Chapter 5: Investigating Authentic University Academic Care at a US Non-Mainland HBCU

This chapter offers an account on the development and usage of a conceptual framework and instrument to examine authentic university academic care (AUAC) at the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI), a non-mainland Historical Black College and University. AUAC is an amalgamation of genuine human concerns and disciplined nurturing within university academic services. This chapter is a synthesis of literature review, data analysis, findings and discussion on AUAC. Data were collected from a convenient sample (n = 126) of UVI students’ responses. An exploratory quantitative research design was used. Exploratory factor analysis identified eight associated caring about academic caregiving criteria in all four-points on the university academic caring carescapes framework. Based on UVI students’ perceptions and a factor-score correlation analysis, academic caregiving of colleges/schools were observed to be the focal point of UVI’s AUAC. Furthermore, the strongest association was found between the academic caregiving of colleges/schools and faculty.