This study examines a Black Resource Center (BRC) at a large, public, historically white institution to explore how it fosters a sense of belonging and academic success for Black students whose college experiences were shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a Black placemaking analysis, the study reveals how the BRC operates as a communal and educational space, sustained by Black student labor, to rebuild community and support student success in a post-2020 campus environment.
This study extends research on the chilly climate faced by LGBTQIA+ STEM students by applying concepts of microclimates and navigational capital to understand the nuances of how students traversed various campus spaces and how practitioners might better support them. Students contrasted STEM and non-STEM spaces, drawing on navigational strategies including observation and identity modulation (e.g., covering and passing) to remain safe in hostile microclimates. Students sought explicit messages of LGBTQIA+ support to ensure their safety.
This study explored the impacts of peer mentoring on adult students at a Hispanic-serving community college. Framed within the learning partnerships model, this study's findings revealed how adult students benefited academically and personally from peer mentors' support. The role of peer mentors in providing in-class support alleviated students' personal, familial, and parental concerns. Our findings suggest that embedding peer mentors into courses influences adult students' desire to persist in STEM and achieve career goals.
This article presents the Self-Authored, Self-Regulated Learning (SASRL) model for first-year seminars. Grounded in self-authorship and self-regulated learning theories, the model combines academic inquiry with practical success strategies. Qualitative assessment data from 219 participants in 2023 and 2024 showed that the model fostered positive mindsets, strengthened academic self-concept, and supported progress toward self-authorship. Integrating SASRL into first-year seminars offers a scalable way to link academic inquiry and self-regulation skills, creating a foundation for college success.
In response to the isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, The University of Texas at San Antonio launched the Connect & Thrive Mini-Grant Program to rebuild campus community and foster belonging-especially for students who began college remotely. This low-cost initiative funds faculty-led, small-group activities outside the classroom. Since inception in 2022, 1,200+ students have participated, reporting stronger connections with peers, faculty, and the university. The program demonstrates a scalable, innovative approach to community building and student engagement.
The University of Northern Colorado's (UNC) Career Readiness Faculty Fellows (CRFF) program was collaboratively developed between academic and student affairs professionals to equip faculty with tools and strategies to integrate career readiness competencies into their courses. This case study outlines promising findings from faculty fellows and students who participated in career-embedded courses, including student growth in career readiness competency areas and enhancement of learning through career-related assignments.
Many higher education institutions strive to increase student persistence and retention. This qualitative instrumental case study explored staff members' perceptions of a change process toward a culture of student success at a large, public university in the southeast. Data from 17 semi-structured interviews highlighted the important role leaders play in fostering change, the need for leaders to be strategic, to consider organizational contexts, and to value the people and the process.
This case centered 31 first-generation college student voices to examine "what worked" in creating a mattering-rich 4-year climate post-vertical transfer. Students highlighted positive university-based experiences such as student-faculty relationships, tailored orientation courses and reentry programs, and identity-centered peer groups. Participants further expanded the conversation to include mattering-making practices pre-transfer such as the catalyzing nature of attentive 2-year advisors and well-designed degree pathway programs. Based on these findings, additional practice recommendations and supplementary tools are provided.
This qualitative study used semi-structured individual interviews to explore how 10 relatively new senior level student affairs administrators at institutions with fewer than 5,000 students perceived their sense of professional belonging. Findings highlight how integration into the campus community leads to feeling and experiencing belonging in new roles, the challenges new leaders often have with cultivating a sense of belonging for themselves, and the important role new leaders play in fostering belonging for others.
This Indigenous methodological research study examines the impact of Gamma Delta Pi, Inc. (GDP), a Native American sisterhood that draws on the narratives of 24 sisters. Using Talking Circles and the Indigenous Storywork theoretical framework, this study identified four themes: GDP membership fostered acceptance, belongingness rooted in relational practices, building sisterly relations as cultural resistance, and creating a legacy of intergenerational belonging. The findings demonstrate the importance of pre-college engagement, intergenerational mentorship, and culturally grounded relationships. Recommendations are provided for student affairs professionals and institutions to better support Indigenous women's success, community-building, and long-term representation in higher education.
High-impact practices (HIPs) can improve and enrich student experiences. These practices are especially impactful for second-year students, but little is known about their motivation for HIPs. Through focus groups with 19 students, our qualitative study presents that achieving career and personal development, as well as receiving environmental support, are key motivating factors for second-year students. We discuss the challenges experienced by students and share practical implications for student affairs professionals who implement and develop HIPs.
Postsecondary institutions tend to overwhelm students with e-mail communications, consequently affecting how students (dis)engage with campus information and navigate campus resources. Drawing on a three-year research-practice partnership and ecological validation theory, the study reveals how two campuses strategized to improve e-mail communications with at-promise students. Action-oriented findings underscore the importance of coordinated, validating, and student-centered communication strategies that affirm student identities and improve access to critical institutional information in the digital age.
This critical quantitative study investigates support and belonging in the first-year experience for disabled students in higher education. Utilizing NSSE data, this study focuses on academic and social dimensions of the first-year experience for disabled students, finding positive associations between mental health, peer relationships, faculty interactions, campus support, and belonging, while harassment and discrimination undermine them. Findings underscore the need for multidimensional approaches to foster support on campus for disabled students entering college.
Black college athletes at predominantly white institutions (PWIs) face academic barriers, racially hostile environments, and limited culturally relevant support systems. Black student-athlete organizations (BSAOs) offer critical opportunities for leadership, identity development, and community. However, little research has examined BSAO advisors' roles in shaping these experiences. This generic qualitative inquiry approach explores how BSAO advisors challenge and support Black student leaders. Findings offer implications for supporting Black athletes' holistic development at PWIs through research and practice.
This study examined risk and protective factors for psychological distress and flourishing among 4,884 students at a large research institution, as part of a population-based study evaluating the impact of becoming a Health Promoting Campus. Disparities emerged across gender, race, sexual orientation, and disability, with marginalized students reporting higher distress yet greater odds of flourishing amid distress. Belonging and coping were potent protective factors. Findings underscore the need for comprehensive health promotion strategies.
This study examined differences between Ontario faculty (n = 38) and staff (n = 82) academic advisors' roles and perspectives at 22 English-speaking colleges. Survey data revealed Ontario colleges lack a unified definition and consistent roles. These inconsistencies have hindered the development of academic advising as a profession in Canada. Results highlight the need for clearer role definitions and more consistent practices across institutions.
We illuminate the experiences of 15 women uniquely situated at the intersection of race and gender, age, position, and mothering before, since, and because of George Floyd's murder. Participants were millennial-aged women with young children who held executive or senior leadership roles in higher education and student affairs. We discuss findings through Dill and Zambrana's four intersectional inventions and offer two implications for practice: supporting women of Color leaders and disrupting inequity to promote change.
