Impact of Undergraduate Research and Student Characteristics on Student Success Metrics at an Urban, Minority Serving, Commuter, Public Institution

Challenges to establishing and maintaining undergraduate research programs include how to demonstrate impact as evidence for future funding, establish eligibility criteria when resources are limited, and assess new components. To address, undergraduate researcher GPA, credit accumulation and time to graduation were evaluated longitudinally, at an urban, public, minority and Hispanic serving, commuter college. Students who participated in undergraduate research and matched peers were also compared. Evaluation revealed that all groups benefited from participation in undergraduate research, whether they had full or part-time status, were STEM or non-STEM majors, or participated in single or multiple semesters of research. Addition of mandatory workshops after the fourth year of the seven years of students evaluated, correlated with longer participation in voluntary undergraduate research. Longer participation correlated with higher GPAs. Students who began research with no GPA, indicating that they were first-time freshmen or transfer students, were more likely to have low GPAs during the semester of participation, suggesting that a successful semester at the college before eligibility may be an evidence-based criteria to implement.

Food Insecurity Prevalence and Correlates in a Diverse Urban College Student Population (P04-054-19)

Objectives To estimate the prevalence of food insecurity and to examine its correlates among students at an urban commuter-college. Methods Cross-sectional survey of 450 students enrolled at an urban commuter-college. Chi-square test was used to assess differences in socio-demographics characteristics, overweight/obesity status, fruit and vegetable consumption and perceived stress by food security level. Results Among students surveyed, 25.6% were food insecure with 12.2% having low food security and 13.3% having very low food security. The rate of food insecurity was significantly higher in black (55.6%) and Hispanic (52.7%) students compared to white (17.7%) and Asian (28.2%) students (P < 0.01). Older students (25–40 y) were also more likely to be food insecure than younger (≤ 25 y) students (42.5% vs. 28.1%; P = 0.02). There were no significant differences in fruit and vegetable consumption, overweight/obese status or perceived stress among food secure and food insecure students. Conclusions Food insecurity was found to be a prevalent problem in this sample, particularly in older, Black and Hispanic students. Colleges and universities must provide options and resources for low-income students to help increase access to and affordability of nutritious foods. Funding Sources “This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under award number ____________. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.”

Commuter College Student Adjustment: Peer Crowd Affiliation as a Driver of Loneliness, Belongingness, and Risk Behaviors

Although previous research has clearly demonstrated the impact that peer crowd affiliation has on socioemotional and risk-related outcomes, very few studies have investigated this relation in samples of emerging adults, and even fewer have focused specifically on commuter college students. Accordingly, the current study aimed to fill this gap in the literature by exploring the relationship between peer crowds and college adjustment at a commuter school. Participants were 663 students at a large public university in Southern California (campus population of 92% commuters). Factor analytic results indicated the presence of four crowd dimensions on campus: (a) social/partiers, (b) creatives and activists, (c) campus active, and (d) international students. Furthermore, path analysis results indicated that these crowd dimensions predict loneliness, college belongingness, and risk behaviors. Overall, the results of this study indicate the presence of a peer crowd landscape unique to commuter schools that has important implications for student adjustment.