  Developing a sense of community among students is one of the three pillars of
an overall reform effort to increase participation in physics, and the sciences
more broadly, at Florida International University. The emergence of a research
and learning community, embedded within a course reform effort, has contributed
to increased recruitment and retention of physics majors. Finn and Rock [1]
link the academic and social integration of students to increased rates of
retention. We utilize social network analysis to quantify interactions in
Florida International University's Physics Learning Center (PLC) that support
the development of academic and social integration,. The tools of social
network analysis allow us to visualize and quantify student interactions, and
characterize the roles of students within a social network. After providing a
brief introduction to social network analysis, we use sequential multiple
regression modeling to evaluate factors which contribute to participation in
the learning community. Results of the sequential multiple regression indicate
that the PLC learning community is an equitable environment as we find that
gender and ethnicity are not significant predictors of participation in the
PLC. We find that providing students space for collaboration provides a vital
element in the formation of supportive learning community.
