Browsing by Author "Byrd, W. Carson"

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    Assessing Campus Community in the Twenty-First Century
    Byrd, W. Carson (Virginia Tech, 2007-04-02)
    The sociological implications of studying campus communities can lead to breakthroughs not only in teaching and improving learning environments, but provide unique and helpful programs to aid diversity, promote unity, and decrease social inequality on campus and in American society. This study applied Boyer's campus community model to assess the campus communities of a private liberal arts college and a public state research university in the Mid-Atlantic. Using a modified version of the College and University Community Inventory (CUCI) administered through a web-based survey software, data on student perceptions of the different aspects of campus community identified by Boyer were collected and analyzed using factor analysis and regression analysis. The factor analysis led the researcher to propose modifications to the survey instrument. The regression analysis found several significant characteristics of undergraduate students and their institutions that can influence their perceptions of the campus community. A discussion of the findings and the implications of the study are presented. The results reported in this study have lead to several recommendations to be developed to enhance and improve the study of the campus community and environment in higher education using the CUCI.
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    “Figuring out your place at a school like this:” Intersectionality and sense of belonging among STEM and non-STEM college students
    Ovink, Sarah; Byrd, W. Carson; Nanney, Megan; Wilson, Abigail (Public Library of Science, 2024-01-10)
    Background Students’ sense of belonging in college—an individual’s feelings of contentment, mattering, importance, and “finding one’s place” in a social setting—can influence choice of major and career trajectory. We contribute to the belongingness literature through a mixed methods intersectional study of students attending a STEM-focused public university we call Meadow State University (MSU). We assess the potential for students’ intersecting social identities to differentially influence their experiences with intersectional oppression—subjection to multiple systems of oppression due to simultaneous membership in more than one marginalized group—that, in turn, may influence their college pathways. In addition, we explore whether intersectional differences affect sense of belonging differently in STEM and non-STEM majors. We employ a mixed-methods approach, informed by critical quantitative methods and in-depth interviews. We utilize quantitative institutional data measuring college satisfaction, expressed as “willingness to return” to the same university, for over 3,000 students during two academic years (2013–14 and 2016–17). Survey data explores college satisfaction as an indicator of intersectional differences in student experiences. Then, we analyze 37 in-depth interviews, collected between 2014–2016 at the same institution, to further contextualize the intersectional variation suggested by survey results. Results Willingness to return is influenced by major, as well as academic, social, and campus belonging. Moreover, the extent to which these factors affected outcomes additionally varied by race/ethnicity, gender, family income, other background factors, and the ways these factors may intersect. Important components of academic belonging included faculty-student interactions, perceptions of academic support, and a privileging of STEM degree programs and students over non-STEM students and their degree programs at MSU. Faculty responsiveness and high impact practices like internships played an important role, particularly in STEM programs. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that, particularly for students of color and those subject to intersectional oppression due to multiple marginalized identities, satisfaction with academics did not always outweigh deficiencies in other areas of campus life shaping belongingness. Conclusions Our mixed-methods approach contributes insights into how and why students’ background, individual choices, and institutional practices concurrently—and intersectionally—influence their ability to form a sense of belonging on campus. Structural changes are required to end practices that support intersecting systems of oppression by favoring White, upper-income men as the “default” STEM students in the U.S. Our research supports growing evidence that institutions must actively build models of inclusion for underrepresented and marginalized groups that address inequitable and unjust practices, providing transformative mentoring and educational guidance that attends to intersectional oppression, in order to effectively support the next generation of women and scholars of color.
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    Interracial Contact Effects on Racial Prejudice among Students at Selective Colleges and Universities
    Byrd, W. Carson (Virginia Tech, 2011-05-02)
    This dissertation examined interracial contact and racial prejudice among white, black, Asian, and Latino college students at 28 elite colleges and universities in the United States. The study used longitudinal analyses to identify how interracial contact among college students influenced students' racial prejudice. White students interacted almost exclusively with each other and with Asian students. Asian students interacted with each other and with white students. Latino students were the most integrated, they interacted with all other student groups at high rates. Black students were the most segregated in their interactions as students of other races had less interactions with them on campus. Cross-race interactions during college did not influence white students' exiting levels of traditional and modern racial prejudice. Cross-race interactions during college had limited influence on black and Asian students' exiting levels of racial prejudice, mostly for traditional forms of racial prejudice. Latino students exhibited the most interracial contact effects on their exiting levels of racial prejudice of all student groups with all traditional and modern forms of racial prejudice influenced by cross-race interactions. The consideration of race as a form of social identity was the most powerful influence on students' exiting levels of racial prejudice for all groups. The context of interracial contact at elite colleges and universities and the existence of racialized stages of interaction are discussed in the final chapter to understand the study findings. Lastly, a discussion of the potential implications of this study's results for future intergroup contact research is also presented.