Scholssberg's transition theory is used to frame qualitative analysis of narratives from veterans, administrators, and student affairs professionals, examining whether and how institutions can influence veterans' transitions to higher education. Findings suggest how institutional structures assist students in developing navigational…

This article examines the postdoctoral unionization movement at the University of California (UC) using case study methodology. More specifically, we examine postdoctoral union organizers involved in the United Automobile Workers of America (UAW) Local 5810, focusing on their efforts to unionize postdoctoral employees at the UC. The study is…

This article analyzes sensemaking about faculty departure among administrators, faculty colleagues, and faculty leavers in one research university. A mixed methods database was analyzed to reveal four dominant explanations for faculty departure and two influences on sensemaking. Dominant explanations included better opportunities, the likelihood…

Drawn from a qualitative study and framed with Bourdieu's theory of practice, I present a three-pronged framework to describe how tenure-line professors assumed agency as their university strove to establish itself as a national research institution. Implications for practice and future research are offered.

A conceptual framework grounded on procedural justice theory was created to explain how judgments about the fairness of tenure decision-making evolved among faculty who had not yet undergone the review. The framework posits that faculty beliefs about fairness are influenced directly by their workplace experiences and both directly and indirectly…

Criticisms of IRBs are proliferating. In response, we compare the ethical and epistemic standards of two closely related forms of inquiry, investigative journalism and equity-oriented collaborative community-based research (EOCCBR). We argue that a university affiliation justifies formal ethical review of research and suggest how institutionalized…

This article reports on a study that investigated whether postdoctoral training contributes to scientists' and engineers' attainment of tenure and full professorship in research-extensive universities. It was found that training does not assist scientists in climbing the career ladder faster nor does it help them to secure more…

This article examines the research-related experiences of 48 doctoral students and 22 faculty in science and engineering fields at three research universities, with specific emphasis on the intersection of the public good and academic capitalism. Identifying an expansive, intersecting organizational space between the public good and academic…

This article examines the dynamics of postdoctoral training affecting scientists' academic employment, focusing on timing and prestige dimensions. Postdoc training proves beneficial to academic employment--more so in less prestigious departments than in top ones. Postdoc duration is subject to diminishing returns. The benefits of training…

This article investigates the role that gender norms and expectations about parenting play in establishing the family-friendly versus the father-friendly university. Using interviews with 51 male faculty at three research universities, the article considers how faculty and administrators' actions perpetuate cultures that promote or hinder…

This qualitative study focuses on institutional efforts affecting the transfer student experience at a single research institution. Findings based on interviews with institutional representatives, both faculty and staff, using the rational, natural, and open system perspectives of organizational theory, provide insights into the institutional…

While scholars have investigated the recent influx of non-tenure-track faculty (NTTF), few have talked extensively with NTTF to understand their perspectives. Using Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory, we present focus group findings about job satisfaction of NTTF at 12 research universities. We highlight policies supporting teaching, job…

This paper presents two clarifying cases of socially oriented student entrepreneurship. The findings illuminate an overlooked organizational space located at the intersection of the public good and academic capitalist knowledge/learning regimes (Slaughter & Rhoades, 2004) that provides students with the entrepreneurial agency to create social…

We examined the role that social class background plays in graduate students' career goals. Class background was significantly related to the extent to which students struggled financially in graduate school, which related to their sense of belonging in graduate school. Sense of belonging related to academic self-concept, which predicted students'…

There is an extensive and well-developed body of literature on the nature of faculty work (e.g., Blackburn & Lawrence, 1996; Schuster & Finkelstein, 2006) that has examined numerous aspects of faculty work and sources of influence on that work (e.g., intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, personal characteristics, disciplinary affiliation,…