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PART-TIME ENROLLMENT AND STUDENT-FACULTY INTERACTION

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Running Head: PART-TIME ENROLLMENT AND STUDENT-FACULTY INTERACTION The Individual and Environmental Effects of Part-Time Enrollment Status on Student-Faculty Interaction Thomas F. Nelson Laird Ty M. Cruce Indiana University Division J, Section 3: Teaching, Learning, Assessment, and Evaluation Please direct correspondence to: Thomas F. Nelson Laird Indiana University Bloomington 1900 East Tenth Street Eigenmann Hall Suite 419 Bloomington, IN 47406-7512 [email protected] Abstract Based on over 55,000 responses from seniors at 224 public colleges and universities, this study focuses on the difference between full-time and part-time students’ interactions with faculty, the effect of those interactions on self-reported gains in general education, and the differential impact of institutions with greater percentages of part-time students. We found, not surprisingly, that part-time students interact with faculty less and report slightly less gains in general education than their full-time peers. We also found that the proportion of part-time students is a negative predictor of full-time student interactions with faculty, suggesting that campuses with greater percentages of part-time students are negatively effecting the engagement of full-time students. The effect of student-faculty interaction on self-reported gains in general education was relatively strong for all students (in fact, slightly stronger for part-time students), which implies that campuses that can find a way to increase the student-faculty interaction of full-time and part-time students will see a beneficial impact on student outcomes.3 The Individual and Environmental Effects of Part-Time Enrollment Status on Student-Faculty Interaction In a recent article offering ten directions for future research on the impact of college, Pascarella (2006) praised the efforts of researchers in the 1990s who considered previously ignored students and institutions, and he called for the expansion of that work in the current decade to include an even broader array of student and institution types. Part-time students, those students enrolled in fewer credit hours than necessary to be considered full-time, are among those who have been largely ignored in the literature on college impacts. Yet, in 2004, part-time students represented 37.2% of the total undergraduate enrollment in two- and four-year degree-granting postsecondary institutions in the U.S., and the representation of part-time students is projected to decrease only slightly (35.7%) by 2015 (U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2006). In addition, the effects of those postsecondary institutions that educate a disproportionate share of part-time students – often large public, commuter institutions within urban settings – have also been under-examined relative to the environmental impacts of more residential campuses with few part-timers. Given the significant presence of these students within higher education, the dearth of empirical research on the learning and development of part-time students as well as the effect of institutions with larger percentages of part-time students is surprising. Part-Time Student Engagement and Outcomes The little we know about part-time students’ collegiate experiences comes largely from descriptive findings from national studies. The evidence that exists suggests that part-time status is generally negatively associated with measures of collegiate success. Compared to full-time students, a smaller percentage of part-time students – at least those that start part-time – ever4 complete a degree (Snyder, Tan, & Hoffman, 2006) and, for those that do, it obviously takes longer than their full-time colleagues to finish. Recent studies have also reported that during any particular term in college, part-timers engage in educationally purposeful activities less than their full-time counterparts and spend more time on activities that can detract from their collegiate experience, such as working off-campus and caring for dependents (National Survey of Student Engagement [NSSE], 2004, 2006). In particular, part-timers are less likely than full-time students to participate in a learning community, in a practicum or internship, in community service or volunteer work, or in foreign language coursework (NSSE, 2004; Zhao & Kuh, 2004). Part-time students generally view their campus environments as less supportive and spend less time studying and participating in co-curricular activities than full-timers (NSSE, 2000, 2001, 2004). Although descriptive findings support the idea that part-time students are less involved than their full-time peers, and although a few studies (e.g., Pascarella, Bohr, Nora, & Terenzini, 1996) that have examined the differences in student outcomes by enrollment status confirm that part-timers gain less, surprisingly few studies of good educational practices or of college student outcomes have focused on the differences between full-time and part-time students on these measures. Rather, numerous recent studies of student engagement and college impact use enrollment status as a statistical control, but most of these studies do not report the net effects of this variable in their published form (e.g., Pascarella, et al., 2006; Pascarella, Wolniak, Cruce, & Blaich, 2004; Kuh, & Huh, 2001; Kuh, Hu, & Vesper, 2000; Nelson Laird & Kuh, 2004). The measures of collegiate success cited above have been developed out of several frameworks for studying college students that have directly linked developmental gains during college to the extent to which students participate in those educationally purposeful activities that have long been associated with traditional students (e.g., Astin, 1984; Chickering & Gamson,5 1987; Pace, 1980, 1984; Pascarella, 1985). For example, according to the related conceptions of student involvement (Astin, 1984), quality of student effort (Pace, 1980, 1984), and student engagement (Kuh, 2001, 2003), the amount of learning or personal development that a student attains from his or her education is directly related to the quality and quantity of the time and energy the student invests in his or her educational activities. Since part-time students are taking fewer classes and participating in co-curricular activities less than full-timers in a given academic term, it follows that part-time students would get less out of that term’s college experiences. What


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