Who Ya Callin’ a User? the Impact of How You Define Participants in Campus Recreation

Authors

Sera Janson Zegre, West Virginia UniversityFollow
Andrew M. Darling, West Virginia UniversityFollow
Craig R. Decker, The University of Alabama at BirminghamFollow

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

Spring 2-25-2021

College/Unit

Student Life

Department/Program/Center

Campus Recreation

Abstract

Most research quantifying the value of Campus Recreation uses the number of recreation facility visits as a foundation to define users. In general, however, these studies lack consistency related to definition of user and user groupings. Beyond research, how do Campus Recreation professionals set participation goals without using an arbitrary target for participation? Presenters compare differences between various definitions of users, as well as groupings of student users and non-users of a campus recreation center, using previous and original research. The original research uses data from a three-year timeframe and a multivariate model of student persistence, controlling for various inputs and environmental conditions. Presenters will offer methods and results from their original research, as well as recommendations for how to define and group participants.

Digital Commons Citation

Zegre, Sera Janson; Darling, Andrew M.; and Decker, Craig R., "Who Ya Callin’ a User? the Impact of How You Define Participants in Campus Recreation" (2021). Faculty & Staff Scholarship. 2997.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/faculty_publications/2997

Source Citation

Zegre, S.J., Darling, A.M. & Decker, C.R. (2021, February 23-35). Who ya callin’ a user? The impact of how you define participants in Campus Recreation [Conference presentation]. NIRSA 2021, Virtual.