Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper utilizes NCES’s Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:96/01) to examine the factors that contribute to dropout by testing the applicability of existing models of college dropout on separate samples of two-year and four-year college students. The BPS data set is more representative of the heterogeneity of post-secondary students than high school cohort data sets. Findings reveal that traditional mechanisms of social integration may be less salient at community colleges, while students who are enrolled full-time, participate in study groups, and have more frequent interaction with faculty and advisors are much less likely to dropout. These factors help explain why students who attend private two-year colleges are less likely to dropout. While traditional models are useful for explaining why older, non-traditional age students are at-risk of dropping out when they begin at two-year colleges, the models do not explain why older students are more likely to drop out at four-year colleges, even when students’ initial goals, aspirations, and external work and family obligations are taken into account. Furthermore, taking remedial courses has one of the largest influences on the likelihood that students will drop out at two-year but not four-year colleges.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Since their inception in the early 1990s, online dating sites have increased in popularity among the singles population in the United States, providing an opportunity to meet singles through computer mediated communication. The online dating process generally involves the construction of a profile detailing characteristics both offered and sought in a mate or date. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how these constructions reinforce and challenge traditional gender roles for men and women seeking heterosexual companionship. A content analysis of 80 profiles on the online dating web site Match.com provided results suggesting that although traditional roles were challenged in some respects, they tended to be reinforced and perpetuated through the construction of profiles on this particular web site.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This study investigated whether there are differences between traditional and nontraditional students’ expectations of classroom communication. A discriminant analysis was employed to assess these two groups on linear combinations of six predictor variables, with the results showing that nontraditional students had stronger preference for lectures and computer-mediated communication (CMC) and higher learning motivation than did traditional students. A qualitative analysis of the students’ expectations of exemplary instruction showed that nontraditional students described exemplary teaching as providing outlines and examples when lecturing, caring about students’ understanding of the material, and being open to student questioning, whereas traditional students viewed exemplary teaching as making learning interesting and giving thorough explanations.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Waiting for this, but author has paper prepared, based on current monograph.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Theorists in the sociology of culture have addressed the process through which cultural objects come to have meaning; and how they succeed or fail in a marketplace of potentially resonant ideas. The recent controversy around the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana's mascot provides a good site to examine such theoretical questions. Since 1989, their Indian-themed mascot, Chief Illiniwek, has become the epicenter of local, state, and national attention about the meaning and appropriate uses of race-related symbols. Analyzing Chief Illiniwek from Griswold's “cultural diamond” perspective, I examine how two groups of cultural receivers constructed and forwarded meanings of the symbol-as either an honored tradition or legacy of cultural oppression-to rally support for their position to keep or retire the Chief.