Theses and Dissertations from UMD
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item CREATING SPACE FOR NATURE RX AT HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES(2023) Smith, Marci-Ann; Sachs, Naomi A; Plant Science and Landscape Architecture (PSLA); Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)With the rising trend of mental health issues among young adults, many colleges are trying to establish an approach to combat those issues for the well-being of their students. One such approach is Nature Rx. Nature Rx is a program that encourages people, sometimes with an actual prescription, to spend time in nature in order to relieve stress and improve overall health. Nature Rx is a holistic way of addressing mental issues such as stress, anxiety, and depression that are prevalent among college students. The evidence is strong that time spent in and engaging with nature can improve mental and physical health. Colleges like Cornell University and University of Maryland College Park are taking advantage of their existing beautiful landscape as part of their Nature Rx program to help their students. Other schools are implementing this program and providing spaces for their students to find reprieve from the stresses of studies. However, there is a gap in the presence of Nature Rx programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). To date, no HBCU has a nature Rx program. This project seeks to fill that gap by using the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, an HBCU, as a case study to answer the following thesis question: “How could a Nature Rx design at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, a Historically Black College and University, benefit the health and well-being of its students?”Item “PROSPERING BECAUSE THAT’S ITS HISTORY”: BLACK RESILIENCE AND HONORS DEVELOPMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION: MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY AND THE STATE OF MARYLAND, 1867-1988(2015) Dula, Traci Leigh Moody; MacDonald, Victoria-María; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study explores the origins and development of honors education at a Historically Black College and University (HBCU), Morgan State University, within the context of the Maryland higher education system. During the last decades, public and private institutions have invested in honors experiences for their high-ability students. These programs have become recruitment magnets while also raising institutional academic profiles, justifying additional campus resources. The history of higher education reveals simultaneous narratives such as the tension of post-desegregated Black colleges facing uncertain futures; and the progress of the rise and popularity of collegiate honors programs. Both accounts contribute to tracing seemingly parallel histories in higher education that speaks to the development of honors education at HBCUs. While the extant literature on honors development at Historically White Institutions (HWIs) of higher education has gradually emerged, our understanding of activity at HBCUs is spotty at best. One connection of these two phenomena is the development of honors programs at HBCUs. Using Morgan State University, I examine the role and purpose of honors education at a public HBCU through archival materials and oral histories. Major unexpected findings that constructed this historical narrative beyond its original scope were the impact of the 1935/6 Murray v Pearson, the first higher education desegregation case. Other emerging themes were Morgan’s decades-long efforts to resist state control of its governance, Maryland’s misuse of Morrill Act funds, and the border state’s resistance to desegregation. Also, the broader histories of Black education, racism, and Black citizenship from Dred Scott and Plessy, the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation to Brown, inform this study. As themes are threaded together, Critical Race Theory provides the framework for understanding the emerging themes. In the immediate wake of the post-desegregation era, HBCUs had to address future challenges such as purpose and mission. Competing with HWIs for high-achieving Black students was one of the unanticipated consequences of the Brown decision. Often marginalized from higher education research literature, this study will broaden the research repository of honors education by documenting HBCU contributions despite a challenging landscape.