State University System Research Articles

Faculty research productivity under alternative appointment types: tenure vs non-tenure track

Purpose The increasing use of non-tenure employment contracting as a cost savings and/or management flexibility increasing mechanism in colleges and universities raises concerns about the impact of this strategy on other aspects of the higher education system. The purpose of this paper is to document reduced research productivity at a university that uses rolling contracts in comparison to research productivity at another university in the same state university system in the USA that uses tenure track contracting. Design/methodology/approach Negative binomial regression analysis allows investigation of the primary variable of interest (appointment type) while controlling for other factors that may also affect research productivity. Findings The findings suggest that non-tenure track employment contracting may have other long-term implications for institutions of higher education that warrant consideration. Originality/value No prior study has investigated the topic of comparative research productivity in business schools using this methodology or data source.

Assessment: ICT Infrastructure in Support for E-Learning Environment at Isabela State University System: Management, Learning and Improvement

This is a study on the assessment of e-learning services and how it is learned, managed and improved in order to gain enriching ICT e-services of the Isabela State University (ISU) system aided by its ICT Infrastructure. It aimed at determining the status of ICT Infrastructure of ISU Campuses in terms of peopleware, hardware, software and network; it also assessed the quality of the ICT infrastructure in terms of efficiency, reliability, speed and accuracy as per assessment of the respondents; and it identified innovative plans than can strengthen the ICT infrastructure.The researcher used the descriptive correlation research method. It is in this method that demographic data of the deans, chairmen, and ICT faculty members of the nine campuses of ISU and the data on the leveling of ICT infrastructures and e-learning environment are considered and correlated and took the form of survey questionnaires and actual inventory to verify the infrastructure. Considered in the assessment of the e-services are factors for the success of e-learning or flip classroom such as finance, executive support, readiness of the lecturers and students, readiness of technicians and evaluation and follow-up (as cited in Rueangprathum A.(2005). As per result of the study, it revealed that ISU System’s ICT Infrastructures to e-learning services had the above standard but with minor issue as to licensed software; below standard in hardware; and above standard in peopleware. Likewise, there is a well-established local area network at ISU Systems even without the connection of internet. Conversely, the main server used the two-layered characteristic of the CISCO network model. Additional findings revealed that ISU system had already acquired servers and CISCO routers and switches and ready for deployment to other mother cluster. However, it was found that interconnectivity for the nine (9) campuses is NOT POSSIBLE due to a weak internet provider.

Online Teaching Efficacy: A Product of Professional Development and Ongoing Support.

The purpose of the pilot study was to investigate the perceptions of online teaching efficacy of nursing faculty who teach courses in which 51% or more of the content is offered online. Bandura's psychological construct of self-efficacy served as the conceptual framework. The research survey was administered to nursing faculty in a state university system located in the southeastern United States of America, plus two private universities. The Michigan Nurse Educator's Sense of Efficacy for Online Teaching Scale, which contains 32 items that measure how nurse educators judge their current capabilities for teaching online nursing courses, was used to gather data. Overall, the scores reflected that faculty perceived themselves as quite a bit efficacious on a scale that ranged from 1 to 9. As nursing educators received more support in designing and implementing online courses, their efficacy increased. It is critical that faculty are supported on an ongoing basis to increase and develop online teaching skills in order to teach high-quality courses in online programs. Faculty members must also be recognized for their work, time, and commitment required to be effective online educators. The findings of this study revealed those participants who had a number of professional development supports and release time to develop online courses have a greater sense of efficacy.

Doing technology: A teaching collaboration between Fresno State and Fresno County Public Library

In spring 2016, the President’s Office at California State University-Fresno (part of the California State University system) offered grant opportunities for academic departments to create a community engagement program for students interested in supporting the Fresno community at large. Known as the Touch the Community project, the program solicited proposals that focused on a community concern and on how to address this issue. Several proposals were selected and funded ($2,000) by the President’s Office for the duration of two academic semesters. Some of these grant projects involved service-learning components: building computer labs, creating ESL programs, and engaging with K–12 students.

Training Needs of Teachers at Visayas State University System: Inputs for an Intervention Scheme

The purpose of the study was to determine the training needs of teachers at VSU System based on the National Competency-Based Teachers Standards for First Semester, S.Y. 2016-2017. Specifically, the study also determined the profile of the education teachers in terms of field of specialization, educational attainment and attitude towards teaching profession. The study also determined the level of training needs of the teachers in each of the NCBTS domains such as Social Regard for Learning, Learning Environment, Diversity of Learners, Curriculum, Planning, Assessing and Reporting, Community Linkages and Personal Growth and Professional Development. It also determined the relationship of the profile of the teachers and the level of training needs in each domain of the NCBTS. Descriptive survey method was utilized in the study with a survey questionnaire adopted from the NCBTS-Teachers’ Strengths Needs Assessment Guide. To test the null hypothesis of the study, Pearson Product Moment of Correlation Coefficient was used. The findings of the study showed that the education teachers at Visayas State University System are Mathematics specializers, who are, bachelor degree holders, belonging to the Department of Teacher Education, with a moderately favourable attitude towards teaching, the teachers’ level of needs for trainings in all of the seven (7) domains of the National Competency-Based Teachers Standards is high and only the attitude of the teaching towards the teaching profession is significantly related to the need for training in the social regard for learning. Based on the findings and conclusions of the study, the following are recommended: Education teachers are encouraged to pursue further studies in order to meet the required qualification of the college or university and to expand knowledge on sufficient educational preparations, thus, for the benefit of the students and the University/College, the teachers have a moderately favourable attitude towards teaching profession, the teachers may be encouraged to attend seminars, trainings or conferences that will increase the interest of the teachers in teaching, thus enhancing their attitude towards teaching profession, the University or College may provide trainings/seminars/workshops along the National Competency-Based Teachers Standards to help boost teachers’ confidence and competence, the university/college may send teachers to national and international trainings, workshops or seminars which emphasize on enhancing the personal growth and professional development of the teachers, and the University or College may look into the needed number of teachers to teach the required subjects/courses required in each program under Teacher Education Department.

State and institutional policies on in-state resident tuition and financial aid for undocumented students: Examining constraints and opportunities

In this article, we examine policies related to in-state resident tuition and state financial aid policies aimed at undocumented students. To help frame the discussion and spark further debate and research in this area the article seeks to do three things. First, it provides a comprehensive review of state and institutional in-state tuition policies aimed at undocumented students as well as state college or university system responses. Second, it charts the policy landscape for state financial aid access for this population. Third, it examines the numerous implications that such policies engender and highlights the role of the federal government and the proposed Dream Act in mitigating some of these concerns. It closes by underscoring the important financial role played by the critical interaction of state, institutional, and federal policies in making college going a reality for these students while proposing avenues for future study around the issue.

Is College Worth It? The Economic Return to College Under Realistic Assumptions

Most published estimates of the economic return to college rest on a series of best-case assumptions that often overstate returns and, most importantly, obscure differences in return across different institutions. We simulate the economic return to college under more realistic assumptions using U.S. Census data combined with administrative data from the more selective University of California system and the less selective California State University system. We find that college in 2010 is a risker investment than in earlier decades. Many students - particularly young men who cannot access top-tier universities - face an economic return on college that, while positive on average, can reasonably inspire caution among students and their parents due, in part, to high dropout rates. While our results are based on California data, we site research showing similar distinctions among higher and lower tier institutions exist nationwide. Our simulations can be seen as a natural extension of the Obama administration’s attempt to create a College Scorecard.

Lessons in University Continuing Education: A 25-Year Perspective

This article examines the enrollment patterns of a continuing education institution over 25 years of its history. The institution is an auxiliary unit of a major state university system with the mission of providing postgraduate professional training to nonmatriculated students. Our study illustrates that both the quantity and the quality of academic offerings impact enrollment patterns in a continuing education unit such as the one considered here. Using historical data, we validate this correlation in three disciplines in which courses are offered. In addition to studying the factors influencing enrollments, we reviewed the institution's recent financial performance. For the period of transitioning from financial distress to stability, we document major leadership decisions and offer lessons of best practices to schools in similar situations. This study suggests several management principles that have been shown to be effective in turning around an organization and offers a deeper understanding of how academic affairs decisions influence the performance of a continuing education institution.

Editorial

Editorial Christina Larocco, Editor Production for this special issue of the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography took place in the midst of local, statewide, and national debates about education. Just this summer, the School District of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers agreed to a new contract, even as funding for this deal remains uncertain. In the meantime, Governor Tom Wolf has spent much of his tenure embroiled in budget fights with the state legislature, in part over funding for education. Pennsylvania currently ranks forty-fifth in the nation in funding public schools, posing challenges especially for low-income and majority-minority school districts.1 Financial woes have also threatened the state’s longstanding tradition of linking education to racial justice. Pennsylvania boasts the nation’s oldest historically black university, Cheyney University. Cheyney helped train such luminaries as West Chester–born civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, who played a key role in organizing the 1963 March on Washington. Despite its central role in these historic struggles, Cheyney risked losing its accreditation earlier this year due to outstanding debts. The state university system has conditionally agreed to forgive these loans, but Cheyney’s long-term future remains uncertain.2 [End Page 219] 2017 has also seen Pennsylvania at the center of national debates about education. Earlier this year, Senator Patrick J. Toomey was a key swing vote in the confirmation of Betsy DeVos as secretary of education. Controversy over DeVos’s appointment focused on such issues as the role of religion in education, firearms on school campuses, the teaching of science, the proliferation of charter schools, and protections guaranteed by Title IX and for LGBTQ students. For weeks, Toomey’s offices were so flooded with phone calls that constituents could not even leave voicemails. The fierce battle for Toomey’s vote evidences both Pennsylvania’s divided electorate and the state’s national significance. As these examples suggest, debates about education take place within a nexus of local, statewide, and national concerns, a fact of which contributors to this issue are very much aware. Ranging in topic from elementary school to postsecondary education, their articles deftly navigate between and among these registers, exploring such themes as the purpose of education, its relationship to citizenship, and its role in movements for civil rights. Guest editors William W. Cutler III and Jonathan Zimmerman, without whom this issue would not have been possible, deserve much of the credit for the variety of topics represented and the high quality of the articles in which they appear. At a time when 45 percent of Americans believe that higher education is bad for the nation, these topics seem particularly worthy of study.3 [End Page 220] Footnotes 1. “How Will City Pay for Deal?” June 21, 2017, Philadelphia Inquirer. 2. Susan Snyder, “State Throws Cheyney University $30 Million Lifeline,” Aug. 22, 2017, Philadelphia Inquirer. 3. Pew Research Center, “Sharp Partisan Divisions in Views of National Institutions,” July 10, 2017, http://www.people-press.org/2017/07/10/sharp-partisan-divisions-in-views-of-national-institutions/. Copyright © 2017 The Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Guided Resource Inquiries: Integrating Archives into Course Learning and Information Literacy Objectives

At California State University, Northridge (CSUN), many students lack the skills needed to locate, analyze, and apply essential contexts associated with primary sources. Using these sources requires critical inquiry, which is a fundamental theme in pedagogy, the California State University system's Core Competencies, and the Association of College and Research Libraries Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. The authors piloted a Guided Resource Inquiry (GRI) tool that enables teaching faculty and librarians to create course assignments integrating online primary sources. These assignments deliver relevant information literacy tutorials to students using a single interface. With the GRI students better understood the nature of primary sources and how to analyze them critically in their course work. Additionally, students more fully understood the research process, and were more likely to use primary and archival materials in the future.

Weighting recent performance to improve college and labor market outcomes

There is a great deal of policy interest in reducing college dropout rates, increasing graduation rates, and improving labor market outcomes. To this end, individual colleges and state university systems use high school grade point averages and class rankings in an effort to offer admission and scholarships to students who are most likely to achieve long-run success. However, a significant fraction of students exhibit steep positive or negative performance trends during high school. This study shows that academic performance in later grades is given no greater weight in admissions but is the best predictor of college and labor market outcomes, greatly exceeding prior grades and entrance exam scores. Placing greater weight on later grades and extending application deadlines to allow the consideration of 12th grade performance is shown to significantly alter which students are admitted to college and to improve their expected long-run outcomes. Importantly, weighting recent performance does not appear to affect college diversity. Evidence is presented that the predictive power of later grades is driven primarily by students who experience large negative performance trajectories during high school.

Academic Tracking, High-Stakes Tests, and Preparing Students for College: How Inequality Persists Within Schools

Academic tracking is a common feature of school organization, but it produces inequalities in student outcomes. High-stakes testing policies offer new opportunities for assessing students’ progress, but the instruments raise concerns about relying on such narrow measures of learning. This study utilizes a longitudinal data set that follows one cohort of North Carolina school students from public high school through the state university system to examine the difference in outcomes associated with academic track. Results show that upper track students do better in college even when controlling for achievement on high-stakes tests and that such tests are a stronger predictor of college success for upper track students than they are for lower track students. Interviews suggest that these differences can be attributed to different methods of instruction in each track.

Lez Be Honest: Queer Feelings about Women’s Studies at a Public Regional University in the Southeastern United States

This article recounts recent legislative and administrative pressures to close the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of South Carolina Upstate, a senior comprehensive public institution in the state university system experiencing a period of instability marked by budget mismanagement, austerity cuts, and diversity initiatives that appear to serve as cover for a noticeably anti-diversity moment in the history of the institution, leading to an eventual vote of no confidence in the university’s chancellor. Working at the intersection of queerness and emotional disability and routing my story through selected ideas from lesbian-trauma theorists Sara Ahmed, Ann Cvetkovich, and Heather Love, the article conveys the personal toll exacted by the work of tilting the tower and asks whether the discipline of women’s studies offers any reprieve, revisiting meta-disciplinary disavowals of crisis rhetoric, melodrama, and besiegement mentalities that might foreclose such a narrative along the way. Moreover, the article introduces two critical terms to the field of diversity/university studies—“befuddlement” and “circum lesbian locution”—to encapsulate affective strategies that derail conversations about queerness in this particular location and more generally in higher education today.

Modeling radiation conditions in orbits of projected system of small satellites for radiation monitoring

Calculated estimates are presented for the accumulated radiation doses behind the shields of various thicknesses in the orbits of projected at Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics, Moscow State University system of small satellites for radiation monitoring. The results are analyzed and compared with the calculation data for other actively exploited near-Earth orbits.

Peers, Administration, and Mentor Support as Correlates of Completion/Non-Completion of Master's and Doctoral Degrees among Muslim Educators

Tertiary faculty members must finish their master's degree in their field of specialization. However, many tertiary faculties have not been awarded master's degrees or doctoral degrees because of non-completion of their thesis or dissertation. The study aimed to determine the relationship between the barriers in conducting thesis or dissertation and the completion/non-completion of master's and doctoral degrees among Muslim educators who have completed their academic requirements. Purposive sampling was employed in the study. There were 60 participants of which 30 have completed their academic requirements for two years or more, and 30 participants have finished master's and/or doctoral degrees for the purpose of comparison. Based on the results of the study, there is a significant relationship between the degree or course, employment status, faculty rank and number of years in service on the completion or non-completion of master's or doctoral degrees. The participants were largely undecided as to the role of support system as a whole, but there is a significant relationship between peers, administration and mentor support on the completion or non-completion of master's and doctoral degrees. The Mindanao State University system may adopt remedial measures to expose its faculty members and other academics to more research work that will improve their research skills.

Information Technology in Sport Management Curricula

We study the breadth of inclusion of information technology in sport management (SM) programs, surveying program sponsoring colleges and universities within a prominent state-university system. Our results indicate a very low number of SM programs require any type of information technology courses as part of their core requirements. In fact, only three programs have a requirement for a technology course specific to SM. To aid in the adoption of software and information technology into SM programs, we researched software systems that may provide skills to enhance the various components of SM. In an effort to make our recommendations even more meaningful, we pair specific software programs and their attributes with particular courses in SM. Moreover, we consider the common professional component requirements of the SM accrediting body Commission on Sport Management Accreditation and make suggestions as to how our software discoveries might aid colleges and universities in meeting accreditation requirements.

Rewarding Community-Engaged Scholarship: A State University System Approach

The need for new and revised structures to reward new forms of scholarship is being examined nationally and globally. It is also being examined on campuses that make up the University of Massachusetts system, all which are classified by the Carnegie Foundation for Community Engagement. This paper reports on the collective exploration by the five campuses of the University of Massachusetts to understand whether the existing academic policies sufficiently and appropriately rewarding community engagement and publically engaged scholarship enact the core mission of the University of Massachusetts to effectively generate knowledge, address social issues, and fulfill its academic and civic purposes.

Are e-books for everyone? An evaluation of academic e-book platforms' accessibility features

ABSTRACTWith the increasing prevalence of e-books in academic library collections, faculty and librarians have begun to express concern regarding the accessibility of these digital texts for students with physical or learning disabilities. To begin addressing these concerns, the California State University System's Affordable Learning Solutions initiative—a campaign designed to encourage faculty use of library e-books and open-access texts as replacements for expensive textbooks—funded the Ebooks Accessibility Project at San Jose State University (SJSU). The Ebooks Accessibility Project evaluated the major accessibility features of 16 of the most popular academic e-book platforms in academic libraries. It was discovered that single-publisher platforms, such as Gale, Palgrave, and Springer, offered more accessibility features than aggregators like ProQuest and ACLS Humanities. Both single publisher and aggregator platforms, however, lack basic accessibility features that commercial e-book providers have long offered, such as background contrast adjustment and page reflow. On the positive side, most of the publishers evaluated did offer text resizing (or zoom) and were compatible with some form of screen reading technology, the most important features for users with print disabilities. Librarians are encouraged to let publishers know that accessibility is a major consideration in their e-book adoptions and urge their compliance with common accessibility standards.

Retention and Satisfaction of Novice Teachers: Lessons from a School Reform Model

In many countries, novice teachers, or those with fewer than four years of experience, have a higher turnover rate than do more experienced teachers. Using teacher employment data, we examine whether schools in an American whole-school reform model are better able to retain novice teachers. Using survey data, we investigate whether novice teachers in a particular school reform model are more satisfied with school leadership than their peers in traditional high schools. In this reform model, early college high schools, high schools are located on college campuses and students have the opportunity to earn an associate’s degree or two years of credit in the state university system. This model emphasizes a shared mission and shared leadership. We find that early colleges had a higher turnover rate than their neighbor schools, and a higher percentage of early college teachers were novices. However, these novice teachers were not more likely to leave than novice teachers in traditional schools were. Early college novice teachers received more personalized support and were more satisfied with school leadership than their peers in traditional high schools. Under certain conditions, schools can have higher retention rates for novice teachers.

Slouching toward Student-Centered Assessment

Everyone in the history department offices heard the ibm Selectric typewriter crashing down the stairwell, shattering on the stone steps as it fell. Was it an accident or vindictive sabotage? The professor carrying the typewriter down the stairs maintained that the drop was an accident, but in a department rife with personal and professional discord, the loss of the only electric typewriter available for faculty use in that precomputer era became yet another source of backbiting, recrimination, and rumors. Like any other group of humans joined in time and space, the history department at the State University of New York (suny) College at Plattsburgh has its own unique history, and the typewriter incident symbolizes one important component of that history.1 Throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s, our department became mired in the kind of teaching and research turf wars, personality clashes, grudges, and feuding over everything from curriculum to university resources (such as the only electric typewriter) that too often occur in academia. Severe economic pressures on the New York State university system added to the tensions. In the late 1990s, after some retirements and resignations and with the opportunity for new hires, the senior members of the department resolved to prioritize collegiality, refusing to subject their new colleagues to the same kind of treatment they had suffered. In 1997, at the first of many departmental retreats, they also chose to frame faculty lines thematically rather than by traditional geographic chronology, which lessened friction surrounding research and teaching overlap among professors. This is not to say that we do