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The Southeastern United States is home to one of the most culturally resistant arenas for undocumented immigrant students to pursue postsecondary education. Using a transformative mixed methods approach, we explore the multidimensional dynamics of contention that are present as campus administrators navigate the process of serving a group of students who are marginalized due to their unresolved immigration status. Our article contributes to the methodological literature by exemplifying how transformative mixed methods are powerful tools for understanding how the oppression of vulnerable populations is institutionalized in organizational settings.

This chapter presents findings from a national survey that sought to capture the ways practitioners work to integrate both assessment and social justice into their work as central concepts and practices that guide their efforts in student affairs. In so doing, these practitioners are working to reclaim assessment from the traditional, dominant framing of assessment work through neoliberal lenses and advance social justice in higher education.

Using a census sampling, this analysis evaluates the campus structures and practices that are predictive of a campus being affiliated with stakeholder legal advocacy regarding the Fisher Supreme Court affirmative action case of 2013. Findings reveal that a campus utilizing selective admissions operated as a sufficient, but not a necessary, requirement to prompt stakeholders to take a legal position in the case. Also, campuses that enrolled and graduated the largest percentages of nonwhite students were inclined to have stakeholders submit amicus briefs advocating support for UT-Austin and the use of race in selective college admissions.

Arthrospira platensis, known as spirulina, is a cyanobacterium with multiple nutritional benefits, as it contains substantial amounts of proteins, fatty acids, and pigments. However, the production of this microalga has faced significant challenges, primarily related to the cost and composition of the required culture medium for its optimal growth. This study focused on optimizing two nitrogen sources (urea and potassium nitrate) to maximize the growth of A. platensis and the production of phycocyanin, a photosynthetic pigment of significant commercial value. Optimization was performed using the response surface methodology (RSM) with a central composite design (CCD). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was employed to validate the model, which revealed that the different concentrations of urea were statistically significant (p < 0.05) for biomass and phycocyanin production. However, potassium nitrate (KNO3) showed no significant influence (p > 0.05) on the response variables. The RSM analysis indicated that the optimal concentrations of KNO3 and urea to maximize the response variables were 3.5 g L−1 and 0.098 g L−1, respectively. This study offers valuable perspectives for the efficient production of A. platensis while reducing production costs for its cultivation on a larger scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cassie Barnhardt, Marisol Ramos, and Kimberly Reyes share a case study of an undocumented student's academic success to demonstrate the importance of administrative commitment, clarity, and consistency in supporting such students in the unique challenges they face. (Contains 13 notes.)

Background/Context: Education scholars have examined how state policy and informal practice can widen or reproduce racial and gender inequalities in graduate education. Just one empirical study, which focused on psychology programs, has identified organizational practice that supports recruitment and retention of graduate students of color. Focus of study: To identify organizational conditions and specific activities that support diversity in STEM graduate programs, the authors conducted a yearlong case study of a physics program that, for the last decade, has trained about 10% of the Black Ph.D.'s in physics, nationally. They identified and described concrete efforts to enhance access and inclusion, and sought to understand how this program distinguished itself from a traditional physics department. Participants: Study participants consisted of 16 faculty, administrators, administrative staff, and students affiliated with the Applied Physics program at the University of Michigan. Research Design: Data for this qualitative case study was collected through eighteen interviews, two student focus groups, observations of everyday life and special events in the program, and a large amount of documentary data. Guided by the constant comparative method, the analysis assessed convergence and divergence across types of data and across faculty, administrator, staff, and student perspectives. Major findings represent four areas of consensus across participant roles. Findings/Results: Four themes explain how Applied Physics has increased access to and inclusion in a field known for its inequality. The program institutionalized a flexible, interdisciplinary intellectual paradigm; they reconceptualized their vision of the ideal student and reformed admissions accordingly; they empowered administrative staff to serve as cultural translators across racial and faculty-student boundaries; and they worked to create a family-like climate that gave them a competitive advantage over other physics programs. Conclusions/Recommendations: We interpret the findings from the perspective of Charles Tilly's boundary change mechanisms, and conclude that the common thread among the four themes was the program's willingness to erase, relocate, and/or deactivate boundaries that had implicitly created barriers to access and inclusion for underrepresented students. The paper recommends specific steps that graduate programs can take to analyze the symbolic boundaries operating in their own programs, and invites scholars to utilize the boundaries perspective in future research on educational inequality.