This dissertation study deems faculty development critical to meeting challenges associated with retirement, potential professor shortages, increasing adjunct populations, unprepared faculty, and accreditation standards in the community college. The study centers on seeking a current, in-depth understanding of faculty development at Metro Community College (a pseudonym). The participants in this qualitative study consisted of adjunct and full-time faculty members and administrators who communicated their perceptions of faculty development. The analysis discovered faculty member types (progressive and hobbyist adjunct and proactive, active, and reactive full-time faculty) who invest themselves in development differently depending on their position and inclination to participate. Faculty members generally indicated a desire for collegiality and collaboration, self-direction, and individualized approaches to development whereas administrators exhibited a greater interest in meeting accreditation standards and ensuring institutional recognition. The study also discovered a need to consider development initiatives for adjunct faculty members. The dissertation proposes an improved partnership between the adjunct and full-time faculty and the administration.

This study investigated potential relationships between master's level counseling students' levels of ego development and their identified orientations to one of six guiding theories of counseling; students' theoretical orientation classifications when classified according to the theory's domain of emphasis: affective, behavioral, or cognitive; students' degrees of confidence in identifying their theoretical orientations; and students' degrees of comfort in applying their theories in clinical practice. Seventy participants enrolled in a master's level practicum course completed the Washington University Sentence Completion Test, a measure of ego development, and the Counseling Theory Survey, a survey developed by the researcher, in order to identify students' identified theoretical orientations, students' degrees of confidence in identifying their theoretical orientations, and students' degrees of comfort in applying their theories in clinical practice. Ego development level was operationalized as a dichotomous variable consisting of level E5 and below and E6 and above, based on the developmental task attained at E6: a shift from emphasis on in-group identity to self-evaluated standards. To determine potential relationships between the students' ego development levels and their theoretical orientations and their orientations when classified by domain of emphasis, 2 x 4 and 2 x 3 Chi-square analyses were used. Independent t-tests were conducted …

This study employed a qualitative case study method to evaluate the efforts of one university to conduct hazard mitigation and disaster preparedness planning activities and used the Federal Emergency Management Agency framework and selected writings of sociologist and disaster researcher E.L. Quarantelli as models for evaluating the institution's approach. The institution studied was assigned a fictitious name and the identities of the study participants withheld in order to protect the integrity of the institution's planning efforts and its personnel. The study utilized a 92-item questionnaire, field interviews, and review and analysis of documentary materials provided by the institution for data collection purposes. Pattern-matching techniques were applied to identify themes and trends that emerged through the course of data collection. The results indicate the institution has developed an organizational culture that is broadly responsive to and engaged in disaster preparedness planning at multiple levels in a manner generally consistent with principles identified in select writings of Quarantelli. Results further indicate the institution has engaged in identifying hazard mitigation priorities but not in a manner consistent with that advocated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in its publication entitled Building a Disaster-Resistant University.