Date of Award
8-2014
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (EdD)
Department
Executive Leadership
First Supervisor
Mary Collins
Second Supervisor
Gerry Rooney
Abstract
The relationship between the college union and a sense of community on campus has been written about in monographs, books, and articles for over 100 years. However, little or no empirical evidence exists to confirm this relationship. The purpose of this dissertation study was to identify if there is a relationship between the physical space of the college union and students’ sense of community on campus. The study utilized a secondary data set from one of the largest state systems of public higher education in the United States. Correlation and regression techniques were applied to the results of a satisfaction survey with over 15,000 participants. The results suggest that there is a statistically significant relationship between student satisfaction with the physical spaces of the college campus and student satisfaction with a sense of community. Satisfaction with the college union was found to be the strongest predictor of satisfaction with a sense of community of any of the physical space variables that were included in the study. The study serves as the first quantitative study to provide empirical evidence that there is a relationship between the physical space of the college union and a students’ sense of community on campus. The results suggest that physical space matters and that there is a need for investment in the space and the programs of the college union to positively impact a sense of community on campus.
Recommended Citation
Barrett, Leah A., "The College Union and a Sense of Community for Students in Public Higher Education: Is there a Relationship?" (2014). Education Doctoral. Paper 176.
https://fisherpub.sjf.edu/education_etd/176
Please note that the Recommended Citation provides general citation information and may not be appropriate for your discipline. To receive help in creating a citation based on your discipline, please visit http://libguides.sjfc.edu/citations.