ERIC Number: EJ1249190
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020-May
Pages: 19
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1521-0251
EISSN: N/A
Factors That Contribute to a Sense of Belonging in Business Students on a Small 4-Year Public Commuter Campus in the Midwest
Whitten, Donna; James, Adrian; Roberts, Cynthia
Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, v22 n1 p99-117 May 2020
Institutions of higher education are increasingly focused on student outcomes such as persistence. This study investigated factors that contribute to a sense of belonging, a key contributor to persistence, in business students attending a small 4-year public commuter campus in the Midwest. A survey was administered to students in an introductory business course with a first-year experience component to examine three categories of variables: student demographics, faculty interventions, and student activities. Using logistic regression, three faculty interventions showed a significant correlation with sense of belonging: faculty encouragement, faculty empowerment, and faculty interest. These results suggest that when commuter campuses are successful in cultivating caring, positive relationships between students and faculty, their student's sense of belonging may be enhanced and persistence improved. This is important because these factors are within the control of a commuter campus, which tends to have fewer options and more challenges in enhancing persistence than residential campuses.
Descriptors: Sense of Community, Small Colleges, Commuter Colleges, Business Administration Education, Academic Persistence, Introductory Courses, Teacher Student Relationship, Nontraditional Students, Student Empowerment, Student Participation, Student Characteristics, Caring
SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A