An Examination Of The Relationship Between Campus Involvement And Perception Of Community Among Seniors Attending Mississippi's Public Universities
This study was conducted to examine the relationship between level of involvement and perception of community for senior students attending Mississippi's public universities. Data were collected using an online survey instrument consisting of questions from the college and university community inventory (Mcdonald, 1997) to measure community constructs and the college student experiences questionnaire (pace & Kuh, 1998) to measure involvement constructs. The study was conducted during the spring 2011 term and included 1,086 senior students. Resulting Pearson's correlation figures suggest a moderately significant relationship exists between level of involvement and perception of community for students in the study. This relationship was evident by gender, ethnicity, campus residency, transfer status, and age. Data also indicate significant differences in the perception of community were present by gender and ethnicity. There were also significant differences in the levels of involvement by campus location, transfer status, and age. Findings suggest a moderate correlation exists between level of involvement and community, indicating students with higher levels of campus involvement generally report higher perceptions of community making them more likely to share the values, practices, and goals of the institution.
Community, Involvement, Mississippi, Seniors, Survey, Higher Education
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