A study of the admissions officer in the senior colleges and universities of Texas and his role performance and expectation in academic decision-making

Abstract

Purpose: The purposes of this research were to describe the current status of the admission officer in the senior colleges and universities of Texas and to determine how much power he feels he now has (role performance) and how much power he feels he should have (role expectation) in determining academic decisions within his college, as measured by his perceived role performances and role expectations in the following eight areas of academic decision-making: 1. Academic Regulations 2. Staff Utilization 3. Curriculum 4. Admissions Policy 5. Institutional Role and Scope 6. Student Advising 7. Institutional Financing 8. Institutional Philosophy Procedure: The chief admissions officer responsible for undergraduate admissions in each of fifty-seven senior colleges and universities in Texas was asked to participate in the study. Of these, forty-four, or seventy-seven percent, returned the questionnaire which was used to collect the data for this research. The questionnaire consisted of two parts: Part I was designed to gather data on the admissions officer's background, perception of his position, interaction with other individuals and groups, and professional activities. Part II was designed to determine the admissions officer's role performance and role expectation in eight selected areas of academic decision-making. The research design rests on eight hypotheses, two of which were used to test data gathered by Part I of the questionnaire. The remaining six hypotheses were used to test data gathered by Part II of the questionnaire. Logical analysis was used to interpret data gathered by Part I of the questionnaire and analysis of variance was used to interpret data gathered by Part II of the questionnaire..