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Local-level, place-based scholarships – synonymous with "promise" scholarships – are a policy strategy to improve college completion in the United States by directing financial aid to students in a particular school, district, or geographical area. There are currently upwards of 90 place-based scholarship programs across the US, most of which share three broad goals: to increase postsecondary access by making college more affordable, to build a college-going culture, and to catalyse economic development by drawing middle- and upper-class families to an area and retaining existing residents. As place-based scholarships grow in popularity and more communities, especially ones seeking economic revitalisation, consider investing resources in their own scholarships, there is interest in what impact, if any, these programs have. This paper reviews the research on place-based scholarships, which demonstrates generally positive effects on district enrolment, postsecondary enrolment and persistence, and housing prices. While there is some evidence of improvement in teacher expectations and school climate, the scholarships have not been associated with fundamental changes inside schools. Although most programs have not been empirically studied, the 33 studies included in this review indicate that place-based scholarships have the potential to foster change within school districts and struggling cities and promote positive student outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This phenomenological study explored the experiences of students in a macro practice social work elective, which integrated critical service-learning and creative placemaking. In a community-university partnership, twenty-four students from a variety of disciplines worked with a university Artist in Residence and social work professor to create a participatory mosaic mural in an ethnically diverse and rapidly gentrifying area. Of the 21 students in the class, eight participated in the study and completed hour-long semi-structured interviews. Analysis revealed three primary themes: (1) role and power of art, (2) importance of relationships, and (3) impact of this community engagement class. The findings support the importance of art and community- embedded learning in engaging students. Especially relevant to social work education, student learning focused on cultivating communication and collaboration skills across individuals, groups, and communities. This paper will contribute to the growing body of literature which supports the value of critical service-learning, creative placemaking, and community-based collaborations in social work education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we employ Punctuated Equilibrium Theory to consider institutions' shifting goals, priorities, and constraints, and to explore the nature of change at colleges and universities in the United States. By exploiting annual changes in institutional budget decisions over a 29-year period, we seek to understand the extent to which institutions exhibit patterns of punctuated equilibrium, which are characterized by long periods of relative equilibrium (stasis) and of occasional extreme changes (punctuations). Broadly, we find that institutions of higher education allocate funds in a pattern characteristic of Punctuated Equilibrium, and that certain types of institutions are more likely than others to exhibit this pattern. Taken in whole, this paper calls into question a prevailing perspective on change in higher education — that change is slow-moving, moderate, and incremental. Instead, we posit that a framework of Punctuated Equilibrium may better describe how researchers and practitioners should consider institutional change within higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the transformation of Robert College, the first American college founded abroad, from 1923 to 1970. Based on a careful investigation of Robert College archives and personal accounts of the College staff, it contends that the school's missionary character acquired a new identity after the foundation of Republican Turkey. Robert College gradually abandoned its missionary tradition to become an institution of liberal learning in the service of westernizing Turkey. The College presidency and trustees have long elaborated on the new context and trends in liberal education in the United States. At the same time, the Turkish officers and graduates quickly adjusted to this new character immersed in secular values. The College's transition involved a shared commitment going beyond political partnership, reflecting an intellectual vision that came out of long years of negotiations within the College establishment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although many academics in the United States assume that work-life balance, especially for women, is better at teaching-intensive colleges than at research-intensive universities, there is no systematic data to support this belief. We analyzed survey data from 909 faculty at a research-intensive public university, a masters-level public college, and two private colleges to test this assumption. Consistent with their reputation, faculty at the three teaching-intensive colleges reported family/personal life-friendlier departments. Yet we found no difference in work-life integration between faculty at the research university and those at the colleges. After we introduced having a family/personal life-friendly department as a mediator, the faculty at the research university reported more work-life integration than those at the colleges. The assumption that teaching-intensive colleges offer better work-life balance constitutes one layer in the leaky pipeline that reduces the number of women academics working at research universities, thereby reproducing the gender hierarchy in US higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexual harassment in the workplace is an overt form of sexism that reinscribes patriarchal power relations within the university. Despite the perception that many people are reporting their harassment in academia thanks to the MeToo movement, we found the problem largely unreported in our sample of faculty and staff at US universities. Little is known about what drives reporting and disclosure behaviors of faculty and staff within institutions of higher education (IHEs). The present study was designed to examine disclosing and reporting sexual harassment in academia, using a sample of (N = 88) faculty and staff from IHEs who experienced some form of unwanted sexual attention. Approximately 40% did not report or disclose to anyone, and among those who did disclose the harassment they overwhelmingly chose people outside the workplace. The most common reasons for not reporting included not interpreting the event as serious enough, concerns of not being taken seriously, and thinking that nothing would be done. Regression analysis showed that experiencing electronic harassment, but not other forms of harassment, predicted reporting and disclosure. This finding reveals the stereotypes behind 'the perfect victim' are alive and well, continuing to limit the ability of victims to come forward with claims of harassment.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early 1960s, colleges and universities in the United States launched dozens of new pre-college programmes for low-income and predominantly African American high school students. Many of these initiatives were inspired by the civil rights movement. Moved by the sit-ins, marches and boycotts that had riveted the nation, a range of educators – mostly university professors and administrators – created new programmes to help students ill-served by school systems marked by racism and inequality. Many of the leaders of these initiatives hoped not only to support particular students but also to make the United States a more just and equal society and to change the university by opening the door to a more diverse student body. Nevertheless, most pre-college programmes operated under a flawed conception of disadvantage that individualised the 'disadvantaged student' and thus disconnected African American young people from the histories and contemporary struggles of their communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International student services centers (ISSC) at postsecondary institutions in the United States are central to supporting international students' transition and adjustment needs. As leaders of these units, ISSC directors are 'managerial professionals' (MPs), exhibiting characteristics of both traditional academic and administrative roles. These qualities mirror the requisite adaptiveness of their positions, required to navigate the complex international, national, and institutional factors affecting their students and departments. Using Job Crafting Theory, this qualitative study evaluates the experiences of eighteen ISSC directors to explore how, and to what extent, they adapt their jobs in ways related to the creation and integration of meaning. Findings illustrate how participants engaged in cognitive, relational, and task crafting where departmental and institutional goals, students' needs, and personal fulfillment overlapped. The final discussion addresses how institutional leaders, as key partners in successful job crafting, can utilize this framework to support ISSC staff, international students, and promote internationalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

US colleges and universities have operated on the belief that academics need the freedom to question received wisdom, test new pedagogical methods, and produce knowledge that can be transparently shared for the public good. However, the same institutions are increasingly engaged in competition for resources through externally imposed accountability measures, such as performance funding. This article draws upon qualitative data from a year-long ethnographic study of institutional reforms to critically interrogate the impact of performance funding in US higher education. Data depict three ways in which performance funding—and the resulting competitive pressures—negatively impact faculty's ability to impart their expertise for the benefit of their institutions: (1) a diminishment of control over the content of coursework and the curriculum; (2) a decline in shared governance; (3) and a chilling effect on scholarly inquiry and innovation. In turn, the central argument of this article is that institutional competition has the potential to undermine academic freedom and the intrinsic motivation of professors currently working in performance funding environments. This article also contends that similar policies that purport to catalyze positive learning outcomes could actually hinder the open exchange of ideas that foster a productive teaching and learning environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]