Campus Involvement of University Recreation Student Employees

Involvement in campus activities such as intramurals, club sports, fraternities, sororities, honor societies, and athletic events are known to be an integral part of student retention and academic success. However, the reason behind the campus involvement of students warrants further investigation. The purpose of this study was to determine if working at a university recreation center had an effect on campus involvement of student employees. A questionnaire was developed consisting of 29 questions and divided into two sections with the first 22 questions related to campus involvement and the remainder to the demographics of the respondents. The questionnaire was administered to 31 University Recreation (UREC) student employees at Angelo State University who voluntarily agreed to participate in the study. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. Chi-Square analysis was used to determine if any statistical associations existed among the variables. Alpha was set at 0.05. Results of the analysis indicated that only two questions yielded statistical significance (p<0.05): “I attend athletic events at ASU” and “I have formed new friendships at ASU while working in UREC.” As such, the outcomes of this study were deemed inconclusive as to whether or not there is an overall association between working at a university recreation center and campus involvement of student employees. Further studies examining other variables that may be related to student involvement on campus are needed.