Public University In California Research Articles

The impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on business students’ future preference for online courses

AbstractThis study analyzes students’ future preferences for online business courses based on responses from a spring 2021student sample from a California public regional university. The timing of this research takes advantage of the COVID‐19 “sudden disruption” that provided a unique opportunity to examine factors (including challenges specific to COVID‐19) that affect student choices about course delivery modality. Academic background, remote‐learning experiences, and mental health significantly impacted future course enrollment decisions. Study results provide insights for both university administrators and faculty who will need to plan curriculum in the challenging postpandemic higher education setting.

Protocol for designing and evaluating an undergraduate public health course on sexual and reproductive health at a public university in California

IntroductionComprehensive sexuality education (CSE) is associated with positive sexual and reproductive health (SRH) outcomes, including increased contraceptive use, lower rates of unintended pregnancy and prevention of sexual violence. However, implementation of and requirements for CSE vary across the United States which can negatively impact students, both during and beyond high school, including among college students. Methodsand Analysis: This paper describes the research protocol for a multi-staged approach for designing, implementing and evaluating an SRH course for up to 60 undergraduate students at a public university in California. Before the class is offered, we will conduct 20 in-depth interviews with current students, educators and course design experts to learn from their experiences and seek their guidance on course design. To evaluate the course, enrolled students will complete a pre-course and a post-course survey before and after class is taught, to assess students’ attitudes and values relevant to educational concepts and the format and delivery of the course and its modules and activities. Approximately 20 students will take part in an in-depth exit interview, after completing the course, to gather perceptions about how the course impacted their knowledge and behavior. The goal is to refine materials for future in-person course offerings and develop a prototype for a fully online version of the course. DiscussionThis study introduces a novel university-level course to provide young adult students comprehensive, evidence-based education on sexual and reproductive health from a public health perspective. The program leverages existing CSE efforts, enhancing them with academic rigor, inclusive content and digital inclusion. This approach, inclusive of diverse sexual orientations, content on pleasure and sexual violence prevention, aims to fill existing gaps in university curricula and also set a new standard in CSE. The project's innovative and multidisciplinary design offers a model for broader impact within a large public university system and beyond.

"They Don't See Us": Asian Students' Perceptions of Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment on Three California Public University Campuses.

Sexual violence and sexual harassment (SVSH) are prevalent among college and university students; however, the experiences of ethnic minority students, especially Asians, are understudied. This study aimed to reduce this gap by exploring Asian students' perceptions of SVSH on three public university campuses in Southern California. We examined their perceptions about the campus environment related to SVSH, attitudes, and behaviors toward help seeking, and utilization of on-campus resources. A total of 23 in-depth interviews were conducted with Asian students enrolled at the three University of California campuses. Thematic coding was conducted to generate main themes and subthemes. Five main themes emerged: (a) SVSH is considered a "taboo" topic in Asian culture and family systems, and Asian student survivors are often reluctant to disclose incidents or seek support services. (b) Students did not feel their campus environments were tailored to understand or meet the sociocultural realities and needs of Asian student survivors. (c) Campus SVSH services and reporting processes were seen as non-transparent. (d) Peers were the major source of support and SVSH information, as opposed to official campus-based resources and training. (e) Survivors often conduct an internal cost-benefit analysis evaluating their decision about whether to report. This study highlights the lack of conversation surrounding SVSH in Asian families, and how the cultural stigma of sex and sexual violence prevented Asian students from receiving knowledge and resources about these topics in their families. Instead of relying on formal campus resources (e.g., Title IX and confidential advocacy services, mental health services), many students turn to their peers for support. Thus, facilitating peer support groups, training university students to support each other through SVSH incidents, and tailoring campus services to the diverse cultural backgrounds of students are key considerations to foster a safe campus environment and prevent SVSH.

Instructors Share Techniques for Teaching with Technology: Faculty Connections and Spotlights

This article describes a collaborative project between instructional designers and faculty members in a California public university. It is based on the idea that faculty possess valuable applied knowledge of how to use technology tools to address instructional needs. The sharing of this knowledge via ‘Faculty Spotlights’ fosters technology adoption on campuses. Additionally, the process of co-creating spotlights helps instructional designers see how and why instructors apply technology to pedagogy. This understanding allows designers to collaborate with additional instructors more effectively. This paper describes processes for creating and promoting faculty spotlights, along with a description of early project impact and faculty feedback. It attempts to live its mission, which is to elevate learning from experience.

COVID-19-related stressors exacerbate food insecurity and depressive symptoms among graduate students receiving campus basic needs services: Cross-sectional findings from seven California public universities.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, food insecurity and depression were growing public health concerns among graduate students. Yet, little is known about how COVID-19-related stressors exacerbated these health outcomes among graduate students. To address this research gap, this study examined two types of COVID-19-related stressors, anticipated concerns about remote learning and challenges interfering with academic and research responsibilities, in relation to food insecurity and depressive symptoms among public university graduate students. Between August and October 2020, 631 graduate students who utilised basic needs services from seven University of California campuses completed an online survey assessing the effects of COVID-19 on their academic experiences, mental health, and basic needs security. Regression analyses examined associations of COVID-19-related concerns and COVID-19-related challenges with food insecurity as well as COVID-19-related concerns and COVID-19-related challenges in relation to depressive symptoms. All four models were adjusted for age, sex, race and ethnicity, campus affiliation, and living with a partner. Models examining food security status as the dependent variable were adjusted for depressive symptoms and vice versa. Graduate students concerned about delayed graduation, post-graduate employment, isolation from faculty and not having access to healthcare reported higher counts of depressive symptoms. Challenges associated with higher counts of depressive symptoms included caring for family more than usual, spending more time on errands and not paying for utilities in full. Students concerned about accessing healthcare had higher odds of experiencing food insecurity. Challenges associated with food insecurity included spending more time on errands, being unable to afford housing and sending money to family members during the pandemic. Our findings illuminate the pandemic's deleterious consequences on graduate students' mental health and food security, underscoring the need for strong academic and basic needs programs and policies.

The employability strengths American Millennials contribute to the health administration workforce: A workplace readiness study at two California public universities

This qualitative study examined employability, also referred to as workplace readiness strengths in this article, for American Millennial health administration baccalaureates. The primary researcher used data collected from focus groups and interviews conducted at two certified Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA) programs in California, USA. Participants (n = 71) belonged to one of 4 distinct groups: (a) health administration faculty, (b) internship preceptors, (c) alumni, and (d) undergraduate students (interns) enrolled in their internship program. Thematic content analysis was used to evaluate the collected qualitative data, after which descriptive statistics was applied to calculate the frequencies of emergent themes. The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Career Readiness Competencies, an employer and university validated list of Career Readiness Competencies for a Career-Ready Workforce, was used as a comparative framework for the workplace readiness strengths provided in the qualitative data. Six strength-based themes emerged, two of which comparatively aligned with two of the NACE Career Readiness Competencies. However, respondents indicated that the rest of the NACE Career Competencies were not overtly expressed by Millennials as workplace strengths and should be embedded into the health administration curriculum. This invaluable information can be used to update the AUPHA health administration curriculum and help their undergraduate students increase their employability index scores.

Learning from a Group Art Therapy Intervention for University Student Veterans

ABSTRACT This study examined the meaning of an eight-week group art therapy intervention with student veterans in a large public university in California. We focused on grounded theory methodology, to evaluate the meaning of the program for participants while bringing their art and narratives as active contributors to the formation of the theoretical frame relevant to their unique lived experience. A systemic analysis integrated clinical notes from the art therapist facilitating the group, pre- and post-intervention semi-structured interviews with all participants, and a systematic exploration of participants’ art responses. Findings indicate that the group art therapy intervention reduced isolation and increased overall well-being while supporting the veterans’ need to process trauma and grief through visual narratives and identity formation. The findings also suggest the need to reconsider the timing of trauma processing and the potential benefit of forming groups based on types of trauma experiences and gender-specific needs.

Monitoring SARS-CoV-2 incidence and seroconversion among university students and employees: a longitudinal cohort study in California, June–August 2020

ObjectivesTo identify incident SARS-CoV-2 infections and inform effective mitigation strategies in university settings, we piloted an integrated symptom and exposure monitoring and testing system among a cohort of university students...

Mental health help-seeking among Latina/o/x undocumented college students.

Informed by a social-ecological framework, this study nested undocumented students' individual mental health needs within micro-level campus factors and the macro-level immigration policy context to examine how these are associated with undocumented Latina/o/x college students' use of on-campus mental health services. A large-scale survey was administered to 1,277 undocumented college students attending 4-year public universities in California. Only Latina/o/x respondents were included in this study (N = 1,181). Fifty percent of students attended a UC system (n = 589). On average, students were 21.84 years old (SE = .15), and most were women (75.3%, n = 890). Greater level of mental health symptoms and perceived mental health need, and greater use of campus-wide resources and undocumented student services predicted greater likelihood of using on-campus mental health services. Greater perceptions of social exclusion due to the immigration policy context predicted lower use of mental health services. Results indicate that a greater use of resources and an inclusive campus environment, as well as efforts to minimize policy-related feelings of social exclusion, may facilitate undocumented students' professional mental health help-seeking. These findings emphasize the need to take multiple and multi-level ecological factors into account when considering mental health service use, particularly in the case of undocumented immigrants and likely other structurally marginalized groups. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Editorial Introduction: Toward Care, Healing, and Justice

Editorial Introduction:Toward Care, Healing, and Justice Patti Duncan As we near the end of 2022, I'm delighted to introduce this latest issue of Feminist Formations. A special highlight of this issue is a Dossier featuring writings about Hil Malatino's influential text, Trans Care, curated by Jack Jen Gieseking and David A. Rubin. This exciting body of work features essays by Jules Gill-Peterson, Andrea J. Pitts, Jack Jen Gieseking, Rox Samer, Cameron Awkward-Rich, David A. Rubin, Davy Knittle, and Elliott Fukui and Christoph Hanssmann. In their introduction to the Dossier, Gieseking and Rubin describe Trans Care as a central text in the emerging field of trans studies, describing the way the book engages trans care webs, and the writers of the dossier essays respond to the text expressing their own forms of trans care. About the pieces in the dossier, Gieseking and Rubin write: "Each reading offers manifold insights for trans scholarship, trans teaching, trans collegiality, and even everyday trans lives. We structure the dossier to begin from our own geography: the academy. Then we wander across positions and disciplinary boundaries, fuzzy and otherwise, which Malatino perspicuously deems a form of 'sprawl' in his reply . . . [until we] finally arrive where so many us inevitably wind up for our survival: community-engaged activism." This movement and relation between the academy and community-engaged activism animates the dossier in important ways that help bring the ideas of trans care to life, and illuminate the many generative possibilities of theorizing and practicing trans care. Preceding the Dossier are five articles highlighting feminist themes including contemporary attacks on feminist and anti-racist research in higher education, decolonial practices in art and literature, responses to collective grief and trauma, and the gendered effects of the US-NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan. We begin with Liz Montegary's "Anti-Gender, Anti-University: 'Gender Ideology' and the Future of US Higher Education," in which Montegary critically examines the figure of Robert Oscar Lopez, a conservative "pro-family" former professor at a California public university. Through an analysis of the ways far right discourses such as those disseminated by Lopez increasingly attack feminist, queer, and anti-racist knowledge production in higher education, Montegary is attentive to both the "form and function" of conservative hostility toward the US academy. "To fully apprehend contemporary rightwing hostility toward the [End Page vii] academy," she writes, "we need to situate attacks on gender/sexuality and race/ ethnic studies with respect to the broader offensive on university-based research, particularly around migration, climate science, vaccinations, stem cells, and evolutionary theory." Needless to say, Montegary's article offers a timely response to current attacks on justice-based knowledge production, reminding us that such assaults—occurring in more and more places around the world—are both systemic and interconnected. Then, in "Earth Bodies as Re-Existence: Ana Mendieta's Siluetas Beyond the Limits of Ecofeminism," Jessica E. Jones considers Cuban-American artist Ana Mendieta's relationship to ecofeminism through an analysis of her self-portraits in her 1973–1980 series, Siluetas. In the series Mendieta explored nonwestern cosmologies, centering Indigenous and African figures in her work. Jones draws on decolonial and postcolonial theories as well as critical race feminisms to give what she refers to as ontological weight to Mendieta's divergence from and interventions into white, mainstream feminisms. Relying on Adolfo Albán Achinte's notion of "re-existence," a concept underscoring the ways art can function as "a re-humanizing practice for the colonized," Jones reads Mendieta as "enacting an aesthetics of re-existence, working to decolonize her own being through art by 're-member[ing]' the negated—female, Black, Indigenous, and earthly—dimensions of her existence in the Americas through her Siluetas." In "Communicating Felt Knowledge to Decolonize #MeToo: A Native Feminist Approach to the Sherman Alexie Allegations," Cortney Smith intervenes into dominant narratives of the #MeToo movement by delving into the sexual harassment allegations leveled against Sherman Alexie through a close textual reading of two essays by Indigenous feminist authors. Through an analysis of Deborah A. Miranda's "Inmate #A-93223: In the San Quentin of My Mind" and Tracy Rector's "Best of 2018: Female Native Authors...

Transitioning an embedded capstone course to a new librarian

The subject of this study is an embedded librarian approach to a capstone course within a College of Business Administration (CoBA) at a large California public university. Discussed are how the new tenure track Business and Economics Librarian approached a long standing embedded collaboration. The implementation of feedback forms provided a method to identify instructional gaps resulting in discussions informing future semesters. Continued collaborations have benefited from use of reflective practice informing adjustments for improved pedagogy and modifications to embedded approaches. Facilitation of such an embedded approach has required partnership and collaboration with faculty to realize a shared vision for research, synthesis, and application of knowledge to make a strategic diagnosis of a business problem. This study adds to the knowledge of benefits and challenges to an embedded librarian approach and implementation in a business capstone course. Discussed are plans for assessment of student perceived value of embedded librarian practices, and approaches to collecting data leading to future improvement of embedded practices.

SNAP Participation Decreases Food Insecurity among California Public University Students: A quasi-experimental Study

ABSTRACT Food insecurity is widespread among US college students. We examined the impact of participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) on food security status among students at a large public university using a quasi-experimental study. Sequentially adjusted logistic regression models were used to assess the impact of SNAP participation on food insecurity. SNAP participants experienced a 63% decrease in food insecurity from baseline to six months (p < .05). Adjusted models found 89% (95% CI 0.25–0.98) lower odds of food insecurity among program participants. Strategies to increase SNAP use may decrease food insecurity and its associated consequences among college students.

A Culture of Health and Alcohol-Permitted Events at a U.S. University

We examined event organizers’ understandings and management of alcohol-related risk and accommodation of people in recovery from substance use disorders and other non-drinkers, when organizing alcohol-permitted events that primarily involved faculty, staff, and graduate students. We interviewed 31 event organizers at a large, public university in California. Organizers were most concerned about avoiding legal liabilities, were less concerned about promoting responsible drinking among drinkers, and often failed to consider the needs of non-drinkers. Their actions were informed by problematic beliefs about alcohol (e.g., people need alcohol to relax and socialize), drinkers (e.g., only undergraduate students engage in risky alcohol consumption), and people in recovery (e.g., they lack self-control). Organizers over-relied on informal control to shape attendees’ behavior, failing to acknowledge contextual factors. They need education on how they can shape the event context to better promote healthy behaviors, avoid exclusively focusing on informal control and prevention of unhealthy behaviors, and promote better inclusion of people who do not drink alcohol. There is fertile ground for infusing a culture of health into events in higher education.

Adverse childhood experiences and sleep difficulties among young adult college students.

Although adverse childhood experiences (traumatic events such as maltreatment and household dysfunction) are associated with increased risk for sleep difficulties among adults, the association between adverse childhood experiences and poor sleep health among young adult college populations is understudied. This study examined the adverse childhood experience-sleep health (self-reported sleep difficulty and diagnosis of insomnia or "other" sleep disorder) association among college students. Data are from the 2018/2019 American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment II (ACHA-NCHA-II) survey administered at public universities in California (n= 3606) and Texas (n= 407). Logistic regression models investigated the relative effect of adverse childhood experiences (maltreatment only, household dysfunction only, and maltreatment + household dysfunction) on three sleep health indicators. Approximately 40% of the sample reported adverse childhood experiences: 11% maltreatment only, 14% household dysfunction only, and 17% both. Compared with students with no adverse childhood experience history, students who reported only household dysfunction or only maltreatment had higher odds of experiencing sleep difficulty in the past year [adjusted odds ratios: 1.52-2.40; 95% confidence intervals: 1.26-2.97]. Additionally, students who reported maltreatment only had 2.47 times the odds of receiving an insomnia diagnosis [95% confidence interval: 1.52, 4.01]. However, students who reported both had higher odds of all three sleep health indicators: past-year sleep difficulty, insomnia diagnosis, and "other" sleep disorder diagnosis [adjusted odds ratios: 2.53-3.10; 95% confidence intervals: 1.51-4.66]. Sleep is an important facet of health among the college student population, and plays a crucial role in overall well-being, psychosocial processes, attention and academic success. Results point toward a need for sleep health programmes and interventions on college campuses focused on healthy sleep behaviours in order to mitigate further negative health effects.

Campus Smoking Policies and Smoking-Related Twitter Posts Originating From California Public Universities: Retrospective Study.

BackgroundThe number of colleges and universities with smoke- or tobacco-free campus policies has been increasing. The effects of campus smoking policies on overall sentiment, particularly among young adult populations, are more difficult to assess owing to the changing tobacco and e-cigarette product landscape and differential attitudes toward policy implementation and enforcement.ObjectiveThe goal of the study was to retrospectively assess the campus climate toward tobacco use by comparing tweets from California universities with and those without smoke- or tobacco-free campus policies.MethodsGeolocated Twitter posts from 2015 were collected using the Twitter public application programming interface in combination with cloud computing services on Amazon Web Services. Posts were filtered for tobacco products and behavior-related keywords. A total of 42,877,339 posts were collected from 2015, with 2837 originating from a University of California or California State University system campus, and 758 of these manually verified as being about smoking. Chi-square tests were conducted to determine if there were significant differences in tweet user sentiments between campuses that were smoke- or tobacco-free (all University of California campuses and California State University, Fullerton) compared to those that were not. A separate content analysis of tweets included in chi-square tests was conducted to identify major themes by campus smoking policy status.ResultsThe percentage of positive sentiment tweets toward tobacco use was higher on campuses without a smoke- or tobacco-free campus policy than on campuses with a smoke- or tobacco-free campus policy (76.7% vs 66.4%, P=.03). Higher positive sentiment on campuses without a smoke- or tobacco-free campus policy may have been driven by general comments about one’s own smoking behavior and comments about smoking as a general behavior. Positive sentiment tweets originating from campuses without a smoke- or tobacco-free policy had greater variation in tweet type, which may have also contributed to differences in sentiment among universities.ConclusionsOur study introduces preliminary data suggesting that campus smoke- and tobacco-free policies are associated with a reduction in positive sentiment toward smoking. However, continued expressions and intentions to smoke and reports of one’s own smoking among Twitter users suggest a need for more research to better understand the dynamics between implementation of smoke- and tobacco-free policies and resulting tobacco behavioral sentiment.

Tobacco Tracker: A New Tool to Support College Smoke and Tobacco Free Policies.

University community members are critical to the success of their smoke and tobacco free (STF) policies. The present study evaluates changes in social enforcement-related attitudes and behaviors following introduction of a new online Tobacco Tracker tool in two university settings. Campus wide surveys were administered to current students, faculty, and staff at two California public universities with 100% STF policies before (November 2018; N = 5078) and after (December 2019-January 2020; N = 4853) introduction of Tobacco Tracker in February 2019. Prospective surveillance reports over 12 months from Tobacco Tracker, a GIS tool for the campus community to report tobacco use and related litter that displays crowdsourced maps of hotspots, were analyzed. Outcomes included awareness and self-reported use of a tobacco reporting tool, readiness for policy social enforcement, an Intellectual Social Affective (ISA) Engagement scale, and environmental surveillance reports from Tobacco Tracker. In campus surveys, awareness of a tobacco reporting tool doubled (8.0%-16.9%, p < .0001), use of an online reporting tool tripled (1.1%-3.2%, p < .0001), and readiness to enforce the policy increased (p = .0008). ISA engagement did not change (p = .72). In Tobacco Tracker campus reports (N = 1163), active tobacco use was reported more frequently than tobacco-related litter. Tobacco Tracker is a promising tool for college communities to support STF policy. Introduction of Tobacco Tracker was associated with an increase in campus awareness and utilization of a reporting tool, readiness to enforce policy, and campus tobacco surveillance. Future research should determine how Tobacco Tracker may improve policy compliance. Tobacco Tracker is a promising tool for college communities to support smoke and tobacco free (STF) policy through active surveillance of smoking, vaping, and related litter on campus. Introduction of Tobacco Tracker was associated with changes in social enforcement-related attitudes and behaviors critical to realizing the preventive potential of STF policies. A crowdsourcing-based tool for monitoring tobacco use on college campuses can address a major barrier to social enforcement: discomfort confronting tobacco users. Further, it provides an alternative to punitive enforcement approaches and promises a sustainable solution to an infrastructure issue faced by many universities lacking resources to collect data on campus tobacco use and related litter.

Affirmative Action, Mismatch, and Economic Mobility after California’s Proposition 209

Abstract Proposition 209 banned race-based affirmative action at California public universities in 1998. Using a difference-in-differences research design and a newly constructed longitudinal database linking all 1994–2002 University of California applicants to their educational experiences and wages, I show that ending affirmative action caused underrepresented minority (URM) freshman applicants to cascade into lower-quality colleges. The “mismatch hypothesis” implies that this cascade would provide net educational benefits to URM applicants, but their degree attainment declined overall and in STEM fields, especially among less academically qualified applicants. URM applicants’ average wages in their twenties and thirties subsequently declined, driven by declines among Hispanic applicants. These declines are not explained by URM students' performance or persistence in STEM course sequences, which were unchanged after Prop 209. Ending affirmative action also deterred thousands of qualified URM students from applying to any UC campus. Complementary regression discontinuity and institutional value-added analyses suggest that affirmative action’s net educational and wage benefits for URM applicants exceed its net costs for on-the-margin white and Asian applicants.

Campus Food Pantry Use Addresses a Gap Among California Public University Students

ObjectiveTo identify factors associated with campus food pantry (CFP) visits and evaluate outreach strategies. DesignCross-sectional. SettingTen University of California campuses. ParticipantsUniversity of California CFP student users (n = 1,513) completed a survey in 2019. Variables measuredStudents reported reasons for CFP visits, how they heard about the CFP, monthly CFP visits, and food security status. Sociodemographic information was obtained through institutional records. AnalysisPoisson regression for associations of monthly CFP visits (dependent) with sociodemographic variables (Model 1), reasons for CFP visits (Model 2), and outreach strategies (Model 3). Logistic regression for associations between reasons for CFP visits and food security status (dependent; Model 4). ResultsOn average, students made 3.66 (SD, 4.75) CFP visits in the past month. Factors associated with more CFP visits included being first-generation to attend college, Filipino/Pacific Islanders, homeless, older, and male (Model 1). Not wanting to run out of food and hearing about the CFP through basic needs staff were associated with more CFP visits (Models 2 and 3). Students who visited the CFP because of financial insecurity had higher odds of food insecurity (Model 4). Conclusions and ImplicationsFindings suggest that CFPs provide critical emergency food assistance for students at risk of food insecurity.

Student veterans in higher education: The critical role of veterans resource centers

Objective To examine how veterans resource centers (VRCs) and corresponding services influence student veteran transitions by applying the Schlossberg Transition Model. Participants 12 student support staff and 6 junior/senior undergraduate student veterans at a four-year public university in California. Methods In-depth semi-structured, one-on-one interviews were conducted with diverse group of university staff and student veterans. Thematic analyses were conducted to identify salient factors that help promote successful transition to college life. Results Overarching theme was the significance of the university’s veterans resource center (VRC), which is a designated space that facilitates connectedness and student engagement; fosters collaborations across student support services via liaisons to increase access to vital services/resources on/off campus, provides peer-to-peer mentorship; and includes staff, who understand military culture. Conclusions Higher education should expand supporting student veterans by having a VRC to help them successfully transition to college life; this would ultimately improve retention and graduation rates.

A qualitative examination of e-cigarette use among California young adults during the EVALI outbreak

The 2019 outbreak of E-cigarette, or Vaping, Product Use-Associated Lung Injury (EVALI) increased awareness of potential health risks associated with vaping among the general public. Little is known, however, about how unfolding information regarding EVALI affected knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors among e-cigarette users, particularly among young adults. This study describes attitudinal and behavioral responses to EVALI among young adult e-cigarette users. In October and November 2019, seven focus groups were held with college-going young adult tobacco users from two four-year public universities in California. Focus groups included questions regarding knowledge of and reaction to EVALI news, and how the news affected product use. Text from current e-cigarette users was extracted to develop individual phenomenological textural-structural descriptions of e-cigarette use for 38 individuals which were used to create a composite experience of e-cigarette use in light of EVALI. Experiences indicated that e-cigarette users were aware of information regarding EVALI and received information from numerous sources. Information was filtered for legitimacy of EVALI claims and causes of EVALI. Risk rationalizations were developed to assess potential harm of continued e-cigarette use and provided reasoning for behavioral responses to EVALI. The emerging harm associated with EVALI prompted e-cigarette users to engage in a cognitive process resulting in employment of a range of rationalities to justify continued use. These results suggest how environmental, cognitive, and behavioral factors may interact as young adults negotiate e-cigarette-related harms.