Enhancing Sense of Belonging for Equitable Student Success: New Findings from NSSE

Abstract

Students’ sense of belonging influences persistence, well-being, and success. Yet students from underrepresented racial-ethnic identities and other diverse backgrounds report lower belonging than their peers. To help educators understand sense of belonging for their campus community, and especially for student subpopulations, the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) added sense of belonging measures to the 2020 survey. Results show that while most first-year students feel comfortable being themselves, feel valued, and feel part of the community at their institution, there are notable differences between subpopulations. NSSE created a public Sense of Belonging interactive dashboard to support the investigation of results filtered by institution and stu! dent characteristics. This session highlights results, demonstrates the interactive dashboard, and involves participants in a discussion of the engagement behaviors positively associated with sense of belonging and how campuses can positively influence belonging to promote equitable student success.