Research Blog #10

Commuters Must Not Be Lost on the Road to Higher Education

Abstract
This research paper will explore the effects being a commuting student has on academic and social status. A majority of commuters naturally face multiple responsibilities including, a job, household and family tasks, transportation, as well as academics. As a result, commuters are naturally unable to devote their full time and energy when it comes to college. One of the more underrated aspects of college is its transformative qualities. Young adults, not only gain the skills and knowledge to become independent adults, but they also gain a new perspective, a new identity, and new relationships. Commuter students with their time stretched to the limit are unable to fully experience college’s transformative power. This differs greatly from their counterparts: students who live on campus. This demographic of students has the opportunity spend their time, energy, and resources exclusively to their education and their lives on campus. As the privatization of public universities progressed, the costs of tuition increased, and the financial burdens have forced several families to make sacrifices in order for their children to attend school. Less affluent students are commuting now more than ever. Research has shown students who reside off campus tend to have a much more difficult time during their college experiences than those students who live on campus. While it is believed that students tend to do worse because they lack motivation as a result of distance, research has revealed that an even larger contribution is that commuting students have the motivation, but due to external factors they are unable to fully engage in the college experience. The privatization of public universities has created an environment that disrupts commuters on their path to education and sabotage their ability to grow into adults.

Works Cited
  1. Armstrong, Elizabeth, and Laura Hamilton. Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality. Harvard UP, 2013.
  2. Astin, A.W. What Matters in College: Four Critical Years Revisited. Jossey-Bass. 1993.
  3. Biddix, Patrick. Understanding and Addressing Commuter Student Needs. Jossey-Bass. 2015.
  4. Darling, R.A. “Creating an Institutional Academic Advising Culture that Supports Commuter Student Success.” New Directions for Student Services. 2004.
  5. Jacoby, Barbara. “Enhancing Commuter Student Success: What’s Theory Got to Do with It?” Understanding and Addressing Commuter Student Needs. 2000.
  6. Kuh, G. D., Gonyea, R.M., & Palmer M. “The Disengaged Commuter Student: Fact or Fiction?” Commuter Perspectives, 27 (1), 2-5. 2001.
  7. Nathan, Rebekah. “Student Culture and Liminality.” My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student. Penguin, 2006. 146-153.
  8. Newbold J.J. “Lifestyle Challenges for Commuter Students.” International Journal of Education Research. 2011.
  9. Newbold, J.J., Mehta, S.S, & Forbus, P.R., “A Comparative Study Between Non-Traditional Students in terms of demographics, attitudes, behavior, and educational performance.” International Journal of Education Research. 2010.
  10. Tinto, Vincent. “Taking Retention Seriously: Rethinking the First Year of College” NACADA Journal. 19(2), 5-9. 1999.
  11. Webber, K.L., Krylow R.B., Zhang, Q., “Does Involvement Really Matter? Indicators of College Student Success and Satisfaction.” Journal of College Student Development. Vol. 54, No. 6. 2013.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Research Blog #1

Image
Topic: On-Campus vs. Commuting I have been a commuter for the majority of my attendance at Rutgers. My first year I was a resident  at the University and resided in a dorm. In order to save money I moved back home, and have been commuting to school for the last three years. I believe that commuting and residing at the dorms each had there pros and cons for my academic and social college experience. I would like to research the statistics of students who both dormed and then commuted and their academic performance as a result. I would also like to look at their social life and if they preferred one over the other.
Read more

Literature Review #3

Image
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 Soc
Read more

Literature Review #1

Image
John J. Newbold John J. Newbold, Sanjay S. Mehta, Patricia Forbus. "Commuter Students: Involvement and Identification with Institution of Higher Education."  Academy of Educational Leadership Journal . Pg 141-153 (2011). The reading discusses the conflicts students have with commuting to college. Their academic performances, involvement with their school, and relationships on campus are all affected by their off-campus lifestyle. Part-time work, family, and the stresses of travel are all factors that can affect their academic lives as well. Newbold, Mehta, and Forbus discuss their findings compared to their data on students who reside on campus. The authors for this paper are Dr. John J. Newbold, Sanjay S. Mehta, and Patricia Forbus who are all professors at Sam Houston University in Tennessee. They each are certified marketing professors and have written several papers regarding student struggles in relation to commuting. They together written an article called, Un
Read more