Semester

Summer

Date of Graduation

2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources

Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Committee Chair

Leslie Hopkinson

Committee Member

Aimee Morewood

Committee Member

Dimitra Pyrialakou

Committee Member

Lizzie Santiago

Abstract

Many student support services target first-year engineering students to help improve their transition from high school to college and to reach first-year retention goals. These opportunities are communicated to students through a variety of ways. The objectives of this work are to evaluate student perspectives of student services support factors in a civil and environmental engineering program and investigate how student support services and opportunities are communicated to students in a civil and environmental engineering program. The media identified for student support service outreach were the fundamentals of engineering program newsletters, academic advising newsletters, Statler eNews newsletters, and the bulletin boards in the main engineering building on campus. Student interviews were also conducted. To analyze the media and student interviews, a codebook was created. Primary codes related to student support services were academic peer support, engineering career development, engineering peer connections, faculty support, academic advising support, general career development, out-of-class engagement, and engineering faculty connections. Definitions of these a priori primary codes were informed by prior research. At least two secondary codes were identified for each primary code. Approximately 20% of each data type was coded independently by two researchers. The two researchers compared results, and discrepancies were resolved through discussion. One researcher coded the remaining dataset. Out of class engagement and engineering career development were communicated the most and mentioned the most in student interviews. Creating a student-led newsletter and requiring students in introductory courses to attend club meetings for class credit could encourage more students to participate in more clubs and organizations. Engineering peer connections and academic peer support were mentioned moderately in the interviews, newsletters, and bulletin boards. Target messaging different opportunities that support the development of peer connections to lower-level students could help them form a support system early on and obtain upper-classmen peer mentors. Academic advising was present in the bulletin boards and mentioned in the student interviews. Engineering faculty connections were not mentioned in the bulletin boards, minimally present in the newsletters, but were mentioned 1-3 times by 80% of students in interviews. Faculty support was not mentioned in the bulletin boards or newsletters, but was mentioned by 90% of the interview participants. To potentially boost faculty connections and support, students in introductory courses could be required to occasionally meet with a faculty member within their engineering area of interest, sophomore students could be require to attend office hours, and a faculty outreach newsletter could be established. With a better understanding of opportunities and communications, we can target messaging to those items to help support engineering identity development.

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