The reciprocity between student-faculty informal contact and academic performance of university undergraduate students

A nonrecursive theoretical model was developed through a review of the literature to assess the degree of reciprocity between faculty contact and academic performance. Data was gathered from 1,096 freshmen and sophomores at a single research university. Contrary to expectations, GPA and faculty contact did not strongly affect one another. GPA was most strongly affected by high school performance and academic integration, and faculty contact was most influenced by advisor contact, talking in class, and memberships in campus organizations. The findings suggest that men and women and freshmen and sophomores were affected by faculty contact in different ways.An earlier version of this article was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, Chicago, March 1984.