The authors examine definitions of culture and philosophical and political assumptions that underlie multicultural approaches that facilitate or discourage multicultural competence. The authors discover that campus culture—determined mostly by the dominant coalition or power elite—is critical to success or failure of effective multi-cultural policies and procedures. In the literature, power is not generally acknowledged when considering multicultural competence. Thus, this preliminary work relating systems theory to institutional culture is unique in determining excellence in multiculturalism.

Clearly, increased funding at the local, state, and federal levels would go a long way to ensure the future success of Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) of higher education in the United States. Private funding and strong support from alumni groups are also a critical part of this funding mix. In addition, sophisticated and adequately funded marketing, public relations, and enrollment management efforts are needed. The funding of most HSIs is closely tied to the political process. Successful lobbying efforts and the structuring of a strong advancement effort is instrumental in building healthy institutions and ensuring high graduation rates. With this in mind, the goal of this study was to determine what level of importance is placed on institutional advancement activities by college and university presidents at select HSIs throughout the United States.

Researchers have long investigated error rates in news stories and their impact on media credibility. This new research explores spelling and grammar error rates in the digital era and their association with reported credibility. Results show basic errors in spelling and grammar persist in digital news; however, their influence on perceived credibility is not so straightforward.