minority students are entering college than in previous years, fewer earn degrees compared with non-minorities. Stagnant college completion rates and unacceptable racial-ethnic gaps in college graduation rates coupled with external pressures for institutional accountability for student learning (Bok, 2006) have intensified the need to better understand the factors that influence student success in college. Students leave college for a mix of individual and institutional reasons: change of major, lack of money, family demands, and poor psycho-social fit, among others (Astin, Korn, & Green, 1987; Bean, 1990; Braxton, Hirschy, & McClendon, 2004; Cabrera, Nora, & Casteneda, 1992; Kuh, Kinzie, Buckley, Bridges, & Hayek, 2007; Pascarella, 1980; Peltier, Laden, & Matranga, 1999; Tinto, 1993). More recent theoretical formulations of student persistence (Braxton, 2000; Braxton et al., 2004; Hurtado & Carter, 1997; Titus, 2004) move beyond the interactionalist approach to studying retention, underscoring the critical role that institutional characteristics and context play in influencing student persistence. For example, Braxton et al.(2004) recommended that alternative theoretical propositions are needed to better understand student departure at residential and commuter institutions, and to specify differences in the ways students from underrepresented racial ethnic backgrounds experience college. Although many studies focus on persistence and baccalaureate degree attainment as the primary measures of student success, Braxton (2006) concluded that eight domains warrant attention: academic attainment, acquisition of general education, development of academic competence, development of cognitive skills and intellectual dispositions, occupational attainment, preparation for adulthood and citizenship, personal accomplishments, and personal development. In their review of the literature conducted for the National Postsecondary Education Cooperative, Kuh et al.(2007) proposed that student success be defined broadly to include academic achievement, engagement in educationally purposeful activities, satisfaction, acquisition of desired knowledge, skills and competencies, persistence, attainment of educational objectives, and postcollege performance.

Most models that examine aspects of student success include five sets of variables:(1) student background characteristics including demographics and pre-college academic and other experiences,(2) structural characteristics of institutions such as mission, size, and selectivity,(3) interactions with faculty and staff members and peers,(4) student perceptions of the learning environment, and (5) the quality of effort students devote to educationally purposeful activities (Kuh et al., 2007). To better understand the causes and consequences of student success in col-