The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 37, No. 2 - 58

David M. Rosch • Joshua D. Lawrie

views. Both researchers conducted telephone interviews using the interview guide approach (Upcraft et al., 2001). To guarantee accuracy, all interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and then analyzed by the authors. Each interview lasted approximately 60 minutes. Standardized open-ended questions were asked, with responses analyzed using the constant comparative method (Merriam, 1998). Typical questions included “What do you remember about your experience?” “Tell me something you learned that you still find relevant today,” and “What about your experience [in your governance organization] helped to shape what you learned from your time in college?” Respondents were asked to consider only their experiences in their residential governance organizations, not other student groups or curricular experiences they may have had while a student. To analyze the data, the researchers used what Merriam (1998) called a constant comparative method. The researchers took data from each interview and compared it to the other interviews to generate categories. Throughout the other interviews, the researchers tested whether the categories were the same from interview to interview. Creswell (2007) described this approach as the researcher’s “attempts to ‘saturate’ the categories—to look for instances that represent the category and to continue looking (and interviewing) until the new information obtained does not further provide insight into the category” (p. 160). This approach allowed the researchers to use the categories created from the interviews to generate the overall themes.

Population and Sample
The study was conducted at a large, private university located within a city in the northeast United States. Over 130 students, from an oncampus population of approximately 8,000 students, participate in the Residence Hall Association, National Residence Hall Honorary, or similarly structured residence hall councils at the institution used for this study. The study used criterion sampling (Gall, Gall, & Borg, 2003) to obtain participants using the following criteria. Participants must have (1) graduated from the institution at least one year prior to the interview and (2) held an elective position on an executive board in hall government as an undergraduate student for at least one year. In consultation with residential professional staff, a list of alumni graduates from 2002 to 2005 who met these criteria was generated. This range of years was chosen because of the relatively high degree of correct alumni contact information possessed by the institution’s residential life office. These alumni were then invited by e-mail to participate. Six participants consented and were interviewed. Four participants were female, and two were male; one female identified as Latina, while the others identified as Caucasian. All had been alumni for at least one year at the time of the interview. Each participant previously was elected to and served on a government executive board or held an executive board position in the Residence Hall Association, National Residence Hall Honorary, or other similar residence hall councils. Each participant interviewed spent at least one year as an executive board member within a residence hall council, and five of the six spent at least

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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 37, No. 2

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