Date of Award

1-1-2023

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

Department of Educational Policy and Leadership

Content Description

1 online resource (vii, 111 pages) : illustrations

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Gilbert A Valverde

Committee Members

Kathryn S Schiller, Michael Christakis

Keywords

College student, Displaced students, Hurricane Katrina, Natural disaster, Retention, Student success, College students, Academic achievement

Subject Categories

Higher Education

Abstract

This study seeks to understand the effectiveness of impact mitigation strategies developed to assist college students displaced by institutional closure following a natural disaster. A case-study approach focuses on a subset of students displaced by Hurricane Katrina, who enrolled at Syracuse University for the Fall 2005 semester. The study found that Katrina students who availed themselves of this opportunity resided in zip codes with relatively high household incomes when compared to non-Katrina transfer students and therefore were likely to be from households of higher socioeconomic status. The study also found that there was no international student representation in the sample of students who transferred to Syracuse University as Katrina students; and that Katrina students engaged in study abroad experiences at higher rates than their non-Katrina counterparts. Overall, the study found no significant difference in academic outcomes for Katrina transfer students when compared to non-Katrina transfer students. This finding suggests that tuition waiver strategies are effective at mitigating the negative impacts of natural disasters on academic outcomes. The study did find that Katrina students seem to progress toward degree completion at faster rates than their non-Katrina counterparts, which is consistent with them having a higher socioeconomic status. The study highlights the importance of what was not found in the data. In particular, disadvantaged and international students, who are considered to be relatively more vulnerable to natural disasters, seem to not be able to engage in tuition waiver opportunities offered to displaced students as evidenced by their lack of representation in the data. Tuition waiver strategies are therefore effective at mitigating the impact of natural disasters on academic outcomes only for a subset of displaced students.

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