Serving the New Majority Student: Working from within to Transform the Institution, Review by Deanna Donaugh, Kent State University

Serving the New Majority Student: Working from within to Transform the Institution (2018). Edited by: Eric Malm and Marguerite Weber. Lanham, Maryland: Rowan and Littlefield. 117pp. Price: $26. ISBN: 978-1-4758-3601-1.

Reviewed by: Deanna Donaugh, Academic Engagement and Degree Completion, Kent State University, [email protected]

The population of students’ higher education serves is changing. There is a plethora of research on the differences between traditional and nontraditional students. Hence, an institution’s main focus is to serve these two student populations. Is the knowledge from this research enough to truly understand all college students? If not, does this lack of information produce inadequate student success services from both academic and student affairs? In Serving the New Majority Student: Working from within to Transform the Institution, Malm and Weber (2018) state that there is now a different type of nontraditional student, the new majority which they categorized into two groups: “working adults ages twenty-five or older pursuing an undergraduate degree, and students ages eighteen to twenty-four who are going to school and have significant adult responsibilities (pp 3).”

Understanding this new student population and how to serve these students is important for all those in higher education. Faculty, administrators, and staff must recognize and adapt the learning environment to the changing population. Only when providing a learning environment that meets the needs of the new majority student, will institutions experience an increase in enrollment, retention, and graduation. 

The text can be divided into two parts. The first section describes the new majority student, the importance of one’s institution, and how these two concepts combine to impact the institution’s business model. The second part discusses how a student center design model can be utilized to redesign an institution’s learning experience and administration.  As well as, how each institution can work to navigate change. Throughout the text, the editors provide examples of institutions that have changed their learning experience and administration to provide better service to the new majority students’.

Serving the New Majority Student: Working from within to Transform the Institution provides something for everyone. For the advisor, an in depth understanding of the new majority student which can increase the effectiveness of advising. For the faculty, an understanding of how to re- design the learning experience to best teach the new majority student. For the administrator, an understanding of adapting the current business model to serve the new majority student. For all those in higher education, learning how each aspect of the collegiate process can affect the new majority student by providing a big picture concept with unique institutional examples. I would recommended this book as a resource to anyone working in higher education that is interested in how to affect change at his or her individual institution.