The purpose of this paper is to consider a different point of view as to why historically underrepresented minority students ultimately succeed in school, but do so at a cost (Goward, 2020). The authors argue that considering John Henryism, i.e., high-effort coping as a response to environmental stressors, as a source of motivation for…

College students in the 21st century face unprecedented levels of stress, which has led to a global and deleterious impact on their mental health. The mental health of college students is widely considered to be a public health crisis according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and universities are challenged to provide adequate resources…

In this article, the authors consider whether the noncognitive skills typically associated with college and career success are equally valued by university officials and employers. Using a taxonomy that represents the range of noncognitive skills that appear in both higher education and employment scholarship, they present research funded by the…

Many of us recognize that it is important for black male students to have safe spaces to share their experiences, such as overt racism, microaggressions, and isolation, and connect with other students sharing the same experiences. However, Steven Thurston Oliver points out that, often, when attempts to provide community are just starting to take…

Society can be obsessed with the concept of intelligence, according to the author. Parents want to know if their children are smart. Schools try to detect the intelligence of children so that they can separate them into "gifted and talented" programs on one end of the spectrum and remedial programs on the other. Employers want to know if…

In a response to an article in the March 2017 issue of "About Campus" (see EJ1166502, "Shifting to Curricular Approaches to Learning beyond the Classroom"), John Hannah and Tesni Ellis challenge a rigid curricular approach to student affairs. They recognize the appeal and benefits of such an approach but are wary that any…

Part I, "Searching for the Right Way to Begin Class," described the various iterations of beginning class rituals the author used over the years. Those rituals began with a prayer to the Holy Spirit as was required at the Catholic women's college Marymount in Tarrytown, New York, where he first taught out of graduate school in 1965. That…

In 2002, former US President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) into law, leading to a significant change in the way elementary and secondary teachers design curricula and instruct their students, as well as the ways in which students learn and view learning in and outside of the classroom. Most domestic students entering…

Traditional-age college students face a host of challenges during the transition from home to campus. Perhaps one of the most substantial challenges--one that relates directly to adjustment and quality of life--involves the formation of new relationships, and the awareness, development, and establishment of boundaries between their own emerging…

Over the past several decades, college-student retention has arguably been the most intensely studied issue in academe. Though the body of retention literature grows ever larger, no one model adequately explains the process by which college students make a decision to leave an institution or to persist to graduation. And while no magic bullet…

Collegiate athletics has exploded into a multimillion-dollar enterprise that has brought with it a host of issues, including the exploitation of student athletes, concerns about student athletes' academic success and low graduation rates, cheating by student athletes and staff, and misbehavior and crimes committed by student athletes, coaches, and…

The qualitative difference in the "success" of college students raises question of how educators envision student success. Although in "Student Success in College," George Kuh, Jillian Kinzie, John H. Schuh, Elizabeth J. Whitt define student success broadly as "satisfaction, persistence, and high levels of learning and personal development," the…

This article discusses how Purdue University is changing the academic behavior of struggling students. At Purdue, they've developed Signals as a means of helping students better understand where they stand gradewise early enough so that they can seek help and raise their grade or drop the course without the penalty of a failing grade. They knew…

Most individuals who work in higher education seek the same outcome: student learning. Knowing that partnerships between faculty and student affairs educators offer the best hope for students' experiencing the kind of learning that higher education promises, individuals at Baylor University are taking small steps toward building and sustaining…

The Strategic Retention Initiative is an administrative practice which involves calling all first-year students. The initiative is guided by an institutional commitment to the well-being of students and represents an institutional investment in student persistence. The development and implementation of the Strategic Retention Initiative was…