▼ Opportunities for students to develop leadership skills during their collegiate career have become the focus of great attention as institutions of higher education respond to society’s demand for competent and effective leaders. This study explores the relationship between co-curricular educational experiences and the development of students’ leadership capabilities during their college career. The social change model of leadership (Rost, 1993) was employed to address students’ competencies along the following eight constructs: consciousness of self, congruence, commitment, common purpose, collaboration, controversy with civility, citizenship,and change. The following independent variables were examined: type of involvement experience, age of student, and specific type of community service activity. A positive correlation was found between leadership outcomes and students’ involvement in academic/departmental/professional organizations, cultural/international organizations, honor societies, living-learning programs, political/advocacy organizations, service organizations, special interest groups, and student governance groups. The construct of citizenship was most robustly related to each of these involvement experiences. The leadership constructs of consciousness of self, congruence, and citizenship were significantly related to students’ age, with competence in these areas increasing between the ages of 18 and 20 and decreasing by age 22. Finally, involvement in community service as part of a student organization, work-study experience, or independent endeavor was highly correlated with citizenship outcomes, as well as change (work-study experience) and congruence (independent service endeavor). Implications of these findings are discussed in relation to leadership identity development theory and the overarching social change model of leadership. Advisors/Committee Members: Dannells, Michael.

▼ The term “The Movement” is associated with a number of social and political events that rocked college campuses in the 1960s. Current literature on the student movement of this decade often does not mention students at other types of institutions and sometimes fails to put into perspective the actual percentage of students who participated in active demonstration. This thesis presents a new view of student activism by exploring how small, private, religiously affiliated institutions used the public forum of collegiate publications to contribute to the dialogue surrounding various political and social movements of the 1960s. Student editorials and letters to the editors in the campus publications at Ashland College in Ohio, Ohio Wesleyan University, and Hillsdale College in Michigan were analyzed from the year 1960-1970 to determine student opinions on the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam War, Free Speech Movement and student protest, and the shootings at Kent State University. Through the analysis of major themes and perceptions of these student voices, the study provides implications for future research and practice regarding student activism in the 21st century. Advisors/Committee Members: Coomes, Michael.

▼ Although community colleges serve as a primary option for African Americans toobtain postsecondary education, there is little research available that discusses their interaction with the college or their satisfaction with academic advising. One hundred twenty-three students participated in this quantitative research study that sought to show how satisfied African American students were with the academic advising they had received at Northwestern Community College (a pseudonym). While statistical significance was limited to full-time students being more satisfied with developmental advising than part-time students, the results show how satisfied African American students were with academic advising overall and with 34 specific advising activities. Student suggestions for improving advising services are provided along with a discussion of the practical importance of the results. These findings suggest that African American students desire more exposure to developmental advising activities in the context of academic advising sessions and suggest that their satisfaction with academic advising overall may be linked to greater exposure of quality developmental advising activities. Advisors/Committee Members: Stewart, Dafina L.

▼ This study investigated the effects of articulation agreements on the academic careers of 98 students of color who transferred during the 2002 and 2003 academic years to Bowling Green State University (BGSU), a large public predominantly White institution with racial and ethnic minorities representing approximately 15% of the student population. Student transcripts from previous (source) institutions, transfer credit evaluation reports, and academic records for the four terms following students’ initial matriculation at BGSU examined the extent to which the existence of articulation agreements enhanced or inhibited selected outcomes. These included effectiveness of the transfer function as measured by percentages of source institution credits accepted by (a) BGSU and (b) baccalaureate programs at BGSU, in addition to student progress, achievement, and retention at BGSU. Results of the study showed that students from colleges having articulation agreements with BGSU (compared to those from colleges not having such agreements and those from at least one college having and one college not having such agreements) completed significantly more pre-transfer credits, had a significantly larger number but not percentage of such credits accepted by BGSU, and had a significantly greater number and percentage of credits accepted by their chosen degree programs at BGSU. With respect to post-transfer outcomes, no significant differences in academic progress, achievement, and retention were related to the existence of articulation agreements. As hypothesized, it appears that articulation agreements may be successful in allowing students of color to complete more credits at (generally less expensive) two-year and other institutions before transferring to BGSU and have a greater percentage of those credits accepted by baccalaureate degree programs at BGSU. However, this study found no evidence to support common assumptions that articulation agreements enhance student success in terms of retention, academic progress, and academic achievement following matriculation at BGSU. Advisors/Committee Members: Palmer, Carolyn J.

▼ The goal of this study was to understand the authentic reasons for women joining and discontinuing their Panhellenic sorority membership at Bowling Green State University. The total number of women initiated into a Panhellenic sorority in the fall semester 2006 was 265. By the end of the fall semester 2007, 88 initiated members had quit and 177 remained active members. The meant the community had lost approximately one-third of its new members over a one-year time frame. Through utilization of qualitative techniques to understand the motivation to join, benefits of membership and reasons for leaving the sorority community, the needs of potential members can be assessed and adjustments made to improve the sorority membership experience. Two methods of qualitative study were utilized in this study. The first was a focus group consisting of 8 current, active sorority women, drawn from PHC sororities. The second method utilized individual interviews held with 6 women who left the BGSU sorority community after affiliating in fall 2006 and ending membership since becoming an initiated member. The combination of qualitative methods was chosen to provide a more comfortable environment for women who left to share details of their membership experience. Theoretic and networking sampling methods were utilized to gain participants for the study. The results showed that women who chose to continue their membership showed feelings of attachment and engagement with their experience through connection to the organization, relationships, and desire for self-knowledge gains from the membership experience. Women who joined and chose to leave described overall feelings of conflict and disconnect with the sorority experiences. These conflicts were revealed through organizational difficulties, interpersonal relationships, membership expectations, time and requirements, and financial obligations. The experiences of former members revealed the need for a highly relational experience and to understand more fully the membership experience and expectations earlier during membership affiliation. The information shared by study participants illuminated the need within the higher education community in general and fraternal community in particular to understand membership needs of women's organizations and reflect those needs in practice. For example, the utilization of women's, organizational, and general student development theories to educate practice and membership services of the future. The importance of assisting sorority organizations to ensure that the membership experience is consistent between perceived and actual membership through continual evaluation and membership development could provide valuable gains to members and improvement in the overall experience. Advisors/Committee Members: DeBard, Robert.

▼ Service-learning college students were surveyed to examine their perceptions of service as either charity or social justice. Demographic information about the students and the people they served at the service site were used to investigate if students' similarities and disssimilarities to the people they served related to differences in views about service as charity or social justice. Additionally, student demographic differences were analyzed for differences among subgroup populations within the sample participant group. MANOVA and ANOVA statistical analyses were performed on the data. Statistically significant differences were found for within group differences among the sample and perceived social class differences between students and the people they served. Advisors/Committee Members: Stewart, Dafina L.

▼ Civically-engaged alumni should be an important outcome of higher education. Service-learning is one method for helping students commit to a life of civic engagement after graduation. In order to create these civically-engaged alumni, practitioners need to understand best practices in service-learning. In this holistic multi-case case study, four participants were interviewed who had participated in three different types of service-learning programs at the University of Michigan. Existing literature addresses outcomes of service-learning including academic learning, career choice, and civic engagement outcomes. It also emphasizes the importance of reflection, community service, interactions with faculty and staff, community building, structures of academic service-learning programs, and interactions with people different from the student. From the interviews, six themes emerged that the participants thought were effective in leading to their civic engagement after graduation. These six themes are reflection and critical thinking, community service, community building, interactions with people from whom the student differs, leadership responsibilities, and a desire for continued involvement and reflection. These findings have implications for practice. Practitioners should utilize discussion, going beyond the shock factor, and conversations on congruence in reflection; they should create diverse communities and help those communities form relational bonds; they should create opportunities for students to interact with people from whom they differ; and they should incorporate student leaders in their programs and teach those students leadership skills. More research needs to be conducted on the intersections of the themes uncovered in this study. In addition, there needs to be more research on the impact of students who take on leadership roles in their service-learning experience and on the outcome of continued involvement and reflection for students both throughout their undergraduate experience as well as after graduation. However, this study provides a firm starting place for this future research. Advisors/Committee Members: Broido, Ellen.

▼ This purpose of this study was to examine if there were significant differences in reverse culture shock levels experienced by study abroad returnees who remained together with their romantic partners through the reentry experience and those who separated from partners, by male and female returnees, and by returnees with short-term, mid-term, or long-term study abroad experiences. To measure reverse culture shock levels, the study used a modified version of the Homecomer Culture Shock Scales (HCSS) questionnaire by J. S. Fray (1988), which has four subscales: Cultural Distance (CD), Interpersonal Distance (ID), Grief (G), and Moral Distance (MD). It included an open-ended question about readjustment experiences of participants. The survey was distributed to past study abroad students at Bowling Green State University, yielding 85 participants. Quantitative data were analyzed using two-way analyses of variance and post-hoc tests. The significance level for all tests was set at .05. Qualitative data from the open-ended question were analyzed categorically and thematically. There were no main effects of gender or interaction effects of study abroad duration and relationship change for any of the scales. Participants who broke up with their romantic partners demonstrated significantly higher levels of reverse culture shock overall and Cultural Distance and Moral Distance compared to participants who did not break up. Women who experienced break up reported significantly higher levels of Interpersonal Distance only. Returnees from long-term study abroad scored higher on the HCSS and the Grief subscale compared to returnees from short-term experiences only. Responses to the open-ended question about readjustment were classified as predominantly positive (14), predominantly negative (32), mixed positive and negative (31), and neither positive nor negative (7). Themes found were structural readjustment, readjustment to way of life in the US, comparisons of American and study abroad location cultures, boredom at lack of adventure, homesickness for study abroad location, being misunderstood by others, confronting changes at home and in relationships, happiness at returning to the familiar, and challenge and growth. The results indicate that students must often renegotiate romantic relationships upon reentry and this readjustment process can be problematic. Study abroad and international student services offices should address romantic relationships and close relationships in general in reentry assistance. Advisors/Committee Members: Coomes, Michael.