Student affairs practice must proactively address issues of access in the design and delivery of community service experiences. Gone are the days of presuming equitable access to opportunities. Recent research identifies significant barriers associated with financial security, familial responsibilities, time, and transportation as critical…

Transitioning to higher education opens various possibilities. This qualitative inquiry adds depth to college choice processes by looking into the lives of low-income Chinese students. Semi-structured interview data obtained from 41 college borrowers representing diverse tiers of higher education was described and interpreted using reflexive…

Master's programs serve as a traditional entry point for many professionals working in higher education. These programs are at an inflection point with declining enrollments, financial constraints at institutions negatively impacting graduate assistantships, proliferation of anti-diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) policies, and…

Raising children can be particularly difficult for young parents, who must balance caring for their children with the demands of going to school, training for a career and working to support their families--often without adequate support. This population of over 3 million undergraduates with kids must navigate substantial barriers while striving…

Despite ongoing efforts to promote widening participation (WP) in higher education (HE), significant disparities persist in students' access to and success in HE. Students from various intersecting groups remain underrepresented, less likely to complete HE studies, and less likely to achieve high grades compared with peers from groups such as…

While recovering from a major personal tipping point (see Part I), I was still able to keep on the lookout for Canadian mathematics education matters. After all, if Canadian mathematics education matters, Canadian mathematics education matters. In doing so, I ran into a number of other financial problems. Everywhere I turned was a financial…

Mandatory community college student fees have risen steadily over the past 20 years, outpacing the growth of tuition by a substantial margin. To date, research on postsecondary fees has been limited to public four-year colleges and universities, even as community college fees are growing faster and affecting students who are likely more price…

People convicted of crime are often treated as atomistic individuals by the criminal justice system, ignoring the fact that they are largely embedded in social networks. Research shows that family members are often negatively impacted by their relatives' punishment despite not breaking any laws themselves. These detrimental effects of punishment…

Last summer, the National Education Association (NEA) developed a New Business Item to explore retrenchment: "The NEA shall make a statistical study on the effect of significant faculty retrenchment at community colleges on future faculty cuts" (NBI 78, 2022). ASA Research (ASA) conducted exploratory research in an attempt to identify…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand community college faculty and staff members' experiences of providing support services to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients. The theory that guided this study was Rendon's validation theory -- as students are validated and made to feel valuable, they will foster…

Traditional research examining student stress relies on surveys using pre-determined categories. This study diverts from that approach by adopting a Conflict in Communication class assignment over seven classes (N = 115) using photovoice to determine if results fluctuate by using a different methodology. Additionally, we sought to understand if…

This qualitative study explores the perspectives and experiences of digital consumers who have been victims of agricultural produce-related digital crimes. This study aims to comprehend how victims experience and deal with the impact of cybercrime, as well as their perceptions of the effectiveness of the legal and criminal justice system in…

Although jobs in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields are projected to grow at twice the rate of other professions, too many students, especially women and minoritized students, choose not to study or drop out of STEM fields, in part because they do not identify with STEM. With Communication Theory of Identity as a sensitizing…

This study examined the role of resource loss and gain in perceived academic success of higher education students during the COVID-19 pandemic. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed online to 10,830 students from six universities and four colleges in Israel between April 26 and July 5, 2021. We conducted descriptive analyses,…

This dissertation explores the complex dynamics and conflicts surrounding the privatization of public school services in New Jersey. Through detailed case studies of multiple New Jersey towns, this dissertation examines how local school districts, grappling with funding challenges, consider outsourcing educational support professional roles to cut…