Proponents of civic engagement extol the virtues of the college experience for enhancing students' capacities for democratic participation, yet few studies have examined the organizational contexts of such actions. This article applies theory regarding social movements in organizations to highlight the relationship between campus curricular…

Postsecondary undermatch occurs when students fail to enroll at a college or university that possesses a level of selectivity their academic credentials would permit them to attend. Given the demonstrated link between selective college attendance and postsecondary and professional attainment, recent studies have attempted to examine which factors…

This study examines the impact of affirmative action bans in six states (California, Washington, Florida, Texas, Michigan, and Nebraska) on the matriculation rates of historically underrepresented students of color in public medical schools in these states. Findings show that affirmative action bans have led to about a 17% decline (from 18.5% to…

Research on diversity in higher education has evolved to consider the nature of interracial contact and campus climate as well as the factors that may foster meaningful interactions. While some studies have explored predictors of cross-racial interaction (CRI) and interracial friendship (IRF), it remains unclear whether and how the same precollege…

This article examines debt burden among college graduates and contributes to previous research by incorporating institutional and state characteristics. Utilizing a combination of national datasets and zero-one inflated beta regression, we find several major themes. First, family income and college experiences are strongly associated with the…

Degree attainment at the undergraduate level for women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) continues to be an issue of national concern, particularly when trying to explain disparaging gender differences in persistence. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine factors that influence degree attainment for students in…

College and university websites play an important role in the college search process. This study examines the textual and visual elements on the websites of 12 colleges and universities. Findings suggest that websites communicate a message consistent with private purposes of education and inconsistent with those linked to public purposes.

We conceptualize colleges and universities as embedded in quasi-markets, meaning competitive sites created by policy, that disfavor the humanities. We therefore posit that increased revenues from a quasi-market to predict institutional de-emphasis of the humanities. Results indicate that private colleges and universities follow this pattern while…

Several wealthy colleges and universities have recently begun removing all loans from low-income students' financial aid packages. This article reports on a study that found that the introduction of "no-loan" policies has positively impacted low-income enrollments, suggesting that this aid strategy may be an effective, though…

This article reports on a study that examined the subset of qualitative cases in the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education where students experienced substantial self-authorship shifts over the first three college years (N = 30 students, 90 narratives). Engagement in experiences and roles demanding more sophisticated, internal meaning…

This study addresses university-industry interactions for both educational and industrial outcomes. The results suggest that while academic faculty who are affiliated with centers are more involved with industry than non-affiliated faculty, affiliates are also more involved with and supportive of students at the undergraduate, graduate, and…

In today's increasingly diverse society, the legitimacy and strength of the democratic form of government depends on equitable access to graduate and professional education for individuals from all races and ethnicities. Yet, despite recent increases in enrollment, students of color remain severely underrepresented in graduate and professional…

The study advances higher education leadership and change scholarship by examining a mostly unexplored area--the convergence between grassroots leadership with top-down leadership. The study is framed by two theories: tempered radicals framework and distributed leadership. Three common example of convergence are described as well as strategies for…

This study advances the understanding of college persistence by examining five dimensions of student learning in relation to second-year persistence. Two of the five dimensions of learning were found to be significant predictors of persistence, and each was moderated by social integration. (Contains 5 tables and 1 figure.)

Institutions of higher education are under pressure to be accountable for their expenditures while demonstrating their effectiveness. Through structural equation modeling, a relationship was found between expenditures and the efficiency and effectiveness of an institution, and an optimal expenditure level was found that maximized an institution's…