Joan B. Hirt

Black Students and their Families What Leads to Success in College

There is a wealth of research on Black college students and a second body of literature on Black families, but studies on the relationship between Black college students and their families are very limited. This project investigated the role of families in the lives of successful Black college students. The results suggest a model of eight connections between students and families that can be conceptualized in three stages.

A System of Othermothering: Student Affairs Administrators' Perceptions of Relationships with Students at Historically Black Colleges.

This study analyzed data gathered from interviews with professionals at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to examine the nature of relationships student affairs administrators form with students. The data were interpreted through the guardianship conceptual framework found in African American feminist literature. Results reveal how the notion of “othermothering” permeates relationships at HBCUs and the considerable importance attached to those formed between students and student affairs administrators. Relationships serve as a primary means to facilitate student retention at HBCUs and ensure the continued existence of a unique type of institution.

Academic and Social Integration in Cyberspace: Students and E-Mail.

Conceptual models related to the increasingly important issue of student retention have emerged in the past 15 years, and campuses have employed them to provide programs and services designed to enhance student success in college. Two such models have been widely cited in the literature on higher education. The first (Astin, 1984) focuses on student involvement in the campus environment. Essentially, Astin postulates that involvement can be measured by the amount of physical and psychological energy students exert in any given educational endeavor. The model further asserts that involvement can be measured both quantitatively (e.g., the number of hours spent studying for a class) and qualitatively (e.g., how much of that time is spent reading versus contemplating material). The greater the energy expended, the greater the degree of involvement. The greater the degree of involvement, the more likely the student is to persist and succeed in college.

The Student Affairs Profession in the Academic Marketplace

This essay compares the narratives that have emerged in recent years to describe the higher education enterprise with the narratives used to describe student affairs’ endeavors. I posit that the way in which student affairs professionals present their agenda is out of sync with the market-driven culture of the academy. The seven Principles of Good Practice are used to illustrate the incongruence between student affairs and academic affairs narratives on campus. I offer ways that those Principles can be recast to be more closely aligned with the new academic marketplace.

The Nature of Student Affairs Work in the Liberal Arts College.

The mission of the liberal arts institution is to educate the whole student; this parallels the aims of student affairs administration. How does this mission affect what student affairs professionals employed at these institutions do? For this study, researchers examined the nature of work for student affairs administrators at liberal arts institutions. Results revealed that professional life can be conceptualized through three themes: the manner in which work is conducted, work habits in relation to students, and the work environment.

Universities, dependency and the market: innovative lessons from Kenya

Higher education in developing nations is typically viewed from a dependency perspective – institutions are seen as merely recipients of Western knowledge, aid and reform efforts. Nevertheless, universities in both the centre and the periphery are dealing with tensions between protecting the public good and embracing neoliberal values based on a market approach to higher education. In the USA and Europe these competing interests are typically cast as mutually exclusive. Our study on the market approach to higher education in Kenya, however, suggests that public and private interests can be complementary, contributing to a re-envisioning of the traditional mission of higher education. This article seeks to examine more fully the nature of reform efforts at two universities in Kenya, to elucidate lessons for universities undergoing market-oriented reform in the West and to suggest a reciprocal relationship between institutions in Africa and Europe, upending the centre-periphery paradigm.

Educational Consortia in a Knowledge Economy: Collaboration, Competition, and Organizational Equilibrium

In today’s knowledge economy, collaboration and competition are critical in success. New postsecondary organizations have emerged in the higher education landscape, including consortiums and inter-institutional and interdisciplinary partnerships. One new organization is the Higher Education Center (HEC) in which multiple institutions partner to share resources while delivering separate academic programs. In many ways, the HEC can inform our knowledge of higher education as a whole since the HEC is comprised of public and private institutions that must compete and collaborate to ensure organizational survival. In this case study, the authors explored one such center’s internal dynamics.

Women’s Educational Opportunities: Factors that Influence Their Graduate School Aspirations

Education is one key to economic prosperity. However, in a society bolstered by patriarchal systems, economic and educational inequalities exist among the genders. The purpose of this study was to determine whether certain collegiate experiences predict undergraduate women’s expectation to enroll in graduate study and to determine if the experiences influence expectation to enroll by race. The study employed logistic regression to explore the relationship between undergraduate women’s educational aspirations and family, faculty and peer influences and those differences by race/ethnicity. The results revealed that academic ability (GPA) and peer experiences influenced advanced degree aspirations. In addition, being of African-American or Latina decent is associated with a higher level of advanced degree aspiration. Also, as frequency of interactions between faculty and African-American women increase – aspiration decreases. These findings suggest that it is important to consider the various factors that influence advanced degree aspiration.

Letter from the Special Editors

The past decade has brought about enormous change in postsecondary education. To start, state funding has dramatically diminished, prompting institutions to look to other sources of revenue, including corporate funding and increased revenues from tuition and fees. In large part, the need for increased resources has been driven by burgeoning enrollments that have strained the capacity of our colleges and universities. The demographic characteristics of the students coming to college also are markedly different. They are more diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, socioeconomic status, and a whole array of other attributes.

Editor's Choice: The Worklife of Student Service Professionals at Rural Community Colleges *

The literature on community colleges focuses extensively on students, faculty members and the top leadership. Noticeably absent are studies about administrators such as those who provide services for students. The researchers looked at the elements of administrative worklife at two rural community colleges. Findings reveal patterns in the nature of work, rewards, and relationships that these professionals encounter.