Understanding student persistence in commuter historically black colleges and universities

Abstract

Theoretical modeling has been a widely used tool in the student persistence literature for many years; however, only recently has it been applied to the Historical Black College or University (HBCU) context in an intentional way. We investigated a theory of student persistence in commuter institutions at 2 commuter HBCUs (N = 147 students). Findings suggest that commuter HBCU students have complicated relationships with their institutions; moreover, theories developed at predominantly White institutions—such as the model tested in this study—hold salience for understanding student persistence at HBCUs. Still, a complete picture of student persistence at HBCUs may benefit from the development of HBCU-specific constructs and models.