FINDINGS
Based on the analysis of three semi-structured interviews, we found two major themes participants explained relating their social media and involvement as a commuter student. These two themes were institutional perception and individual value. Institutional perception refers to how the participant perceived the institution was invested in the students and participant, in particular to his or her commuter student status. Individual value refers to how the participant values his or her priorities, which in turn may impact interest in involvement. It is important to note that these themes are not mutually exclusive and often intertwine.
Institutional Perception In terms of institutional perception, a common topic was feeling as …show more content…
For example, Jeff notes that he gets daily emails from the institution but generally does not feel like this is outreach. He also explains that the institution has not told him to use social media to engage. He does note that Facebook could be beneficial if the institution used it more. Sam expressed, “I think that they try to have, you know, commuter student events, but they don 't really offer the resources of how to be an engaged commuter said you know such a thing.” He adds that he knows the institution provides information via social media, but it does not activity engage him. Sam recognizes he utilized the writing center due to a tweet he saw from them and sometimes uses the university app for weather closings. He generally feels there is a lack of focus on commuter students. Overall, his comments seem to emphasize feeling the school does not care for him as a commuter student in relation to on-campus involvement, however, there seems to be a small positive that he was able to learn about the writing center resource through a tweet. John, on the other hand, explains that he actually became interested in the club he is currently involved with through social media. He had always been interested in motorcycles and someone posted something related to motorcycles on …show more content…
This topic was the case within the institutional perception theme because the participants noted feeling like the institution did not attend to commuter students in particular (for those that did not attend a majority commuter school). Sam explains that it “seems like they 're offering them to the on-campus students a lot of times when they post about events or really push that often it 's last minute so they 're not for me. I have to be intentional with my scheduling and I think that they don 't realize that we have work schedules and we can’t drive to campus.” Jeff, the other participant who attends a primarily residential school feels there is no commuter community on campus. This perception of feeling unattended to as a commuter student is in line with the research for commuter students. This is critical to note because this feeling of unimportance may be discouraging to becoming more involved on
Based on the analysis of three semi-structured interviews, we found two major themes participants explained relating their social media and involvement as a commuter student. These two themes were institutional perception and individual value. Institutional perception refers to how the participant perceived the institution was invested in the students and participant, in particular to his or her commuter student status. Individual value refers to how the participant values his or her priorities, which in turn may impact interest in involvement. It is important to note that these themes are not mutually exclusive and often intertwine.
Institutional Perception In terms of institutional perception, a common topic was feeling as …show more content…
For example, Jeff notes that he gets daily emails from the institution but generally does not feel like this is outreach. He also explains that the institution has not told him to use social media to engage. He does note that Facebook could be beneficial if the institution used it more. Sam expressed, “I think that they try to have, you know, commuter student events, but they don 't really offer the resources of how to be an engaged commuter said you know such a thing.” He adds that he knows the institution provides information via social media, but it does not activity engage him. Sam recognizes he utilized the writing center due to a tweet he saw from them and sometimes uses the university app for weather closings. He generally feels there is a lack of focus on commuter students. Overall, his comments seem to emphasize feeling the school does not care for him as a commuter student in relation to on-campus involvement, however, there seems to be a small positive that he was able to learn about the writing center resource through a tweet. John, on the other hand, explains that he actually became interested in the club he is currently involved with through social media. He had always been interested in motorcycles and someone posted something related to motorcycles on …show more content…
This topic was the case within the institutional perception theme because the participants noted feeling like the institution did not attend to commuter students in particular (for those that did not attend a majority commuter school). Sam explains that it “seems like they 're offering them to the on-campus students a lot of times when they post about events or really push that often it 's last minute so they 're not for me. I have to be intentional with my scheduling and I think that they don 't realize that we have work schedules and we can’t drive to campus.” Jeff, the other participant who attends a primarily residential school feels there is no commuter community on campus. This perception of feeling unattended to as a commuter student is in line with the research for commuter students. This is critical to note because this feeling of unimportance may be discouraging to becoming more involved on