Robert D. Reason

Differing Perceptions: How Students of Color and White Students Perceive Campus Climate for Underrepresented Groups

Using a campus climate assessment instrument developed by Rankin (1998), we surveyed students (n = 7,347) from 10 campuses to explore whether students from different racial groups experienced their campus climates differently. Students of color experienced harassment at higher rates than Caucasian students, although female White students reported higher incidence of gender harassment. Further, students of color perceived the climate as more racist and less accepting than did White students, even though White students recognized racial harassment at similar rates as students of color. Implications are offered for understanding campus climates, providing appropriate interventions, and overcoming White privilegeand resistance.

Student Variables that Predict Retention: Recent Research and New Developments

This article reviews recent research related to the study of college student retention, specifically examining research related to individual student demographic characteristics. The increasing diversity of undergraduate college students requires a new, thorough examination of those student variables previously understood to predict retention. The retention literature focuses on research conducted after 1990 and emphasizes the changing demographics in higher education. Research related to a relatively new variable —the merit-index—also is reviewed, revealing potentially promising, but currently mixed results.

An Examination of Persistence Research Through the Lens of a Comprehensive Conceptual Framework

Arguably, student retention has been the primary goal for higher education institutions for several decades. Certainly, it has been the focus of much research effort among higher education scholars. Unfortunately, efforts to improve retention seem to be ineffective; attrition rates have endured despite significant efforts to close them (ACT, 2004b; Braxton, Brier, & Steele, 2007; Terenzini, Cabrera, & Bernal, 2001). Notwithstanding the emphasis placed on student retention, decades of research, and countless institutional initiatives, slightly over half of students who begin a bachelor’s degree program at a fouryear college or university will complete their degree at that same institution within six years (Berkner, He, & Cataldi, 2002). During the 1990s, while some colleges and universities certainly improved their retention of rates, in the aggregate student graduation rates changed little. Students enrolling in a four-year institution in the 1995–1996 academic year, for example, were no more likely to complete a baccalaureate degree five years later than were their counterparts who entered during the 1989–1990 academic year (Horn & Berger, 2004). A substantial empirical and prescriptive literature does exist to guide faculty members, campus administrators, and public policy makers in attempts to increase student persistence in higher education. With rare exception (e.g., Astin, 1993), these persistence studies possess the same major flaw as most higher education outcomes research; these studies fail to consider the wide variety of influences that shape student persistence, focusing instead on discrete conditions, interventions, and reforms (Terenzini & Reason, 2005). In 2005, Terenzini and Reason proposed a conceptual framework that takes into account the multiple and interrelated student, faculty, and institutional forces that influence college success. Although Terenzini and Reason originally proposed their framework to guide student outcomes research generally, they argued that it is applicable to specific outcomes like retention. I, therefore, use this framework to organize and synthesize the research on college student persistence. Writing a comprehensive review of research on student persistence is a Herculean task. The publications that feature persistence as a primary outcome measure are almost innumerable. Moreover, literature reviews of persistence research have been published periodically in the higher education literature. I use these existing reviews as the foundation for this article. Beside my own previous review (Reason, 2003), I draw heavily upon reviews by Tinto (2006-2007) and Pascarella and Terenzini (1991, 2005), as well as the many scholarly and empirical works by Braxton. I supplement these secondary sources by incorporating persistence research published more recently. By using Terenzini and Reason’s framework to organize the following discussion, this review offers scholars and practitioners a

Toward a Model of Racial Justice Ally Development.

This paper explores the experiences of White college students as they make sense of their race and their roles in racial justice movements. Findings from two separate but related qualitative studies, when viewed together, result in an exploratory model of racial justice ally development. Racial justice allies are White students who actively work against the system of oppression that maintains their power. The model presented in this paper explores how college affects the development of racial justice allies, which may allow student affairs professionals to more effectively encourage this type of development.

Working with Missing Data in Higher Education Research: A Primer and Real-World Example.

Nearly all quantitative analyses in higher education draw from incomplete datasets--a common problem with no universal solution. In the first part of this paper, we explain why missing data matter and outline the advantages and disadvantages of six common methods for handling missing data. Next, we analyze real-world data from 5,905 students across 33 institutions to document how one’s approach to handling missing data can substantially affect statistical conclusions, researcher interpretations, and subsequent implications for policy and practice. We conclude with straightforward suggestions for higher education researchers looking to select an appropriate method for handling missing data.

A New Theory-to-Practice Model for Student Affairs: Integrating Scholarship, Context, and Reflection

Abstract In this article, we synthesize existing theory-to-practice approaches within the student affairs literature to arrive at a new model that incorporates formal and informal theory, institutional context, and reflective practice. The new model arrives at a balance between the rigor necessary for scholarly theory development and the adaptability needed to implement theories. Finally, the model elevates the importance of reflective practice among student affairs professionals as the means to evaluate both formal and informal theories.

Faculty and Institutional Factors that Promote Student Encounters with Difference in First-Year Courses

Research clearly indicates that faculty members have the potential to influence student learning outcomes through their pedagogical practices, but we know less about what influences faculty members’ choices to employ specific pedagogical practices. This study, based on data from 2,853 faculty members who teach courses that serve primarily first-year students on 45 campuses nationwide, identifies the individual, organizational, environmental, programmatic, and policy factors that individually and collectively influence faculty members’ decisions to engage in one particular pedagogical practice requiring students to engage with difference.

Gender, Ethnicity, and Highest Degree Earned as Salary Determinants for Senior Student Affairs Officers at Public Institutions.

Using data gathered through the 1999–2000 NASPA Salary Survey, researchers examined the effects of gender, ethnicity, and highest degree earned on mean salaries of senior student affairs officers (SSAOs) at 4-year, public institutions. Analyses of covariance found that degree attainment and ethnicity significantly affected salaries, while gender did not. Although salaries appeared to be equitable, women and people of color were not represented proportionally at the senior levels of student affairs administration. It appears that women and people of color do not reach the position of SSAO at similar rates as Caucasian males, but once there salary inequity is not present.

Improved Student Learning through a Faculty Learning Community: How Faculty Collaboration Transformed a Large-Enrollment Course from Lecture to Student Centered

The authors describe how a faculty learning community was leveraged to implement active-learning strategies and improve student learning in a large-enrollment introductory course.

Expanding the Conversation: Perspective Taking as a Civic Outcome of College

The conversation about essential learning outcomes of college has never been more active or important. Although much of the attention on learning outcomes is narrowly focused on cognitive outcomes, especially critical thinking, the need to educate students for personal and social responsibility has never been clearer. In this article the author draws upon data from the Association of American Colleges and Universities’ Core Commitments: Educating Students for Personal and Social Responsibility initiative to argue that one dimension of personal and social responsibility, taking seriously the perspectives of others, is essential to active citizenship in today’s diverse democracy and, therefore, an essential outcome of a college education.