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.

Abstract

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.