Annemarie Vaccaro

Campus Microclimates for LGBT Faculty, Staff, and Students: An Exploration of the Intersections of Social Identity and Campus Roles

Abstract This ethnographic study of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) faculty, staff, graduate students, and undergraduates expands the higher education conversation about campus climate beyond the traditional organizational-level paradigm. Findings suggest that LGBT individuals with similar organizational roles shared common experiences and perceptions that were informed by localized socio- spatial environments, or microclimates.

Inspiration from Home: Understanding Family as Key to Adult Women's Self-Investment.

As the number of nontraditional-age students grows on college campuses, it is essential for higher education practitioners to understand if and how older students, especially women, become and remain engaged in their education. A review of the educational engagement literature reveals images of disengaged adult learners whose work and family responsibilities inhibit them from fully focusing on school. Yet other literature shows adult women excelling beyond their traditional-age peers. This qualitative study sought to better understand educational engagement for older women students. Overall, study findings revealed that although family can be a greedy institution, kin also served as a source of educational inspiration for women. A concept called self-investment is introduced as an alternative to educational engagement.

What Lies beneath Seemingly Positive Campus Climate Results: Institutional Sexism, Racism, and Male Hostility toward Equity Initiatives and Liberal Bias.

This article presents qualitative results from a campus climate study at one predominately white university. Data analysis uncovered “what lies beneath” a seemingly positive campus climate. Gender differences in survey responses suggest that men and women experienced the climate in vastly different ways. Additionally, lack of deep diversity dialogue, hostility toward diversity efforts, symbolic racism, resentment of liberal bias, and larger issues of institutional sexism emerged as prominent and interrelated themes.

It's Not Burnout, It's More: Queer College Activists of Color and Mental Health

A phenomenological study of the experiences of self-identified queer activists of color revealed how they coped with the competing demands of academics, family, and activism. While participants exhibited innumerable strengths, they often contended with external and internal pressures, limited social support, poor boundaries, and lack of self-care. The absence of social support, in conjunction with poor self-care, a heightened sense of responsibility for others, and multiple minority identity explorations, left college student activists experiencing burnout, compassion fatigue, and in some cases suicidal ideation.

A Sense of Belonging Among College Students With Disabilities: An Emergent Theoretical Model

Higher education research suggests that the development of a sense of belonging is key to academic success and persistence, yet we know little about how first-year students with disabilities develop a sense of belonging as they transition into and through their first year in postsecondary environments. Themes from a grounded theory study of 8 college students, most of whom had invisible disabilities, provided the foundation for an emerging model of belonging. Student narratives suggest there are interconnections between the development of a sense of belonging, self-advocacy, social relationships, and mastery of the student role for first-year students with disabilities.

Intergenerational Perceptions, Similarities and Differences: A Comparative Analysis of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Millennial Youth with Generation X and Baby Boomers

This article shares the findings from a qualitative study of 49 lesbian, gay, and bisexual people from three generations: Baby Boomer, Generation X, and Millennial. Baby Boomer and Generation X perceptions of Millennials are compared to the lived experiences as told by the youth themselves. While there were more intergenerational similarities than differences, one major difference emerged: Millennials were more apt to describe fluid or multiple identities than the older generations.

Divisions Among Us: Women Administrators, Faculty, and Staff on the Complicated Realities of Support and Sisterhood

Although Robin Morgan argued that sisterhood is powerful (1970) and forever (2003), results from this case study show that sisterhood is not easily achieved, even in women’s groups in which support for women was a formal goal. Narratives of eight women faculty, middle managers, and top administrators reveal that organizational sexism and women’s differing standpoints made sisterhood at one midsized university difficult to achieve.

Toward Inclusivity in Family Narratives: Counter-Stories from Queer Multi-Parent Families

While literature on gay and lesbian families has increased in the past two decades, much of the literature is shrouded in the Western, heteronormative notion that a family equates to a unit with two parents and children. Even though this norm is not the reality for many families, outdated notions of family persist. This article shares the findings from an in-depth qualitative study of five queer individuals who constructed multi-parent families. Their counter-narratives challenge narrow heteronormative notions of family and offer inspiration to anyone interested in creating a family that includes multiple parents. Common themes among their familial experiences included creativity, time, and effort in familial construction; communication and compromise among multiple parents; parenting outside the norm; and sharing counter-narratives as activism.

Third Wave Feminist Undergraduates: Transforming Identities and Redirecting Activism in Response to Institutional Sexism

This article shares the findings from an 18-month qualitative study of a vibrant, feminist student group at one midsized university in the West. Over the course of the study, the attitudes and behaviors of these women changed significantly as they experienced a chilly campus climate and encountered institutional sexism for the first time in their lives. Their third wave feminist identities transformed from a feminism of the future to the present, from a self-centered perspective to a focus on others, and from campus activism to community action.

Student Affairs Professionals Supporting Students with Disabilities: A Grounded Theory Model

In an action-based grounded theory project, the authors collected data from 31 student affairs professionals. During seven focus groups, practitioners described feeling unknowledgeable about disability law, accommodations, and diagnoses. However, they drew upon their core values and transferrable skills to support individual students. Participants wanted to move beyond “small wins” with individual students to campus-wide inclusion. To achieve this goal, they engaged in self-directed learning, collaboration, and proactive strategies. An emergent model is presented.