Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore the perceptions of female student services staff members' perceptions of safety on a state college campus. Through the lens of social construction theory, six staff members were interviewed about their views of safety both on and off campus. The goal of this study was to better understand how female staff members formed their perceptions of safety on campus, through social, political and cultural processes. The results of this study were that although the informants all were aware of the same threats and dangers on campus, they each had differing views on how safe they were while on campus. Of the six interviewed, two expressed daily concern for their safety, two were aware of dangers, but not overly fearful, and two did not feel fearful for their safety at all. Although each informant knew about their campus safety amenities, only two had used their services, one that expressed concern daily, and one that was not overly fearful. Social influences such as televised news programs and Internet articles played a factor in how the employees viewed their safety. Overall, seven major themes were discovered including campus concern, concern over student behavior, self-protection, off campus concerns, social influences, lack of concern, and lack of information. The study concluded with the researcher's recommendations that female student services staff members become knowledgeable about crimes happening on their campuses and about utilizing services they have available to them, as well as emphasizing the importance of office location, especially the proximity to coworkers working similar schedules.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2016

Semester

Fall

Advisor

Owens, J. Thomas

Degree

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

College

College of Education and Human Performance

Department

Child, Family, and Community Sciences

Degree Program

Educational Leadership; Higher Education

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0006448

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0006448

Language

English

Release Date

December 2016

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

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