Table 8 Trine institutional analysis—Theme 1

Community investment in individual success

s = 14

“What sets Trine apart is the individual courses in a way. Your courses are smaller so you can get more individualized help and attention if you need it. The professors are always willing to have a chat with you or help you with any problems you're having… It's a very individualized experience. I really enjoy that. They're very focused on your success.” (Trine: Student 3)

Group oriented and collaborative institutional mindset

s = 12

“Some days I'll work with students I don't have any classes with. I don't have any classes with them, but I know them from other sports or other previous classes. I work with people I don't really know their names. It's just a friendly environment.” (Trine: Student 14)

Frequent interaction facilitated by shared spaces

s = 10

“Maybe just the fact that since it's a smaller school I'm going to walk in the café and I'm definitely going to know someone there, so I'm not going to ever have to eat by myself. I have multiple classes with people that I know, so we can go back to the same place that we live and work on the same homework and whatnot.” (Trine: Student 1)

Shared accountability amongst the community

s = 9

“Yeah. Anytime there's homework due, we all get together. We talk it out. We do all that stuff. Our professor’s actually really good about this. He comes in every Sunday and answers questions that we have. We're all in there together. We're all figuring it out. We're all doing stuff together.” (Trine: Student 9)