Victoria's favorite thing about Davidson:
"I love Davidson for the people. The community way of life at Davidson is just amazing. And also the various opportunities for skill development and leadership, and the Hurt Hub."

Victoria's favorite part of working with C2i:
"My favorite project so far has been on the test-optional admissions policy. It was fascinating seeing how Covid-19 and peer influence impacted the various schools and their test policies."

Abby's favorite thing about C2i:
"I love all the learning that comes with the work we do! I get to understand so much more about each topic I research."

Abby's favorite thing about Davidson:
"I love all the friends I have made here and the future opportunities Davidson and its alumni provide."

Sarah's favorite thing about Davidson:
"The supportive community of such awesome and wonderful people! Everyone is invested in each other's success and always excited to help you out or cheer you on."

Sarah's favorite thing about C2i:
"I love the opportunity to be involved in exciting and impactful research as well as the access to excellent professional development opportunities. I feel incredibly supported by the C2i team and I learn something new every day!"

Since the pandemic, there has been an uptick in the unionization of residence life and research employees, which often include students. 3 in 5 unionization elections are organized by the SEIU or the AFL-CIO. These elections are more common in union-friendly states and well-resourced institutions.

The original C2i student data collection used in this study is unique in that it includes all campus employees, not just faculty. Most previous research has ignored the unionization efforts of staff such as maintenance workers, food workers, and campus security.

The study examines trends in unionization at private colleges and universities since 2007. It finds that the majority of unionization efforts were organized by staff (67.86%), followed by contingent faculty (~30%).

This is one of many trends to keep an eye on as higher education evolves throughout the 21st century.

They predict that this trend may persist after the pandemic, particularly among marginalized groups. However new data from the National Student Clearinghouse show an increase in college enrollment among 21+ year-olds, suggesting that gap years may have become more popular due to COVID.

Using data from a Fall 2020 C2i student collection, the team attributes this pattern to a relaxation of high school graduation standards and students' deterrence from going to college due to online instruction during the height of the pandemic.

The paper explains the COVID-related changes in high school graduation and college entry rates over recent years. While college entry rates declined during the pandemic, especially at community colleges, high school graduation rates actually increased.

C2i's Founding Director Chris Marsicano and Assistant Director Rylie Martin (Davidson College) teamed up for this project w/ Douglas Harris (Tulane University), Feng Chen (Liaoning University), Ann Bernhardt (Texas A&M University), and Paul Von Hippel (University of Texas at Austin).

This anomalous behavior may reflect an attempt to avoid paying the tax or to generate outside revenue to offset the tax's cost. The team's findings will become increasingly relevant in the near future as more institutions are subjected to the endowment tax.

The team modeled a universe in which the TCJA was not passed and compared the alternate behavior to institutions' actual responses. Although it doesn't look like schools are systematically avoiding the tax, there is evidence for anomalous behavior.

The paper examines whether these institutions subsequently changed their behavior to avoid the tax, perhaps through enrolling more students to reduce the value of the endowment per student, increasing tuition, or reducing financial aid.

In 2017, the TCJA imposed a 1.4% tax on the net investment income for private colleges and universities with at least $500,000 in endowment assets per student and over 500 full-time tuition-paying students.

Steve Mirabello '25 presented his comparative analysis of global universities' COVID-19 responses and their Quacquarelli Symonds rankings. His research suggests that certain universities rose in the rankings as a result of their decision to move classes online.