Toward a More Data-Driven Supervision of Collegiate Counseling Centers

Abstract

Hearing the national call for higher education accountability, the author of this tripartite article urges university administrators to move towards a more data-driven approach to counseling center supervision. Toward that end, the author first examines a key factor—perceived increase in student pathology—that appears to shape budget and staffing decisions in many university centers. Second, she reviews the emerging but conflicting research of clinician-scholars who are trying to empirically verify or refute that perception; their conflicting results suggest that no study alone should be used as the “final word” in evidence-based decision-making. Third, the author delineates the campus-specific data that should be gathered to guide staffing and budgeting decisions on each campus. She concludes by reminding readers that data-driven decisions can and should foster high-quality care that is concurrently efficient, effective, and in sync with the needs of a particular university and student body.     

Step to college. Moving from the high school career academy through the 4-year university.

This study addresses the question "Do school-to-work programs, as embodied by career academies, facilitate postsecondary education?" The author conceptualizes postsecondary education as a series of steps through the university and examines the high school career academy's influence on entrance into, route through, and outcomes from a 4-year university. Data are drawn from applicant and student records at a comprehensive, urban university for all individuals originating from a single district's high schools. The findings suggest that students from career academies have higher academic achievement upon leaving high school, less need for remediation in English at the university, and a 4-percentage-point increase in graduation from the university than students who are not from academies. These findings suggest that school-to-work programs could facilitate positive outcomes in postsecondary education. However, the continued high rates of remediation and the low rates of graduation, even for students from career academics, suggest that their influence might not be enough to ensure success in postsecondary education. This analysis therefore suggests that further research should identify program components that increase postsecondary education and determine how these components can be institutionalized and built on in subsequent reforms.     

The Pyramid Model: A Useful Tool in Career Counseling With University Students

Often university students are faced with career decisions and seek help from the university counseling center. The pyramid model is a useful tool to assist the counselor and the student in the decision-making process. The metaphor enables the student to understand the tasks that lie ahead in the career counseling process. It is holistic. A case study is included to illustrate the three-dimensional model of career counseling of university students.     

Exhaustion in university students and the effect of coursework involvement

Although researchers have examined exhaustion extensively in occupational studies, this work-specific variable--despite its widespread acceptance and negative outcomes--has received little attention in regard to university students and their coursework. OBJECTIVE: The author examined the severity of exhaustion in students and the relationship between the personal/environmental variable of coursework involvement and exhaustion in university students. PARTICIPANTS: One hundred undergraduate business students from a large state university participated in the study. METHOD SUMMARY: The author used results from other exhaustion studies for comparative purpose and correlation and regression analyses to explore the variables of interest. RESULTS: The author found student exhaustion levels to be extreme when compared with those of traditional high-exhaustion occupations. Coursework involvement was a significant predictor of student exhaustion. CONCLUSIONS: The author discusses implications and recommendations for researchers, educators, and health-care providers.     

College health services in California.

College health services are an underrecognized segment of California's health delivery system. Higher education institutions in California vary in their arrangements for the provision of health services. Some of the smaller institutions provide nurse triage, first aid, and referral only, whereas other institutions provide 24-hour-per-day/7-day-per-week comprehensive ambulatory and inpatient services. More than 200 full-time equivalent physicians are employed in college health services in California. Patient profiles served by college health services targeted the traditional college student age range. Some institutions, however, have expanded their services to include nonstudent university employees and their dependents. Comparing numbers of outpatient visits and professional staffing requirements to student enrollment showed significant variability between institutions, depending upon the scope of services provided (basic, intermediate, comprehensive) and the type of student population (residential, commuter, mixed).     

Specialization and the development of sociology: Differentiation of fragmentation?

Specialization has long been a dominant trend in American sociology despite persistent concern that it may constitute a threat to the intergrity of the discipline. The author proposes that specializations have proliferated because they have been functional for the growth and legitimation of the profession. Specifically, they have provided opportunities for more sociologists to make recognized contributions to knowledge during a prolonged period of increasing competition for research recognition and support. The emphasis on research also has advanced the status of faculty within the university. Because the source of new specialties has been changes in society, the domain of sociology has continued to expand, promoting student enrollments. However, the growth of the profession has been purchased at the price of the coherence of the discipline. Moreover, the fiscal crisis of the university may make the eclectic image of sociology departments a liability to their efforts to protect faculty. In the future, unionization may become an alternative to departmentalization and professionalization. Meanwhile, a new concentration on the development of the discipline may be the most effective way to ensure support of the profession. Our principal goal should be to develop a general, critical theory of society. As a first step, all studies should be addressed to and classified in terms of the core concepts that define the distinctive concerns of the discipline.     

Preparing for ICT enhanced practice learning opportunities in 2010—a speculative view

This paper presents a speculative view of the roles that a practice teacher, student and university may undertake during a practice learning opportunity in the year 2010, based upon predicted advances in information and communication technology (ICT). The article explores the likelihood of such a scenario becoming a reality by examining very briefly current developments in the area of wireless mobile devices and infrastructure. The paper presents an argument drawing on the author’s own experiences that passive acceptance or ignorance through apprehension of ICT developments should not prevent the examination and planning of how this medium may be utilised in the arena of social work in the future. This paper acts as a scenario‐planning device, presenting for discussion some of the issues that may need to be explored if ICT is to become positively integrated into the field of social work education.     

Boards of trustees must assume responsibility for making alcohol prevention on campus a top priority

ABSTRACT

Few colleges have made the prevention of alcohol-related injuries and deaths an institutional priority, and even fewer have implemented prevention strategies with a solid evidentiary base. We look to presidents to provide leadership on this issue, but those who do are atypical. Boards of trustees should step in by asserting that student wellness be a primary focus in the institution's strategic plan, with specific, measurable goals; holding the president accountable for progress in reducing high-risk drinking and its consequences; and mandating a line item in the annual budget, with adequate staffing and revenues to put evidence-based practices in place. Boards will be more likely to respond when led to focus on the cost implications of the campus alcohol problem; the link between high-risk drinking and mission-critical institutional objectives such as academic performance, student engagement, and retention; and the institution's potential liability if evidence-based prevention strategies are not in place.     

The Use of Nutritional Labels by College Students in a Food-Court Setting

Objective: Between January and September 2006, the authors examined when, why, if, and how nutrition labels impact food purchase decisions of college students. Participants: Participants were 16 college-aged students at a large northeastern university. Methods: As part of a larger study undertaken at a large northeastern university on the effect of nutrition labels in restaurant settings on food purchases, the authors held a focus group to look more deeply at when and why nutrition labeling impacted college student food purchases. Results: Although results of the large study are still being discerned, the focus group results reveal that college women and men were interested in the provision of nutrition labels in the food court-like setting found at the university, and that those exposed to labels over the course of the study noticed these labels and often referred to them when making purchase decisions. Additional findings reveal that price and convenience also play a role in food purchases and that, of those items listed on each label, calories and fat were most important to the study population. Conclusions: Although more research is needed, this qualitative study finds that students want nutrition labels and would use them to make food purchasing decisions.     

The impact profile approach to policy merit. The case of research grants and the university.

In writings on the theory of valuing, many take the position that impacts on the relevant outcome dimensions should be aggregated to arrive at one summary assessment of program merit. A contrary position is taken here, specifying that the impacts should be kept separate and unweighted and expressed only in their own original measurement scales. All impacts, however, should be portrayed, including those for which no rigorous data analysis has been carried out. It is argued that aggregating, even by the individual stakeholder, is both futile and misleading. An extensive evaluation of the effects of research grants on the university is included as a full-scale illustration of the method. Financial impacts are considered, as well as impacts on faculty and student quality, on university prestige, and on the quality of instruction.     

Cultural studies as praxis: (making) an autobiographical case

This autobiographical essay ‘takes cultural studies personally’, drawing on experience, identity and the personal to indicate how and why the author is proponent of and is working on developing a model of cultural studies as social justice praxis despite the constraints academia in general and of the university as an institution in particular. The paper travels roughly from the author’s student and teacher days in Sierra Leone through his graduate student days in Canada to his current role as university teacher in the USA. He selectively concentrates on his experience as a teacher of literature (and African multi-role utilitarianism), education and cultural studies (using one of his cultural studies courses and students’ questions about the utility of cultural studies as example), his shifting and overlapping racial/ethnic identities (African/black) and the politics of identity, and his thoughts on the place of theory in cultural studies and a black approach to theory (black ambivalent elaboration) as contributory factors. While this account acts in its own way as an argument for conceptualizing cultural studies as praxis, the primary focus is more modestly on my own autobiographical account as a specific case. In fact, an autobiographical approach is employed precisely to be specific and in the attempt to avoid the pitfalls of over­generalization and the authority of authenticity.     

Coping with the disruptive college student: a practical model.

This article offers some practical suggestions for college faculty and administrators who must deal with disruptive students. It emphasizes the need for well-defined codes of student conduct and clear procedures for dealing with disruptive behavior, and considers why university officials may be reluctant to deal with disciplinary problems related to psychiatric disturbances. The author discusses the distinction between disruptive and dangerous behavior, looks at the use of mandatory psychiatric withdrawals, makes recommendations for conditions of re-enrollment, and suggests how a campus mental health service can be useful in dealing with the problem.     

Neural Correlates of Conflicting Social Influence on Adolescent Risk Taking

Adolescence is often characterized by heightened risk‐taking behaviors, which are shaped by social influence from parents and peers. However, little is understood about how adolescents make risky decisions under conflicting influence. The valuation system in the brain may elucidate how adolescents differentially integrate conflicting social information. Twenty‐eight adolescents (M_age = 12.7 years) completed a social influence task during a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. Behaviorally, adolescents took more risks only when their parent endorsed risky decisions but not when their peers endorsed risky decisions. At the neural level, adolescents showed enhanced vmPFC–striatum functional connectivity when they made risky decisions that followed their parents’ risky decisions. Results suggest that parents’ decisions may guide youths’ risk‐taking behavior under conflicting influence.     

"That's So Gay!": Examining the Covariates of Hearing This Expression Among Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual College Students

Abstract Objective: The investigators examined the health and well-being correlates of hearing the popular phrase "that's so gay" among gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) emerging adults. Participants: Participants were 114 self-identified GLB students aged 18 to 25?years. Methods: An online survey was distributed to students at a large public university in the Midwest during winter 2009. Results: Participants' social and physical well-being was negatively associated with hearing this phrase, specifically feeling isolated and experiencing physical health symptoms (ie, headaches, poor appetite, or eating problems). Conclusions: College professionals and student leaders must acknowledge that the phrase is a form of heterosexist harassment. As such, policies addressing diversity and harassment should address students' use of this phrase, aiming to reduce its use. Additionally, colleges and universities should develop practices that counteract poorer well-being associated with hearing the phrase.     

Political theater and student organizations in the 1989 Chinese movement: A multivariate analysis of Tiananmen

Social movement research has often been divided between organizational and cultural analyses of collective action. Organizationally oriented theorists have viewed indigenous organizational structure as the critical variable in the emergence of collective action. Political culture and cultural frame theorists have focused instead on the cultural frames that resonate with audiences, mobilizing them to action. But social movements cannot be the result of one or the other of these factors. An analysis of the 1989 Chinese movement illuminates the multivariate aspects of this social movement. This movement was a two-tiered movement with an organized student leadership tier and a mass audience. Enmeshed in university organizations and student networks, the student leaders relied on an organizational structure that had been emerging since the mid-1980s. This organized leadership tier employed cultural symbols and acts to mobilize mass audiences that were beyond the scope of the students' organizational linkages. The political theater of the organized student leaders was complemented by institutional changes that had been occurring over the decade of reform in China and a political opportunity that allowed wide coverage of the students' activities.     

Student Unrest in the Nineteenth Century: A Sociological Case Study

This paper examines student unrest at a single university in the late nineteenth century as a case study of the general student rebellion common in land-grant schools during that period. A conceptual framework exploring the relationship between an emerging student culture, traditional educational philosophy, and contemporary trends of economic and demographic change is used to interpret these historical data. Students actively sought university experiences that would facilitate movement into occupational roles expanding as a result of these trends. The unwillingness of the university to facilitate this movement resulted in two student rebellions, which in turn forced the university into accepting a previously rejected student culture. These case study data suggest that rural populations during the late nineteenth century used land-grant colleges and universities as avenues for upward mobility, often against the wishes of campus administrators. Comparisons are made between student unrest during this period and the 1960s.     

浅谈当代大学生的道德问题

当代大学生中有相当一部分人的确存在道德问题,但我们并不能因此否定整个大学生群体的思想道德状况;与身处社会转型期的其他人一样,当代大学生的确存在着一些道德上的问题,但他们渴望得到社会各界的关爱和帮助,使之成为"爱国守法、明礼诚信、团结友善、敬业奉献"的新一代大学生。     

A test of the perceived norms model to explain drinking patterns among university student athletes

The author tested the ability of perceived drinking norms to discriminate among drinking patterns in a sample of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I student athletes. He used an anonymous questionnaire to assess 297 athletes, representing 18 teams, at a public university in the Midwest. Alcohol use patterns showed considerable variation, with many athletes (37.1%) abstaining during their season of competition. A discriminant function analysis revealed that higher levels of alcohol involvement are disproportionately found among athletes who began drinking regularly at an early age. Perceived drinking norms were less important in the discrimination of student athlete drinker groups. Women and those with higher grade point averages were somewhat more likely to refrain from in-season drinking than other survey respondents.     

Using Student Course Evaluations: Findings,Issues, and Recommendations

Abstract

Although university administrators widely use student course evaluations (SCEs) in evaluating faculty performance, faculty members are skeptical about what SCEs actually measure. Faculty lack information about SCE reliability and validity and whether administrators use them fairly in making personnel decisions. This article reports research findings on factors that threaten the reliability and validity of SCEs. It provides recommendations for minimizing these threats. It reports findings of a recent survey of social work deans on their opinions about and use of SCEs. The article also presents recommendations to enhance the use of SCEs.     

Student bodies, past and present

This article examines how the field of college health has evolved over time to address the needs of an increasingly diverse student population. The central argument is that college and university health programs developed in conjunction with shifting standards of medical care and public health practices in the United States. The author reviews the role of college health programs as public health agencies for campus communities, and describes contemporary public health challenges facing college campuses. She shows how the history of college health is intertwined with the history of diversity in higher education. In particular, the author outlines how the growth of health services made higher education accessible to women, racial minorities, veterans, and persons with disabilities.