Phyllis McCluskey-Titus and Coauthor Rebecca Oliver from University of Kansas examine the relationship between the level of community that exists on an undergraduate residence hall floor and the grades earned by students on that floor.
This study tested the researchers' hypothesis that undergraduate floors with stronger, more positive communities would have greater student academic success, as evidenced by higher grades. This work is in support of the new, intentional community development models being used in undergraduate residence halls. These models include Building a Strong Involving Community (B.A.S.I.C.) and the American College Personnel Association's Student Learning Imperative. By determining specific factors that enhance community and academic achievement, this study increases the practical knowledge base of student affairs professionals.
The University Residence Environment Scale (Moos, 1979) was modified from 100 to 26 items and distributed to 1,880 residence hall students. Using a Likert scale, the questions reflected all 10 aspects of community measured in the Moos survey, but were assigned to one or more of the following five major categories: sense of belonging, academics and studying, intellectual development, social activities, and relationships. Thirty-nine percent or 726 surveys were returned covering 73 floors, the majority of respondents being traditional college freshmen. All five categories were significantly correlated, with floor GPA having a weak but significant relationship (p ≤ .05) with sense of belonging and intellectual development. Using a two-tailed t-test, significant differences (p ≤ .05) were revealed between male and female responses in sense of belonging, intellectual development, social activities, and relationships, as well as statistically significant (p ≤ .01) differences in mean semester grade point averages between male and female floors.
The results indicate that future integration of academics into the residence hall setting may be valuable in creating a "seamless" learning community. Structured community activities in residence halls are shown to have a positive impact on student achievement and may indicate the need to focus more on community development strategies for males. Incorporating community development activities for nonresident students is also supported by this research. A five campus follow-up to this study is currently in press.
McCluskey-Titus, P., and Oliver, R. (2001). The relationship between community development and academic achievement of undergraduate students in residence halls. Journal of College Student Affairs, 20, 12-21.
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