RECASTING COLLEGIATE ESPORTS: INDEPENDENCE AND INTERDEPENDENCE OF UNIVERSITY TWITCH STREAMERS

Few online communities exhibit the tensions between independence and interdependence better than collegiate esports. Twitch, the primary platform for live streaming esports, is central in such strife. The platform is a vital tool for colleges and athletes to forward brand, community, and entrepreneurship, while simultaneously its unbridled use indicates the need for administration and institutional interventions by universities. As such the proposed study aims to illuminate how collegiate esports clubs, including players, administrators, and program directors, use Twitch to promote independence and interdependence with esports publishers, players, fans, and college culture. Preliminary findings from 19 interviews with athletes and directors suggest some commonalities, particularly in optimism about the platform as a tool for entree into the industry. However, beyond this, directors and athletes diverged when it came to how Twitch should be employed, the labor required to successfully navigate the program, and concerns over toxic behavior associated with competitive gaming that manifested during live play. Finally, grey areas colored the interdependency between Twitch and the university. Monetization and use of streams were not clearly articulated, along with undefined policies on how to act professionally and represent universities on the platform. Ultimately, these early findings point to the lack of knowledge and flexibility of institutions like universities as they increasingly rely on platforms to foster online and offline communities.

Risky Casual Sex and Posttraumatic Stress in College Females: An Examination of Assault History, Self-Esteem, and Social Support

Casual sex, although common in college culture, can increase the risk of sexual victimization, which in turn can lead to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This study examined sexual victimization, self-esteem, and social support as relative predictors of PTSD and risky casual sex (RCS) in a sample of 229 female undergraduates. Results suggested that enhancing self-esteem may have a greater relative impact on PTSD symptoms compared with social support, even after accounting for the impact of sexual victimization. Moreover, a reduction in PTSD symptoms may have the potential to minimize RCS. Future research is needed to determine temporal relations among these variables.

Stigma in Class: Mental Illness, Social Status, and Tokenism in Elite College Culture

The majority of mental illness on college campuses remains untreated, and mental illness stigma is the most common reason for not seeking mental health treatment. Compared with affluent students, working-class students are at greater risk of mental illness, are less likely to seek treatment, and hold more stigmatized views toward people with mental illness. Research on college culture suggests that elite contexts may be associated with greater stigmatization of illness. This study asks how social status and college context together predict students’ mental health attitudes. A survey of Ivy and non-Ivy League undergraduates ( n = 757) found that lower status students’ perceptions of themselves as status minorities may be responsible for greater stigmatization of mental illness in elite contexts. Elite academic institutions bolster cultures of individualism and perfectionism, which encourage students to adopt stigmatizing views. In addition, these processes may be even more harmful to lower status students who are underrepresented on their elite college campuses. Results suggest that elite colleges need to evaluate the negative effects their culture and norms have on students’ mental health attitudes, and that increasing socioeconomic diversity may improve lower status students’ mental health attitudes.

Native American Cultural Identity Exploration in Their Postsecondary Education

Thirteen percent of American Indians/Alaskan Natives have achieved a bachelors' degree or higher compared to 28% of the overall United States population. Improving Native American educational attainment is critical as a pathway to economic prosperity and social equality. The problem is that educational leaders do not know what American Indians/Alaskan Natives consider a successful educational experience as aligned with their cultural identity. The purpose of this qualitative narrative inquiry was to examine the post-secondary experiences of American Indians/Alaskan Natives through their online stories via social media. Results showed the American Indians/Alaskan Natives' culture dominated their educational experience, and they were unlikely to widen their social identity. Moving from a mono-cultural view to one that includes a Eurocentric college culture could be contributory and fruitful. Online education might allow these Native American students to remain in their culture and still experience the Eurocentric college culture.

Principals’ Decision-Making Practices at Public Degree Colleges Sindh: Teachers’ Perceptions

This study investigates the impact of principal’s commitment on the power, college culture, and college effectiveness in decision-making practices at public degree colleges of Sindh and to determine the effect of participative decision-making to improve the overall performance of teachers and students. The sample comprising n=646 (n=426 (66%) male and n=220 (34%) female) teachers was randomly selected from amongst 122 colleges out of 244 public degree colleges of Sindh. The principal’s decision-making practices were measured through four latent well-established constructs, which include principal’s commitment, principal’s power, college culture, and college effectiveness. This study is quantitative in nature wherein the researcher used exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to estimate the validity and reliability of the measurement or outer model through SPSS version 19 and AMOS statistical software. However, the model fitness was ensured with the help of seven frequently reported goodness of fit indices. Results revealed that there is a statistically significant impact of principals’ commitment on power as sig. value is .000, there is a statistically significant impact of principals’ power on college culture as sig. value is .035 and there is a statistically significant impact of college culture on college effectiveness as sig. value is .007 in decision-making practices at public degree colleges of Sindh. Future studies may ascertain the impact of principal’s power and commitment on the college effectiveness using college culture as mediator in participatory decision-making practices in the context of Pakistan.

Sexual Assault on College Campuses in the United States

Sexual assault on college campuses is a global issue, with women’s victimization rates ranging from 13.8% in Nigeria to 77.6% in Turkey. Although the vast majority of studies on this particular form of violence against women have been conducted in the United States, studies from throughout the world have revealed the epidemic of sexual violence on college campuses. This chapter surveys the prominence of sexual victimization on college campus and discusses college subcultures, diversity considerations, endorsement of rape culture, prevention programming, and current political policy debates that impact a solution for college sexual assault predation. Global incidence is discussed, but this discussion is framed within the US college culture. The chapter concludes with a discussion of current advocacy efforts and some recommendations for change within prevention programming.

#MishLife

This chapter introduces the socio-cultural milieu of millennial-generation Catholic missionaries in the United States. It describes the twenty-first century college culture that missionaries know well and the Catholic subculture that surrounds FOCUS. Missionaries are also situated on a US Catholic landscape still wrestling with interpretations of the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II, 1962–65). Demographically, these missionaries are predominantly white millennials and from the middle class. They are also “emerging adults” in the midst of a transition-filled stage of life. This introduction previews how missionaries’ prayer practices shape their Catholicism and concludes with a survey of the research methods used and the book’s historically informed ethnographic approach to Catholicism in the United States.