Examining Student Character Development Within the Liberal Arts

This study examines issues involving student character development within the small liberal arts institutional setting. It uses one highly selective liberal arts institution as a case study and analyzes the effects of its attributed contributions from various institutional resources within the context of Astin’s[1] input-environment-outcome (I-E-O) model. Data elements from 356 student participants in their fourth undergraduate year were utilized and were extracted from merged longitudinal databases that included matching student responses from the 2004 and 2007 Student Information Forms (SIF) and the 2008 and 2011 College Senior Surveys (CSS). Although the results of the study confirm many conventional understandings regarding student character development, they also raise larger questions regarding the role and effectiveness of small liberal arts institutional environments as well as their larger counterparts, in contributing to its enhancement.