Written in Their Own Voice: First-Year and Older Students' Perceptions on Their University's Identity

Abstract

Undergraduate students (218 women, 57 men) attending a Roman Catholic, suburban university with a Franciscan charism tradition completed open-ended items assessing their perception on the mission, vision, and values of their university. However, only 41 lower division, first-year students (33 women, 8 men) and 29 upper division students (22 women, 7 men) actually wrote about different aspects of their school's identity. Qualitative themes emerged in regard to students' assessment of their school identity, such as university mission activities are perceived important, and overall support for different institutional values within the university community.

KEYWORDS:

• qualitative replies
• institutional mission
• undergraduate perceptions

Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the Office of Mission & Values at DePaul University. A poster that included the foundations of this research was presented at the 2011 Midwestern Psychological Association Conference, in Chicago, Illinois, by the first author.

Notes

Note. n =total of 70 respondents.