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Falcon Works is an online repository that provides open access to scholarly and creative works by the Fitchburg State University community. The platform, with a global reach, provides long-term access and preservation of scholarly, professional, scientific, and creative output produced at Fitchburg State University.
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Item type:Item, Student Involvement on a Campus Committee and Its Impact on Sense of Belonging: A Reflection on a Collaborative Effort to Honour Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.(2020)This paper is a reflection of one public university’s experience developing a collaborative effort to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Aware of the impact student involvement can have on their sense of belonging, an ad hoc committee planned programmes and events to honour Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that emphasised student involvement. First, to illustrate the importance of student belonging at the university level, we discuss the universal application of Maslow’s (1954) belonging needs. Next, we explore the theoretical literature on the topic of student belonging by Goodenow (1993), Strayhorn (2012), Thomas (2012), Cooper (2009), Tinto (1993), and Astin (1993). Then, we describe the Dr. King programme and analyse it at the programme level by applying elements of Kezar’s (2005) model of institutional collaboration in higher education. We conclude by discussing the benefits of student involvement in programme planning and implementation, and as panel participants to demonstrate how institutional collaboration that includes students can impact their sense of belonging.Item type:Item, Developing a Library Student Employee Training Program to Improve Interactions with Neurodiverse Students(2025)Many students attending college have diagnosed or undiagnosed neurodiversities including Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Recognizing that there are students with ASD on our campus, we assessed our current library environment and communication strategies to ensure that we are providing the best possible service not only to students with ASD, but also to students with other neurodiversities. Using Florida State University’s manual, Project A+: Serving Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder in the Academic Library, as a framework, we completed an in-depth evaluation of our library over the course of two semesters. One result of our evaluation was the creation of a set of training modules entitled Alternative Communication Strategies for student employees which provides best practices when interacting with neurodiverse students. This chapter will describe the development, implementation, content, and feedback of the training modules including how to address the sensitive nature of the topic. The program was launched in Spring 2021 and has been incorporated into the ongoing training of new student employees.Item type:Item, Stream fish community structure across an urban gradient in a northeastern US watershed(2023-06)Anthropogenic land cover change in watersheds has the potential to degrade stream habitat quality and alter fish assemblage structure. The objective of this study was to examine the relative importance of urbanization at different spatial scales and local habitat conditions on both the fish taxonomic assemblage and trait assemblage. Fish assemblages were sampled in 22 wadeable streams within a single sub-basin in the northeastern USA. Urbanized land cover at the watershed and riparian scales was associated with increases in specific conductivity and pH, but was not a major determinant of taxonomic or trait assemblage structure. Instead, taxonomic and trait assemblages were associated with a gradient of decreasing elevation and increasing temperature, and some of the most urbanized sites supported diverse and unique fish assemblages. These results contribute to a greater understanding of the variation in the effects of urbanization on stream health.