Literature Review #3

Robert M. Gonyea

George D. Kuh

•  Kuh, G. D., Gonyea, R. M. and Palmer, M. 2001. “The Disengaged Commuter Student: Fact or Fiction?” Commuter Perspectives 27 no. 1: 2-5.
  
• Kuh, Gonyea, and Palmer have collaborated together to research if commuting students are generally less committed to academic pursuits compared to their counterparts who live on campus.
  
• Authors 
  
  George D. Kuh, Ph. D is the Founding Director, Senior Scholar, and Co-principal Investigator at the National Institute of Learning Outcomes Assessment. He has written extensively about student engagement, assessment, institutional improvement, and college and university cultures and consulted with about three hundred fifty colleges and universities in the United States and abroad.
  
  Robert M. Gonyea, Bob Gonyea is associate director of the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research, where he coordinates research and reporting for the National Survey of Student Engagement and associated projects.
  
• Key Terms
  
  Social Competence- a person's ability to get along with other people. It measures the capacity that one can interact positively with others.
  
  Practical Competence- the cognitive skill needed to apply the information that is displayed, given, and learned.
  
• Quotes
  
  "For example, more than two-thirds of first-year students live on campus and nearly all the rest live at some driving distance from the institution. This is not surprising since most traditional age first-year students, particularly at residential colleges, live on campus. This is thought to help them make a successful transition to college life." (Pg. 4)
  
  "Students who drive to campus differ in some key ways from their peers who walk to class or live on campus. For example, they are more likely to be non-traditional age students, first-generation, and students of color. They also spend more time caring for dependents and work more hours off campus, which may also explain in part why they are more likely to be part-time students." (Pg. 6)
  
  "In addition, it appears that the further away from campus (walking distance, driving distance) the less likely a student is to take advantage of the educational resources the institution provides. Thus, proximity to campus makes a difference in commuter students’ level of engagement, with the caveat that in certain aspects of the classroom experience commuters are comparable to their campus-based counterparts." (Pg. 9)
  
• This article actually shines a bigger light on the academic and social success of Commuting Students Vs. Students that Dorm. The biggest factor that limits commuting students is the concept of "engagement". Students that commute find it harder to engage with campus life, because of responsibilities outside of school, and the time spent away from their university. This issue isn't just exclusive to commuters, students that live on campus face this issue as well. I will look further into this with more research.