Date Approved

12-1-2017

Embargo Period

12-1-2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

MA Higher Education

Department

Educational Services and Leadership

College

College of Education

Advisor

Sisco, Burton R.

Committee Member 1

Walpole, MaryBeth

Keywords

Belonging, Commuter, Commuting, Honors, Marginality, Mattering

Subject(s)

Universities and colleges--Honors courses; Commuting college students

Disciplines

Higher Education

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the sense of mattering in the Bantivoglio Honors Concentration at Rowan University. A secondary purpose was to use this population to compare feelings of mattering between residential and commuting students. The subjects of this study were 240 Rowan University students who were enrolled in an undergraduate program as well as the Bantivoglio Honors Concentration during the spring semester of 2017. Data were collected using a variation of the College Mattering Inventory (Tovar et al., 2009), which contains 29 Likert scale statements consisting of six subscales that sought to determine students' attitudes toward mattering. Results indicate that students enrolled in the Bantivoglio Honors Concentration had a higher overall sense of mattering when compared to the normative sample by Tovar, Simon, and Lee (2009) as well as a previous study on mattering conducted at Rowan University (McGuire, 2012) with undergraduate students. This study also found that when comparing residential and commuting students in the same concentration, commuter students had all-around lower feelings of mattering and higher feelings of marginality than their residential peers.

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