) is also applied to describe staff needs that further predict outcomes. Finally, the Critical Quantitative Inquiry research paradigm (Stage, 2007) guides research design to ensure a race-conscious focus.

Descriptive and inferential results revealed key findings. Black staff had the most negative experiences across all climate measures when examining mean scores by race. They also had the lowest mean job satisfaction score. Meanwhile, White staff had the lowest levels of turnover intent compared to Staff of Color peers. While climate measures ultimately had weak associations with job satisfaction by the last step of the regression model, positive perceptions of and experiences with the psychological dimension of the campus climate was related to improved job satisfaction. None of the climate measures were significant by the final step of the turnover intent model. For both regressions, having ERG needs met mitigated the impact of climate on staff outcomes which were significant at earlier points in the models. Implications for practice include providing opportunities for staff to connect with peers and mentors and providing avenues for cultivating staff members’ professional growth and autonomy. Such practices can also serve to improve the campus climate.

Since 9/11, military veteran enrollment in college has increased rapidly, but much remains unknown about their experience in higher education. The federal government has knocked down significant financial barriers for many of these student veterans through benefits provided by the different iterations of the GI Bill. However, a high number still leave college without earning their degrees. Drawing upon three waves of cross-sectional data collected from the Higher Education Research Institute’s (HERI) Diverse Learning Environments (DLE) survey, this study used structural equation modeling (SEM) to demonstrate the extent to which student veterans’ perceptions of staff and faculty concern and attention, or validation, relates to their intent to persist at their respective four-year colleges or universities. This study tested and slightly modified established measures of validation (Hurtado, Cuellar, & Guillermo-Wann, 2011) for student veterans and non-veteran students with similar backgrounds. With these latent traits confirmed, this study examined the relationship between each group’s sense of validation and their persistence intentions, comparing structural differences. Rend�n’s (1994) theory of validation provided the framework for the main independent variable of interest, and Nora’s (2003) model of student engagement guided the selection of control variables used to model differences in students’ intent to persist.

Results indicate that validation is central to models predicting intent to persist for each group of college students, but a different mix of characteristics and experiences explained variation in intentions to persist for student veterans than for the matched sample of non-veteran, nontraditional students. Student veterans who experienced more validation from staff and faculty also had more confidence in their academic abilities, which, in turn, was related to being more likely to intend to return to the same campus for the following fall term. These factors serve to better connect students to campus, yet they compete with external influences, including work and family responsibilities, which have a tendency to pull student veterans away from their institutions. In addition to enhancing students’ persistence intentions, more frequently perceiving validation from faculty and staff also correlated with higher grades and a sense of belonging. These relationships remained when testing a structural model for a sub-sample of student veterans of color. For non-veteran students with similar backgrounds, validation had a direct link to intent to persist and to confidence in academic abilities. However, unlike student veterans, non-veteran students with greater academic confidence expressed intentions to leave their current institution by the start of the following fall term. Implications for the U.S. military, higher education policymakers, college and university leaders, faculty and staff include extending transition assistance to veterans as they separate, intentionally incorporating validation into trainings, and modeling inclusive teaching practices.

Female and underrepresented racial minority (URM) students are indicating their interest in STEM fields at increasing rates, yet when examining the engineering discipline specifically disparities in degree completion rates between female URM students and others in the racial or gender majority are even more severe. This study explored female URM college student perceptions of school and classroom climate and the impact these factors had on their decision to persist or to leave engineering. Through a qualitative interview methodology grounded in Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), this study explored factors including self-efficacy, perceived barriers and supports, other-group orientation and outcome expectations that influenced students' academic decision-making. Interview participants consisted of 5 female URM students that matriculated into an engineering major at a top tier, private university but subsequently left the discipline in pursuit of another field of study. The perceptions of this target population were juxtaposed with interview data from 4 male non-URM, 4 female non-URM, and 4 male URM leavers in addition to 7 female URM engineering persisters. As a final component in the research design, 9 undergraduate engineering faculty were interviewed to understand their perceptions of why female URM students leave engineering in pursuit of other disciplines. With faculty being a central component of the academic environment, their perceptions of female URM students, as well as how they view their role in these students' retention, provided insight on this other side of retention question.

Salient findings emerged that differentiated female URM leavers' experiences in engineering from other student populations. Female URM leavers were less likely to call upon self-directed learning strategies in response to academic challenges. Perceived academic barriers such as heavy course loads, lack of connection between material and application, and perceived academic deficits deterred these students from persisting in the field. A perceived lack of academic preparation also inhibited female URM students from participating actively in class. Additionally, while targeted support programs were effective in connecting female URM students with their peers and such programs contributed to an overall sense of diversity at the school, a lack of diversity was felt when inside the classroom.

Years of hiring practices have resulted in adjunct professors comprising the majority of college faculty (Gappa, Austin, & Trice, 2007; Schuster & Finkelstein, 2006). Today, adjunct faculty provide almost half of all instruction at the California community colleges (Student Success Initiative, 2018). It is essential to increase adjunct faculty participation in student success activities, such as Student Learning Outcomes (SLO) assessment. A large number of courses may not be taught as effectively if adjunct faculty do not assess SLOs (Danley-Scott & Topsett-Makin, 2013). This study sought to identify how adjunct faculty perceive their department cultures across the state. It also strived to understand what, if any, influence departmental cultures have on adjunct faculty contributing to SLO assessment. This mixed methods sequential explanatory study yielded findings emerged that indicate adjunct faculty at iii both sites primarily experience inclusive and learning cultures. Specific areas for improvement include communication, collaboration, and input in the design of curriculum and learning goals. Emergent findings included the role of the department chair as the progenitor and maintainer of a department’s culture. Adjunct faculty were found to be driven primarily by a sense of service to students and refining the curriculum to serve transfer and career goals. Lack of communication and collaboration were found to have adverse effects on these intrinsic motivations. Departments and institutions seeking to transform cultures of compliance around student learning outcomes assessment into cultures of inquiry may do well to begin with communication, collaboration, and other low cost change strategies in order to cultivate inclusive and learning cultures that increase adjunct faculty participation in SLO assessment.

Women of color who pursue careers in higher education administration face a double bind of navigating institutional barriers wrought by sexism and racism while simultaneously taking on the crucial work of mentoring, advocating, and caring for students of color. This multi-method study drew on organizational support theory (Eisenberger et al., 1986) and intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989; 1991) to understand the contributions of women of color on higher education campuses and the perceived support and value of their contributions. First, descriptive analyses were used to examine data from 998 respondents to the 2020 HERI Staff Climate Survey to understand gender and racial differences in items related to organizational support and diversity work. Additionally, structural equation modeling using a subset of 142 mid-level women of color staff was used to examine the relationship between diversity work, organizational support, campus racial and gender climate, and supervisor support on staff turnover rates. Finally, qualitative analyses drew from semi-structured interviews conducted in 2018 with 10 Latina mid-level student affairs professionals. The intersection of race and gender were centered in an effort to understand how organizational structures affect the working conditions, and ultimately retain or push out women of color higher education professionals.

Findings indicated that women of color tend to shoulder more diversity work related to mentoring, advocacy, and addressing campus climate issues as well as emotional labor. Additionally, women of color who reported feeling valued by the institution and perceived high levels of supervisor support were less likely to indicate an intention to leave their job or institution. Increases in diversity work and the hostility of the climate were associated with higher turnover rates. Interviews with Latina student affairs professionals underscored how racism and sexism often contributed to undermining and devaluing their contributions. Overall, the findings demonstrated that the distribution of diversity work and developing a sense of organizational support is both raced and gendered. Higher education institutions must continue to address the distribution of workload and invisible labor, and its commitment to supporting women of color mid-level professionals in an effort to retain them. Future research can further examine the differences in workload and organizational support across subpopulations and their impact on turnover rates.