This project uses qualitative methods to examine the scholarly habits and explore the diversity of the undergraduate experience in the urban, public, commuter colleges that make up the CUNY system. Our project provides critical, complementary data to recent qualitative studies of undergraduates, which have largely focused on students at residential campuses. We anticipate that the results of our study will have broad utility to many stakeholders in the academic and library communities; in particular we intend for it to inform improvements to library services and resources, and contribute to student success at CUNY and beyond.
Ethnographic techniques such as interviews, photo surveys, and mapping diaries were used to gather qualitative data from faculty and students. Guiding questions for this study include:
- What are faculty expectations for student scholarly work and assignments?
- How do students study, research, and complete their assignments?
- How do students use the library for their coursework (and, if they don’t, why not)?
- What technologies do students use for their academic work, and how and where do they use them?
Research sites:
2009-2010: New York City College of Technology (City Tech) and Brooklyn College
2010-2011: Bronx Community College, City College of New York, Borough of Manhattan Community College, and Hunter College
2015-2016: New York City College of Technology (City Tech), Brooklyn College, and Borough of Manhattan Community College
Principal Investigators:
Maura A. Smale
Chief Librarian, Professor
New York City College of Technology, CUNY
Mariana Regalado
Associate Professor, Associate Librarian for Information Services
Brooklyn College, CUNY
