Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to examine matriculating freshmen who worked on-campus during the fall semester of 1991 to see if they persisted in greater rates than similar students who did not work on-campus. This project also provided a profile of freshmen students who worked on-campus during fall semester of 1991.The project consisted of freshmen (N=3,578) who matriculated at Ball State University during the fall semester of 1991. In response to the research questions, two sub-groups were defined. The first group consisted of 477 Ball State University freshmen matriculates that worked on-campus during the fall semester of 1991. The second group consisted of the remaining 3,101 Ball State University freshmen matriculates that did not work on-campus during the fall semester of 1991.Nearly 93 percent of the freshmen matriculates working on-campus during the fall semester of 1991 returned for spring semester 1992 while 90.9 percent of non-workers returned for the second semester of their freshman year. Workers returned for the fall semester of 1992 at a rate of 78 percent, compared to 77.3 percent of non-workers. Nearly 66 percent of non-workers returned for a third year while the workers returned at a rate of 67.2 percent. In the fall of 1994, nearly 62 percent of workers returned for the fourth year of study while 59.9 percent of non-workers returned. Returning for a fifth year of study was 42.9 percent of those who worked on-campus as first semester freshmen as compared to 44 percent of non-workers. Those who worked on-campus, and had not yet earned a degree, returned at a rate of 18.4 percent for fall semester 1996. Nearly 18 percent of the non-workers returned for a sixth year at Ball State University.The proportion of workers and non-workers who got a degree by July, 1997, was similar for freshmen matriculating in the fall of 1991. Overall, 53.4 percent of freshmen matriculating in the fall semester of 1991 earned either an associate or baccalaureate degree by conclusion of the summer semester of 1997. Fifty-six percent of the 1991 freshmen matriculating class who worked on-campus graduated within six years compared to 53 percent of non-workers.The findings indicated that working on-campus as a matriculating freshman does not hinder students' academic persistence from fall to spring of their first year or year to year thereafter. Also, working on-campus does not reduce students' academic persistence to graduation.