Nontraditional and Traditional Student Persisters and Nonpersisters in the Community and Technical College

Abstract

A study was conducted with Community and Technical College students enrolled at the University of Akron, a major urban university, during the 1978–1979 academic year. Students were divided into traditional and nontraditional persisters and nonpersisters, and if they were placed on academic probation, they were removed from the study. These students were given modified National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS) questionnaires for program completers and noncompleters. The questions tested for varying degrees of satisfaction with the University and reasons for withdrawal concerning various academic, socioeconomic, and environmental press variables. In addition, selected demographic variables from the student masterfile were tested, along with the questionnaire responses in 99 research hypotheses using multiple linear regression and corrected for multiple comparisons. Results indicate that 13 hypotheses were found to significantly discriminate between traditional and nontraditional community college students. The persisting nontraditional students appeared to be more satisfied with the University concerning a few variables, greater proportion attended part-time, during the day, enrolled for less hours, and had a greater high school grade point average than their traditional counterparts. The nonpersisting, nontraditional students were similar to their persisting counterparts, except that traditional nonpersisting students had a higher high school grade point average, lived at greater distances from the school, and attended day time classes as compared to nontraditional students.