Abstract
Captivating Campuses: Proven Practices that Promote College Student Persistence, Engagement, and Success by Nicholas D. Young, Christine N. Michael, and Jennifer A. Smolinksi provides an insightful and solution-focused discussion of the requisite conditions necessary for fostering engagement and a feeling of connection among students within campus learning environments. This comprehensive volume focuses on the context of connection and engagement in a changing world. The book extends beyond traditional discussions of student engagement by taking a broad view of the diverse ways in which engagement and connection is internalized and operationalized by students as well as by focusing upon a wide range of student types within institutions, including traditional-aged residential students, learners who are under-represented in higher education, commuter students, returning adult learners, as well as students studying primarily online. The book contains ten chapters covering issues ranging from student preparation for successful transitions to creative partnerships that engage campuses and surrounding communities. The work also offers chapters on fostering effective academic environments, asset-based academic advising and engaged faculty advisors, and effective online instructional practices leveraging new technological capabilities. The authors’ unique focus on solutions and broadly conceptualizing the ways in which connection occurs is a major strength of the book. This conceptualization provides faculty and student affairs professionals with a holistic framework to examine connection in terms of the academic, psychological, emotional, and social engagement of students, faculty, and staff.
An additional strength of the book is its discussion of connection through high impact practices and strategies for replicating high impact practices across different delivery modes. For example, the text provides examples from the State of Rhode Island’s College Unbound program, an independent non-profit institution founded as a state-approved initiative of big picture learning with grants from the Lumina Foundation and the Nellie Mae Foundation. The College Unbound program illustrates a curriculum comprised entirely of high impact practices engaging under-represented adult online learners. The book also provides a robust discussion of educational equity and how technology can be utilized to expand access to high impact practices throughout higher education. The authors also highlight the importance of meeting students where they are and how that necessitates the use of social media and technology to enhance student-to-student and student-to-faculty engagement as well as strengthening students’ engagement with academic content.
The book provides practical advice on implementing services and programs to meet student needs, including a strong focus on strategies for creating meaningful academic advising. The text advances this discussion through a call for broadening the way academic advising is currently conceptualized within higher education and coupling it with student professional development, academic counseling, and career and co-curricular mentoring. The book describes advising as teaching and underscores that the integration of technology, rapport-building tools, and opportunities to partner with faculty to build connections between real-life and academic content are essential components of meaningful academic advising. The text also recognizes the need for faculty training in both the art and science of academic advising as well as the importance of finding alternative ways of rewarding service.
Readers seeking an in-depth analysis of a singular theory of student engagement that underpins each of the chapters will not find it in this book. Rather, the text provides a succinct overview of seven theories that help inform the topic of college student engagement, including theories from Csikszentmihalyi, Tinto, Astin, Stanford, Schlossberg, Rendon, and Stayhorn. While these overviews may limit the depth of analysis of theory-to-practice, the introduction of multiple theories does strongly reinforce the book’s emphasis on viewing the concepts of engagement and connection more broadly.
Captivating Campuses: Proven Practices that Promote College Student Persistence, Engagement, and Success can serve as a helpful resource to facilitate discussion with students about connections and engagement within their campus environments. Higher education administrators, student affairs administrators, and faculty advisors will find the case studies and practical recommendations especially helpful in reflecting on the effectiveness of their own academic environments, retention initiatives, collaborations, and advising programs. The thought-provoking chapters will provide a valuable resource to facilitate an important discussion on student engagement and connection for those working in a wide variety of campus communities.