Student Constructions of Fit: Narratives About Incongruence at a Faith-Based University

Decades of student persistence and retention literature has brought to light factors of social, academic, and religious fit that influence a student's decision to remain at or depart from an institution. At Christian institutions, increasing student pluralism raises the likelihood that students will not fit religiously. This qualitative study of 21 first-time, full-time students contributes to the existing literature by exploring how students who already feel they do not fit for religious reasons work at constructing a sense of fit at a Christian research university. Many participants coped with religious discontinuity by redefining specifically Christian practices and teachings in terms that were personally palatable: as either general moral lessons that would help them to be a better person or as cultural insights that would benefit them social and professionally in the future. In many cases, university staff were instrumental. Finally, participants worked to construct an acceptable level of fit, or fit threshold, through various combinations of social fit, academic fit, and religious fit, often compensating for one with others. As Christian institutions increasingly invite students from diverse religious backgrounds into their campus community, understanding ways that these students attempt to adapt to religious incongruence will be paramount.     

General Media,Minorities, and Research

Ronald G. Hick A Survey of Mass Communication (Gretna, La.: Pelican Publishing Co., 1977—$7.95, paper)

Everette E. Dennis The Media Society: Evidence About Mass Communication in America (Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown, 1978—$6.95, paper)

Leslie J. Friedman Sex Role Stereotyping in the Mass Media: An Annotated Bibliography (New York: Garland Publishing, 1977—$25.00)

Maurine Beasley and Sheila Silver Women in Media: A Documentary Source Book (Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press, 3306 Ross Place, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20008—$5.95, paper)

Preben Sepstrup Consumption of Mass Communication: Construction of a Model on Information Consumption Behavior (Handelsvidenskabelig Boghandel, Fuglesangsalle 4, DK-8210 Aarhus V, Denmark—D. kr . 12, paper)

J. Michael Crabtree and Kenneth E. Moyer Bibliography of Aggresive Behavior: A Reader's Guide to the Research Literature (Alan R. Liss, Inc., 150 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10011—$35.00).

Marcia Guttentag and Shalom Saar, Evaluation Studies Review Annual, Volume 2: 1977 (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1977—$29.95)

Paul C. Cozby Methods in Behavioral Research (Palo Alto, Calif.: Mayfield Publishing, 1977—$6.95, paper)     

We Are All Librarians: Training in the Ever Evolving Information Commons

The University of Arizona Library opened its Information Commons in January of 2002. The University of Arizona Library developed an in-depth training program to ensure that the individuals staffing the Information Commons Reference Desk were able to support the varied and complex questions that can be asked in a resource and technology rich environment. In this article, the authors describe the development and evolution of the training program that was created at the University of Arizona and share examples of training documents.     

Are Multiple Art Markets Rational?

We advance and subsequently test the proposition thatmarkets for fine art are rational, namely, that, inthe determination of price, traders make use of allrelevant art historical and critical information, asrevealed by hedonic content analysis, as well as allinformation on authenticity of the works offered forsale. If true, the proposition has consequences forpublic policy. Museums optimize choices among art historicallysignificant authentic paintings distributed asstochastic rare events in the tertiary market for art. Such paintings have few, if any, art historicallyequivalent substitutes, causing the demand for suchworks of art to be extremely inelastic. Museums tendto buy at the top of the information curve; payingprices which exceed market averages for similar art. As a result, society pays the cost of institutionalrisk aversion. In contrast, collectors often purchaseart before all art historical information is complete,and often earn a reward for assuming a risk due toincomplete information (Singer, 1991; Pomerhene, 1994).Collectors who can borrow to accumulate the highestcategory art can consume the services of their artcollection at zero cost. Stochastic transferfunctions fitted to time series of sales volume at thetwo top international auction houses confirm thehypothesis that the highest category of art is a quasisubstitute for financial instruments (liquid wealth).