Action-based research to improve college student experiences and success.
Refereed journal articles
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Desta, K., Grabsch, D. K., Honors, K., Igwe-Icho, P., Kunovich, S. & Quezada Pineda, C. (2024). Revisiting college access and equity: Perspectives of continuing-generation college students on their first-generation peers. Journal of First-Generation College Student Success, 4(1): 1 – 25.
Although researchers have primarily focused on the experiences of first-generation college students, it is crucial to understand the perspectives of students whose parents have also attended college. We conducted 21 individual interviews with such students to learn about their pre-…
Carter, K., Grabsch, D. K., & Nadler, M. (2023). Exploring the relationship between residential affinity efforts and sense of belonging. Journal of College and University Student Housing. 50(1): 74-99.
College students seek to belong, and higher education institutions seek to cultivate belonging. Though many studies have examined sense of belonging in higher education institutions in general and living-learningcommunities in particular, we have focused on how students are impacted by…
Webb, H., Kulkarni, N. & Grabsch, D. K. (2024). Thriving in college: International, first-generation, and transfer students. SMU Journal of Undergraduate Research, 8(1): 1 – 11.
Underrepresented-student groups experience unique challenges throughout their college experience, the impacts of which can beassessed by measuring students’ levels of thriving. The purpose of this study was to understand the thriving of underrepresented college students—first-generation, international, and transfer students, specifically.…
Mangum, M., Grabsch, D. K., Waddell, Z., & Barta, J. (2023). Transfer-student entry to the university: Experiences of mattering and marginalization. Journal of The First-Year Experience & Students in Transition, 35(2), 53-75.
Students who matriculate into a new institution after transferring from a two-year or four-year college experience specific challenges throughout their transition. An important part of the transition is the entry of the student at the new institution. Specifically, a transfer…
Grabsch, D. K., Moore, L. L., Levesque, M., & Robinson, T. (2023). Using Community Cultural Wealth: An Asset-Based Approach to Persistence of On-Campus Black and Latinx Collegians. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, (Ahead of print). https://doi.org/10.1177/15210251231192884
In this qualitative study, we took a novel approach of adopting an asset-oriented mindset based on Yosso’s community cultural wealth framework. We conducted individual interviews at a large land-grant institution to understand the experiences of Black- and Latinx-identified on-campus collegians.…
Bell, L., Sheedy, F., Davis, V. & Grabsch, D. K. (2023). Exploring the sacred beliefs of college students. College Student Journal. 57(2): 113-126.
Student beliefs profoundly affect their identity and impact other student outcomes during their years in college, but contemporary research on college students’ sacred-belief identifiers is scant. We utilized a constructivist, mixed-methods, explanatory, sequential design and surveyed 201 college students and…
Mucci-Ferris, M., Grabsch, D. K. & Bobo, A. (2023). Forced transition: Impact of COVID-19 on the college student experience. Education. 143(4): 177-191.
In spring of 2020, COVID-19 forced students to transition their college experience. A global pandemic provides the opportunity to understand a forced transition experienced by an entire college-student population. We captured this experience for 17 four-year, United States, undergraduate college…
Moore, L. L., Grabsch, D. K., & Mazzolini, A. (2023). Pathways into the profession: Student affairs professionals tell all. Journal of Student Affairs Inquiry. 6(1): 102-113. http://www.studentaffairsassessment.org/jsai-volume-6
Student affairs professionals often find their way to the field on accident rather than on purpose. This study explored avenues used by current student affairs professionals to enter the profession. Content analysis of open-ended responses revealed six themes related to…
Betts, M., Grabsch, D.K., Davis, V.D., Bell, L., & Sheedy, F.A. (2022). Exploring the motivations of students to engage in their spiritual, religious, or faith lives in college. Journal of Beliefs & Values. 44(3), 441-454. https://doi.org/10.1080/13617672.2022.2147684
College students engage with religion, faith, and spirituality for a variety of reasons; however, current literature exploring these motivations is limited. We utilized a constructivist, qualitative, phenomenological design and surveyed 201 students to understand their motivations for pursuing faith, religion,…
Grabsch, D.K., Jennings-Rentz, A., Kunovich, R.M., Hinduja, S. and Chinnam, D. (2022), Collegiate social class and connectedness: class in a transitional period of life. Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, 15(5). 1457-1480. https://doi.org/10.1108/JARHE-05-2022-0132
Purpose This research study set out to answer the following question: How does social class relate to social connectedness in college? Design/methodology/approach The authors operationalized a nonexperimental, cross-sectional and analytical study design to analyze 271 survey responses. Findings This study…
Nadler, M., Saeed, S., & Grabsch, D. K. (2022, November). Students’ lived experiences of NACE competencies within collegiate residential life. Journal of College and University Student Housing. 49(1): 32-52.
The residential community is a key part of the college experience simply because students spend a large majority of their time in the places where they live. Given this fact, a student’s interactions and engagement with their community can positively…
Leibowitz, R., Grabsch, D. K., Chinnam, D., Webb, H. & Kunovich, S. (2022). Exploring the differences among motivations, advantages, and disadvantages of multiple majoring by student characteristics. Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education. Vol. 15 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/JARHE-11-2021-0442
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to understand the differences in motivations, advantages, disadvantages and time of multiple-major awareness among students who pursue multiple majors based on a set of defined characteristics. The student characteristics of interest included…
Grabsch, D. K., Webb, H., Leibowitz, R., Chinnam, D., Bell, L. & Kunovich, S. (2022) Examining the Motivations, Advantages, and Disadvantages Experienced by Undergraduate Students Who Pursue Multiple Majors. College Student Journal. 56(2): 135-150.
We sought to understand the motivations of undergraduate students who pursue multiple majors or degrees. Utilizing a sequential, exploratory, mixed-methods design, in phase one we interviewed 37 students currently pursuing multiple majors to determine themes in their expressed motivations. Following…
Grabsch, D. K., O’Brien, L., Kirschner, C., Chinnam, D., Waddell, Z., Leibowitz, R., Madsen, M. (2022). Characterizing Nonreturning College Students and Their Departure Intentions. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice. Doi: 10.1177/15210251211056296
Success for 4-year universities is often measured by graduation and retention rates; however, gaps exist in understanding nonreturning students at private institutions. Recent research is helping to build the lexicon of drop-outs, stop-outs, opt-outs, and transfer-outs to inform strategic retention…
Grabsch, D. K., Bell, L., Webb, H., Stoehr, G., & Kulkarni, N. (2021, October). A thematic analysis of conference programs for residential college professional associations. Journal of College and University Student Housing. 48(1): 80-97.
Many professional associations in higher education hold conferencesand conventions on a recurring basis, often with residential college stakeholders taking part. Using a qualitative historical research perspective, we derived themes from conference program schedules (e.g., program session titles, presenters, presenter affiliations)…
Beck, A., Nadler, M., & Grabsch, D. K. (2021, October). A content analysis of college student-proposed definitions of sense of belonging to a residential community. Journal of College and University Student Housing. 48(1): 30-45.
Though college students’ sense of belonging has been a frequent subject of research, what it means in terms of a residential community remains unclear, specifically what it means from a student perspective. We sought to fill this gap by providing…
Grabsch, D. K., Moore, L. L., & Dooley, K. (2021). Active identities and their levels in college student leadership. Journal of Leadership Education. 20(3): 57-74. doi: 10.12806/V20/I3/R3
Identity has emerged as a compelling force in understanding leadership. Situated within the identity approach to leadership, this study explored identity within the context of leadership for both assigned (i.e., positional)and emergent (i.e., nonpositional) student leaders. Findings from this study…
Grabsch, D. K., Melton, H. & Gilson, C. B. (2021). Understanding the expectations of students with autism to increase satisfaction with the on-campus living experience. Journal of College and University Student Housing. 47(2): 24-43.
Students in the autism community are a currently underrepresented, yet growing, population in higher education, which strives to understand student experiences on campus and find ways to better support students with autism. This qualitative research study examined the expectations and…
Mucci-Ferris, M., Grabsch, D. K. & Bobo, A. (2021). Positives, negatives, and opportunities arising in the undergraduate college experience due to COVID-19. Journal of College Student Development. 62(2): 203-218. doi: 10.1353/csd.2021.0017
The global COVID‑19 pandemic will be a memorable part of the college student experience from Spring 2020 through the semesters that followed. Higher education administrators and student affairs leadership have faced many concerns during the pandemic, including the remote learning…
Grabsch, D. K., Webb, S., Moore, L. L. & Dooley, K. E. (2021). A qualitative study exploring the decision-making experience to participate in high-impact practices. College Student Affairs Journal. 39(1): 88-102. doi: 10.1353/csj.2021.0006
High-impact practices in education can have a transformative influence on students’ educational growth and personal development; however, research suggests that not all students participate in these educationally purposeful activities. Some institutions have integrated high-impact-practice programs into the curriculum to center…
Grabsch, D. K., Pena, R. A., & Parks, K. (2020). Expectations of students participating in voluntary peer academic coaching. Journal of College Reading and Learning. 51(2): 95-109. doi: 10.1080/10790195.2020.1798827
Peer mentoring and associated programs have gained prominence due to demonstrated positive effects on student retention and matriculation, but scant research exists on voluntary peer academic coaching as part of a peer mentoring program. This study was conducted for two…
Grabsch D. K., Moore, L. L., Bruce, J. & Stephens, C. A. (2020). Agricultural identity influence on student success outcomes within campus climate. North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture Journal, 64(1).
Studies on campus climate continue to be important to higher education to aid in creating safe, diverse, and productive working environments. Prior research has suggested different experiences reported by students, faculty, and staff regarding collective identities like race, sexual orientation,…
Grabsch, D. K. & Moore, L. L. (2021). Leaders’ perspectives: Identity in the context of leadership. Journal of Leadership Education, 20(1): 62-74. doi: 10.12806/V20/I1/R5
This study sought to understand how a leader’s leadership is affected by their salient identities. To achieve this, the study employed a qualitative paradigm using a phenomenological methodology. Ultimately, the study worked to craft a shared understanding of how identity…
Wonson, S., Grabsch, D. K., Moore, L. L., Ogilve, A., Wade, P., & Martinez, K. (2020). Exploring the relationship between participation in a living-learning community and engineering and professional identities. Journal of College and University Student Housing. 47(1), 62-83.
Professional Identity is a concept that has been explored over the years in a number of disciplines, but with little attention paid to engineers. A more specific component of professional identity is engineering identity, which warrants further investigation due to…
Salter, P. S., Grabsch, D. K., Crist, J., Lagisetty, J., Dyer, L., & Olvera, E. (2020). CUE-ing student success: Evaluating academic support spaces in residential communities. Journal of College and University Student Housing. 46(2), 66-87.
Environmental assessment of residence halls and the impact of their associated educational and developmental spaces has concerned housing and residential life professionals for a considerable time. Given this understanding, a number of approaches to conduct environmental assessment have emerged. This…
Grabsch, D. K., Muller, K., & Moore, L. (2019). Self-reported professional development needs by professional level. College Student Affairs Journal. 37(2): 144-156. doi: 10.1353/csj.2019.0011
With the 2015 update to the professional competencies document for the student affairs profession, the necessity exists to explore the professional development needs in each of the ten competency areas. This study investigates student affairs professionals’ survey responses to determine…
Grabsch, D. K. & Moore, L. L. (2019) Does testing type matter? Comparing the impact of instant and traditional feedback methods on student learning. North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture Journal, 63(2): 344-348.
Recent research on student learning has suggested that immediate feedback provides better retention of information and, therefore, better student performance as compared with delayed feedback. Here, students completed four course exams during one semester that used response formats providing either…
Muller, K., Grabsch D. K., Moore, L. L. (2018). Factors influencing student affairs professionals’ attainment of professional competencies. Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice. 55(1): 54-64. doi: 10.1080/19496591.2017.1345755
Limited research exists that examines factors influencing student affairs professionals’ attainment of the professional competencies that are expected of them. The study described in this article analyzed student affairs professionals’ survey responses to determine which demographics, pre-professional experiences, and educational…
Moore, L. L., Grabsch, D. K., & Rotter, C. A. (2010). Using achievement motivation theory to explain student participation in a residential leadership learning community. Journal of Leadership Education, 9(2), 22-34. doi: 10.12806/V9/I2/RF2
This study sought to examine student motives for participating in a residential leadership learning community for incoming freshmen using McClelland’s Achievement Motivation Theory (McClelland, 1958, 1961). Eighty-nine students began the program in the Fall 2009 semester and were administered a…
Book chapters
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Grabsch, D. K., Eidum, J. E., Penven, J. C., & Post, J. B. (2023). Who? What? Where? Why? Understanding faculty-in-residence programs. In J. E. Eidum & L. Lomicka (Eds.), The faculty factor: Developing faculty engagement with living learning communities. Stylus.
This practical resource examines how colleges and universities foster sustainable faculty involvement in living learning communities (LLCs). This volume delivers evidence-based research as well as practical examples and voices from the field, to guide and support faculty serving in different capacities in LLCs, to serve as a resource for student affairs practitioners collaborating with faculty…
Dustin K. Grabsch, Ph.D. 