The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 45, No. 1 - 76

Cliff Haynes

Speciﬁcally, this study addresses the following research question: How do female
participants describe their experience in an
engineering living-learning program? Additionally, the study is designed to address the
following research subquestions:
Using their LLP experience as a lens,
1. how do participants describe their
involvement in academics?
2. how do participants describe their
involvement with faculty?
3. how do participants describe their
involvement with peers?

METHODOLOGY
An epistemology is the knowledge paradigm
that drives consideration for the theoretical
perspective, while a theoretical perspective is
the philosophical stance that informs methodology and provides a context for the research
(Crotty, 1998). Using Crotty's categorization of
these elements of qualitative work, I selected
constructionism as the epistemological foundation for this study, while constructivism
is the theoretical perspective to ground the
research. Since a constructivist study is designed to explore how individuals experience
their own world through their vantage points
(Hatch, 2002), the current study of female participants' experiences in an engineering LLP
ﬁts the constructivist theoretical perspective.

Institutional Setting
Before the research process began, the university's Institutional Review Board approved
the study for research of human subjects.
I conducted this study at a public land-grant
research-extensive university in the Southeast.
76

The university has a total student enrollment of
approximately 50,000, with 32,000 being undergraduate students. The College of Engineering enrolls approximately 4,700 undergraduate
students and 2,300 graduate students.
The residence hall housing the engineering LLP opened in 1961. It has a capacity of
210 residents and is coed by ﬂoor. The building
is 51% women and historically 47% ﬁrst-year
students (Blansett, 2010). The engineering
LLP opened in 2004 upon the request of students who wanted to live near the College of
Engineering. Spaces are initially reserved for
engineering students; however, students of
other majors may also live there if engineering
students do not ﬁll capacity.

Description of Participants
To study individuals' experiences and meaning-making process, I used purposeful criterion sampling to identify my participants
(Hatch, 2002). Eligible participants were selected based on the following criteria: (a) be
a self-identiﬁed female student, (b) have lived
at least one semester in the engineering LLP,
and (c) be currently enrolled as a student in the
College of Engineering. As a ﬁnancial incentive for participating, participants received a
$20 gift card to either the bookstore or dining
services upon completion of the ﬁrst interview.
All eligible students, a total of 77, were
invited by an email to participate in the study.
Given the scarcity of this sample in the larger
student population on campus and/or due to
lack of interest by the sample population, the
ﬁnal number of participants included seven
female students. To provide conﬁdentiality, participants were given pseudonyms, and
identifying experiences were masked.

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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 45, No. 1

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