Commuter students are becoming the dominant group on campus and are still considered to be non-traditional. Commuters are complex and represent a diverse group of students in higher education Due to the variations in commuter student populations, it is important for each institution to study its commuters, and to use that information to guide policy and programs, instead of basing decisions on data collected nationwide or at a particular institution (Weiss, 2014). There was limited research done for the commuter student population and nearly all of the literature was done at a particular institution. The purpose of this study is to in-depth understand how spirituality, culture and climate can impact a commuter student’s sense of belonging.
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The active coping strategies that commuter student utilize are planning, support and time management which leads to constructive outcomes. For example, commuter students use task-oriented coping action to set time for more study or engage in a tutor which results in commuters getting higher GPAs. There are negative active coping behaviors that commuters experience which produce negative outcomes such as missing class, drinking, drugs, etc (Forbus, Newbold and Mehta, 2010). Passive coping behaviors that commuter students utilize which involve emotional coping or changing the event. For example, commuters tend to look at a situation in a broader perspective, get organized and prioritize when dealing with a stressful …show more content…
Commuter students are limited with time from work and school to be involved with any co-curricular activities including any institution involved in increase their sense of belonging on campus. Due to the higher percentage of commuter students working is because they have to pay bills, tuition, fees, etc. therefore decreasing their potential involvement on campus ( Burlison, 2015). In a research done by Furr and Elling’s (2000), 67% of students who worked off campus worked more than 39 hours a week which resulted in those students not being involved with any co-curricular activity. This goes to show that the more hours commuter students work the less chances they have to create a sense of belonging for themselves on campus and to identify with the college or university. Alfano & Eduljee (2013) state that commuters students would like to be more involved on campus, but that they have other non academic commitments that have higher priority that hinders their opportunity to get involved on
The active coping strategies that commuter student utilize are planning, support and time management which leads to constructive outcomes. For example, commuter students use task-oriented coping action to set time for more study or engage in a tutor which results in commuters getting higher GPAs. There are negative active coping behaviors that commuters experience which produce negative outcomes such as missing class, drinking, drugs, etc (Forbus, Newbold and Mehta, 2010). Passive coping behaviors that commuter students utilize which involve emotional coping or changing the event. For example, commuters tend to look at a situation in a broader perspective, get organized and prioritize when dealing with a stressful …show more content…
Commuter students are limited with time from work and school to be involved with any co-curricular activities including any institution involved in increase their sense of belonging on campus. Due to the higher percentage of commuter students working is because they have to pay bills, tuition, fees, etc. therefore decreasing their potential involvement on campus ( Burlison, 2015). In a research done by Furr and Elling’s (2000), 67% of students who worked off campus worked more than 39 hours a week which resulted in those students not being involved with any co-curricular activity. This goes to show that the more hours commuter students work the less chances they have to create a sense of belonging for themselves on campus and to identify with the college or university. Alfano & Eduljee (2013) state that commuters students would like to be more involved on campus, but that they have other non academic commitments that have higher priority that hinders their opportunity to get involved on