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Ethnography and Content Analysis Comment by Alexandra Olsen: PART ONE: 20/20 PART TWO:66 /80 METHODS: 30/30 PROCEDURES:10 /10 SAMPLE: 10/10 POSITIONALITY: 10/10 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION: 36/50 INTRO:5 /5 SUPPORT: 9/10 FINANCES: 6/10 FEE WAIVERS: 3/5 COST: 3/5 TABLE:3 /10 DISCUSSION:8 /10 REFERENCES:5 /5 GRADE: 86/100

PART ONE: Field Notes

On the 31st of August, 2018 at 17:00 I decided to carry out my field observation study at the UCI cross cultural center. I have always known that the cultural center provides meeting spaces for students and student organization members so I thought that this would be a well controlled environment for me to make the observations on how people interact in such an environment. The center facilities that I observed in the cross-cultural enter include two big conference rooms plus lounges for socializing and studying, some kind of executive boardroom that is used for group meetings, and a special Wellness Room that is used for student’s cultural wellness activities.

I decided to carry out my observation in one of the lounges that students use for studies and socialization. After entering into lounge, I scanned across the room and scanned across the room to see the composition and I noticed that there were several students groups. In some of the groups, some students were sitting while they had arranged their seats in a round manner, while others were standing in groups, and other groups had some members sitting and some of them were standing. There was one particular group that captured my attention. It was a group of 5 students in at the corner of the lounge. The group involved two Asian students, one African American student, and two white students. I wanted to observe how the group dynamics of the students and how they conducted themselves in the group. Of the two Asian students, one of them was a male student while the other one was a female student. The African America student was male and the two white students were females.

To prevent them from noticing me, I decided to sit at the far right corner of the lounge from where there were no obstacles for my observation and where it was far enough for me not to disrupt their group discussion. One thing that I must point out is that I am not sure what subject they were discussion since I did not go close enough to them. One first thing that I observed is that there was a white female student that seemed to have been the group leader. She was the one reading the discussion questions for the group, and then she would ask for each of the students to contribute to the discussions; after which she would finally make her own contributions.

One thing that I observed with this group is that it seemed that the students had been in the group for quite a while. The session was conducted in an orderly manner. During a member’s contributions, other members were always silent and very attentive. There were no interruptions. After every question, the group leader would read out what the group had agreed upon. I could strongly identify myself with the group because I have been in group discussions and I know that order and interdependence are two important determinants of group success.

My personality is such that I always like to be in a place or in situations that are always observing order and some sense of orderliness. This is exactly what I observed in this group and that I why I thought that the group member must have been in that group for a very long time. You could see from the attention paid to each others’ comments and to the group leader that they all knew the importance of leadership. I identified myself with the dynamics that I observed in the group.

PART 2

METHODS

Procedures

Content analysis was used to analyze the websites from four colleges/universities. These websites were provided by the course instructor to be used in this analysis. The content from the websites were analyzed for the purpose of addressing questions pertaining to students that are classified as first-generation college students, with the available financial aid options being the specific questions being addressed in the analysis. This data was collected on the 31st August, 2018. The limits to using these websites as data sources is that one can only get at the information available on the website, but may not be able to know whether students can actually access these web sites. In addition to that, one cannot be able to know or get at the other places that students may be accessing information. Conclusions from the obtained data was the obtained by carrying out adductive analysis from the data. The data analysis process involved the construction of a matrix of comparison comparing the support that the four colleges provide for first generation students.

Sample

The four colleges/universities that were included in the sample include Long Beach City College; California State University, Long Beach; University of California, Irvine; and Chapman University. These four colleges/universities because they are located in California where there is a proportionate number of fist generation students. The demographics of the Long Beach City College indicate that it serves a total of 24,403 students, with 40% of these students being full-time students. Minority enrolment in the college is 79%, with majority of the students being Hispanic. Specifically, 1% of the students are American Indian/Alaskan; 15% are Asian; 43% are Hispanic; 12% are black; 21% are white; 1% are Hawaiian; 3% are students classified as two or more races; 2% are non-resident races; and 2% are from unknown races. At the California State University, Long Beach, 19% of the students are white; 4% are black; 39% are Hispanic; 23% are Asian; 2% are two or more races; 6% are international; and 4% belong to unknown races.

At the University of California, Irvin, 42.7% of the students are Asia; 1.9% of them are African American; 31.2% are Hispanic; 4.7% are multi-racial; 0.1% of the students are Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander; 16.9 are white; 2.4% are unknown; and 16.2% are international students. At the Chapman University, 0.2% of the students are American Indian/Alaskan Native; 11.6% of them are Asian; 1.9% of them are Black/African American; 15.2% of them are Hispanic/Latino; 7.0% are multi-race; 0.3% of the students are Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander; 59.1% are white; 4.7% are from unknown ethnicities; and 3.9% are international students. The sample is not representative of the colleges in the US because it is more ethnically diverse compared to the national average.

Positionality

Though I am not a first generation college student, I am related to the sample in that I am an international student and study with the first generation students in my classes. This might lead to bias in the study because I might use what I already know to pre-judge the subjects of the study. To minimize the bias, nothing was based on the initial knowledge on the subject. Only the actual information on the topic collected was used.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

The research question of focus in this study is: How effective are college/university websites in communicating to first generation students about (1) available social and academic supports for first generation students, (2) information about waivers for application fees, and (3) information about estimating the actual costs of attending college for low incomes students?

The websites generally provide information regarding financial aid. This information enables students with information that they need to know about their college costs as well as the resources that are available for help. They talk about what students need to do for them to receive financial aid and the cost f college. They help with informing students with enrolment costs, the other fees that needs to be paid, and the total cost that they need to pay while they are attending college. In generally, these websites are easily accessible because once you enter into the college/university website you can easily navigate and see the aids that are available.

Support Structures for First Generation Students

Estimates indicate that almost 30% of the students that are enrolled in the country’s post secondary institutions are generally low income, first generation students (Long Beach City College August 31, 2018). The dropout rate of these students is almost four times compared to students that come from families post-secondary education parents. These students tend to struggle to complete as well as access college due to a number of factors that include lack parental guidance on the college process; come from communities that do have less or no college-minded peers; are faced with cultural issues between home and school; and other lack sufficient academic preparation. These are among the main reasons as to why these students need additional support resources such as loan-free aid packages and financial aid to increase these chances of success in their college studies.

In the LBCC website, there are no specific financial aid programs that are mentioned for helping the first generation college students. Generally, the college’s financial aid comes from state and federal programs. These financial award funds are normally distributed based on the demonstrated need of a student that is assessed through the completion of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). California Dream Act offers state funding for the college’s students who are not college citizens. LBCC website also provides information on the cost of college and what one needs to do to apply for college. In the CSULB website, information on programs such as Trio and Migrant Programs and Educational Equity Services (EES) are available to help first generation college students with their college needs. In the UCI website, there are the Gateway Initiative; Resources for First Generation College Students’ First Generation Faculty and Allies; and First Generation Profiles. All these resources are meant for helping the University’s first generation students. Application fees are also included in the website. At the Chapman University, assistance for first generation students is provided using The Promising Futures Program. It also provides information on financial aid and how to apply it. Generally, UCI seems to be doing better than the other colleges/universities in providing information to students. The other colleges/universities can copy this by proving all the available resources for first generation students on the same web page where one can click any of them to get further information. The language used in all the four websites, however, is simple and easy to understand. Comment by Alexandra Olsen: elaborate

Financial Accommodation for Low Income students

Generally, first generation students are low income students and are normally faced with financial difficulties while trying to join college. This is why they need financial accommodation. The two financial accommodations included in this paper are application fee waivers and estimating the actual cost of college.

Application fee waivers

Fee waivers refer to the removal for the application fees for applicants who qualify to apply for college, but do not have the money to apply. It matter especially for first generation students because even when they are qualified and lack the application fee, they generally risk missing to apply due to their lack of money for application. Looking at the four college/university websites, I can only see information about fee waivers in CSULB and UCI (California State University, Long Beach August 31, 2018; University of California, Irvine August 31, 2018).and the language used is easy to understand. Chapman University and LBCC did not indicate any waivers (Chapman University August 31, 2018.) Comment by Alexandra Olsen: Need more detail here At the end here, you should be answering two questions: are they doing well 2)summarize the findings in this section

Estimating the Actual Cost of College

This is important because it gives students an idea of what is required to cover college costs. All the websites generally provide information on the estimated amount that one will need to pay to cover college costs. The language used is also easy to understand for all the colleges/universities.

Generally, UCI seems to be doing better than the other colleges/universities in providing information to students. The other colleges/universities can copy this by proving all the available resources for first generation students on the same web page where one can click any of them to get further information. The language used in all the four websites, however, is simple and easy to understand. Comment by Alexandra Olsen: need more detail in this section as well At the end here, you should be answering two questions: are they doing well 2)summarize the findings in this section

Table 1: Comparing 4 College’s Support for First Generation Students

	Long Beach City College	California State University, Long Beach	University of California, Irvine	Chapman University
Support and information for first generation students	Fair amount of information included.	Fair amount of information included.	Perfect amount of information included.	Fair amount of information included.
Application fee waivers	Fee waivers are not mentioned.	Fee waivers are available.	Fee waivers are available.	Fee waivers are not mentioned.
Financial aid information/actual cost information	Included.	Included.	Included.	Included.
Accessibility of Information Comment by Alexandra Olsen: Need significantly more detail in this entire table. Need to tell us what info they have and the characteristics that make this easy or not easy to find	Easy to access.	Easy to access.	Easy to access.	Easy to access.

Discussion

In summary, all the four college provide at least the basic information aimed at supporting first generation college students. UCI, however, seems to be going an extra mile to see to it that all information that might be required by first generation college student is included in the website. It can be safe to conclude that public universities provide adequate information for first generation students. The three categories that colleges need to improve include application fee waivers; support and information for first generation students; and financial aid information/actual cost information. These three must be met to ensure that first generation students can be able to access the basic information that can increase their chances of enrolling into college. This is, however, possible if these students are not faced with challenges such as getting an access to a computer and internet connection to access the college/university websites. Comment by Alexandra Olsen: Need to talk about why it’s important for colleges to have this information

REFFERENCES

California State University, Long Beach. August 31, 2018. Retrieved from: http://www.csulb.edu/

Long Beach City College. August 31, 2018. Retrieved from: https://www.chapman.edu

University of California, Irvine. August 31, 2018. Retrieved from: https://uci.edu/

Chapman University. August 31, 2018. Retrieved from https://www.lbcc.edu/