The Impact of College Union Involvement on Student Perceptions of Sense of Belonging and Campus Climate PDF Download

Author: Heidi E. Lang
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : College students
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
College unions have long been promoted as community builders and laboratories for learning. However, little research has been conducted to understand the relationship between college unions and community building. The purpose of this study was to identify if a relationship exists between college union involvement and student perceptions of sense of belonging and campus climate, and to explore how students make sense of their college union experiences. Correlation and regression techniques were applied to 478 college union student employee and volunteer survey responses at a large Midwestern university. The results suggest a statistically significant relationship between event attendance and a favorable view of campus climate. The analysis of ten student journals revealed a relationship between sense of belonging within the college union and perceptions of campus climate. Students developed sense of belonging by utilizing their voice, growing their leadership perspective, meaningfully interacting with diverse others, and participating in programming. This dissertation serves as the first mixed methods study to provide empirical evidence that there is a relationship between involvement in the college union and student perceptions of sense of belonging and campus climate. Study findings suggest that college union involvement plays an important role in community building and student learning.

Author: Terrell L. Strayhorn
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315297272
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
This book explores how belonging differs based on students’ social identities, such as race, gender, sexual orientation, or the conditions they encounter on campus. Belonging—with peers, in the classroom, or on campus—is a critical dimension of success at college. It can affect a student’s degree of academic adjustment, achievement, aspirations, or even whether a student stays in school. The 2nd Edition of College Students’ Sense of Belonging explores student sub-populations and campus environments, offering readers updated information about sense of belonging, how it develops for students, and a conceptual model for helping students belong and thrive. Underpinned by theory and research and offering practical guidelines for improving educational environments and policies, this book is an important resource for higher education and student affairs professionals, scholars, and graduate students interested in students’ success. New to this second edition: A refined theory of college students’ sense of belonging and review of current literature in light of new and emerging theories; Expanded best practices related to fostering sense of belonging in classrooms, clubs, residence halls, and other contexts; Updated research and insights for new student populations such as youth formerly in foster care, formerly incarcerated adults, and homeless students; Coverage on a broad range of topics since the first edition of this book, including cultural navigation, academic spotting, and the "shared faith" element of belonging.

Author: Crystal T. Henry
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 126

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Book Description
Community college students are often excluded from persistence studies due to the unique characteristics of community colleges and its students. Recent studies have heavily relied on retention models that do not adequately account for the role individual and campus culture plays in students’ persistence decisions. Using Museus’ (2014) Culturally Engaging Campus Environment (CECE) model, this cross-sectional, correlational study examined the impact of campus environment perceptions and sense of belonging on the persistence decisions of students at a rural community college in the southeastern part of the U.S. Correlation analyses were conducted to investigate the relationships between two independent variables, campus environment perceptions and sense of belonging, and one dependent variable, students’ persistence decisions. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine if differences in campus environment perceptions and sense of belonging existed between racial and gender identity groups. Lastly, a t-test was conducted to examine differences between residential and commuter students. Utilizing the CECE Survey for Community Colleges (Museus et al., 2017), a total of 234 responses were analyzed. The results revealed that students are more likely to persist when they have a positive perception of the campus environment. It also revealed that students were more likely to persist when they possessed a strong sense of belonging. Upon examining differences of campus environment perceptions, the results showed that gender identity influenced campus environment perceptions and race influenced sense of belonging among students. There was insufficient evidence to establish differences of campus environment perceptions and sense of belonging among residential and commuter students. Limitations regarding this study included its generalizability due to the low number of survey responses and the physical aspect of campus environment and campus culture. Recommendations for policymakers and practitioners include consideration for community memberships, increase campus support for underrepresented groups, and cultural competency for training. Recommendations for future research include the use of different theoretical frameworks to understand student persistence, continued studies involving community colleges, inclusive campus environment perceptions and sense of belonging studies, and qualitative studies on campus environment perceptions and sense of belong of community college students.

Author: Erin M Bentrim
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781003447870
Category : Belonging (Social psychology)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"Sense of belonging refers to the extent a student feels included, accepted, valued, and supported on their campus. The developmental process of belonging is interwoven with the social identity development of diverse college students. Moreover, belonging is influenced by the campus environment, relationships, and involvement opportunities as well as a need to master the student role and achieve academic success. Although the construct of sense of belonging is complex and multilayered, a consistent theme across the chapters in this book is that the relationship between sense of belonging and intersectionality of identity cannot be ignored, and must be integrated into any approach to fostering belonging. Over the last 10 years, colleges and universities have started grappling with the notion that their approaches to maintaining and increasing student retention, persistence, and graduation rates were no longer working. As focus shifted to uncovering barriers to student success while concurrently recognizing student success as more than solely academic factors, the term "student sense of belonging" gained traction in both academic and co-curricular settings. The editors noticed the lack of a consistent definition, or an overarching theoretical approach, as well as a struggle to connect disparate research. A compendium of research, applications, and approaches to sense of belonging did not exist, so they brought this book into being to serve as a single point of reference in an emerging and promising field of study." --

Author: Amy D. Smith
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Author's abstract: SENSE OF BELONGING ON A CONSOLIDATED CAMPUS: A MIXED METHODS EXPLORATION OF STUDENT PERCEPTIONS by AMY D. SMITH (Under the Direction of Steven Tolman) ABSTRACT This study explored the extent to which a subset of students who matriculated post-consolidation at the Armstrong Campus of Georgia Southern University felt they belong at their institution. Using an explanatory sequential mixed methods design, this study used a survey to examine general feelings of belonging and the influencing factors for belonging while presenting individual narratives collected from semi-structured interviews for eight students’ experiences. The data collected in this study revealed that significant differences exist in critical factors of sense of belonging based on race, gender, and LGBTQ+ identity. Additionally, data showed the importance of academic, social, and campus-community belonging with faculty relationships, peer friendships, and a strong campus culture and identity emerging as critical to overall belonging. Study participants revealed that intercampus dynamics impact how they perceive consolidation to affect their experiences and that campus identity emerges as more important than institutional identity. This study fills a gap in the literature as limited research exists on the impact of HEI consolidations on students, especially regarding sense of belonging. When considering and implementing future consolidations, HEI leadership must consider the implications for student belonging to mitigate attrition and enrollment drops and ensure they complete their educational mission of helping students meet their fullest potential.

Author: Kelly M. Broughton
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Academic libraries
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
The ideal college campus provides a supportive, inclusive atmosphere for all students, enabling them to challenge their beliefs, extend their understandings, and engage in meaningful learning and knowledge production – inside and outside of the classroom. However, even on a single campus, students do not share uniform perceptions regarding the support and inclusivity of their campus environment. Students who identify with historical marginalized groups regularly report a lower sense of belonging and a less inclusive climate than their privileged peers. Students’ sense of belonging is integral to student success and it is increasingly understood to be tied to social identity, particularly for students who identify with a minoritized group. Sense of belonging is also closely related to a student’s perception of various campus environments. Students’ most immediate experience with campus environments is via the components of campus in which they regularly interact and an important component of the residential campus environment is the informal learning space - the places outside of the classroom in which students choose to do their studying and academic work

Author: Malcolm Tight
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134082010
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 544

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Book Description
This volume is a detailed and up-to-date reference work providing an authoritative overview of the main issues in higher education around the world today. Consisting of newly commissioned chapters and impressive journal articles, it surveys the state of the discipline and includes the examination and discussion of emerging, controversial and cutting edge areas.

Author: Erin M Bentrim
Publisher: Stylus Publishing (VA)
ISBN: 9781642672619
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"Over the last 10 years, colleges and universities have started grappling with the notion that their approaches to maintaining and increasing student retention, persistence, and graduation rates were no longer working. As focus shifted to uncovering barriers to student success while concurrently recognizing student success as more than solely academic factors, the term "student sense of belonging" gained traction in both academic and co-curricular settings. The editors brought this book into being to serve as a single point of reference in an emerging and promising field of study"--

Author: Shannon Marie Williams
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : College environment
Languages : en
Pages : 100

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Book Description
The current study explored the relationships within a higher education institution between innovative and inclusive mission-identity perceptions and school sense of community among first-generation U.S. citizens and first-generation college students, with varying racial backgrounds. During Fall 2012, a total of 4,492 participants at a large, urban, and Catholic university completed the Innovative and Inclusive (I/I) subscale from the DePaul Mission and Values Inventory as well as the School Sense of Community (SSOC) scale. Two 2 x 2 x 5 ANCOVAS were run to determine whether there were any differences across generation statuses and racial background for both measures. Additionally, regression analyses were run to determine whether students' perceptions of the campus mission as innovative and inclusive predicted students' scores on the school sense of community scale. Results found that Caucasian students reported a stronger school sense of community, whereas Hispanic students reported stronger mission-identity perceptions. Furthermore, generational statuses significantly interacted for SSOC, whereas first-generation college students perceived higher I/I perceptions compared to non-first-generation college students. Moreover, students' perceptions of I/I significantly predicted students' SSOC scores. Implications for Community Psychology and higher education policy are discussed.

Author: Tammy Shannon
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Adult, first-generation college students' perceived sense of belonging is the subject of this dissertation. Academic literature supports that sense of belonging plays a key role in persistence to graduation amongst traditional-age college students. Tinto, in his book, Completing College: Rethinking Institutional Action (2012), is quoted in his section on involvement, meaning and the sense of belonging: "Involvements, academic or social, do not occur in a vacuum. They take place within specific social and cultural settings and among individuals whose values give them meaning" (p. 66). The need to better understand sense of belonging in adult, first generation undergraduates was first revealed in my role as academic adviser through direct contact and dialogue with these students. This, along with my own history as a non-traditional, first-generation college graduate led to insights, researching of the literature, a pilot study, and the completion of this dissertation. The results are particularly poignant because they look at sense of belonging during a worldwide pandemic with interviews done in the summer of 2021. The adult, first-generation college student perceptions of belonging generated a view slightly different from that of their traditional aged peers. Data analysis produced a grounded theory model: Sense of Belonging: Connections through Communities of Practice. The grounded theory produced a snapshot of a population of students as they navigated the university. Studying during the pandemic created an opportunity to discuss nuances of belonging in different environments and what that might look like for students moving forward. It is the goal and objective of this dissertation to better understand sense of belonging in adult, first-generation undergraduates and how that contributes to academic persistence. One value of this study is learning how adult first-generation undergraduates connect, find community, and develop a sense of belonging. The second value is an historical glimpse of this population's views during a worldwide pandemic. The third is the study's model which frames the data into an understanding of how participants communicated their sense of belonging and connection. The model provides administrators, faculty, and those interested in first-generation student success a useful set of implications and recommendations for policy and practice. Opportunity for further discussion, and future research is also present. Adult, first-generation undergraduate students are trailblazers; reading their perspectives on sense of belonging, and proposed ways for support and connection at the university, may offer insights and fresh ideas to the general reader and researcher alike.