Student affairs is now part of the management and administrative structure of almost every college and university in the United States. Professional staff working under the banner of student affairs are engaged in a wide variety of educational, support, and service functions. Measured by almost any standard, today’s student affairs profession has never been stronger. There are still, however, a number of critical issues that must be debated and discussed if the student affairs profession is to move forward in the years ahead. Critical Issues for Student Affairs identifies the most vital issues currently confronting the student affairs profession. Each chapter in this important volume focuses on a specific issue and presents a background, a summary of related research and writing, an examination of the issue, related references, and a list of suggestions for further discussion.

What is your level of understanding of the many moral, ideological, and political issues that student affairs educators regularly encounter? What is your personal responsibility to addressing these issues? What are the rationales behind your decisions? What are the theoretical perspectives you might choose and why? How do your responses compare with those of colleagues?Contested Issues in Student Affairs augments traditional introductory handbooks that focus on functional areas (e.g., residence life, career services) and organizational issues. It fills a void by addressing the social, educational and moral concepts and concerns of student affairs work that transcend content areas and administrative units, such as the tensions between theory and practice, academic affairs and student affairs, risk taking and failure; and such as issues of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and spirituality. It places learning and social justice at the epicenter of student affairs practice.The book addresses these issues by asking 24 critical and contentious questions that go to the heart of contemporary educational practice. Intended equally for future student affairs educators in graduate preparation programs, and as reading for professional development workshops, it is designed to stimulate reflection and prompt readers to clarify their own thinking and practice as they confront the complexities of higher education.Student affairs faculty, administrators, and graduate students here situate these 24 questions historically in the professional literature, present background information and context, define key terms, summarize the diverse ideological and theoretical responses to the questions, make explicit their own perspectives and responses, discuss their political implications, and set them in the context of the changing nature of student affairs work. Each chapter is followed by a response that offers additional perspectives and complications, reminding readers of the ambiguity and complexity of many situations.Each chapter concludes with a brief annotated bibliography of seminal works that offer additional information on the topic, as well as with a URL to a moderated blog site that encourages further conversation on each topic and allows readers to teach and learn from each other, and interact with colleagues beyond their immediate campus. The website invites readers to post blogs, respond to each other, and upload relevant resources. The book aims to serve as a conversation starter to engage professionals in on-going dialogue about these complex and enduring challenges.Short ContentsThe 24 questions are organized into four units.I. The Philosophical Foundations of Student Affairs in Higher Education explores the implications and complications of student affair educators placing learning at the epicenter of their professional work. II. The Challenges of Promoting Learning and Development explores the challenges associated with learning-centered practice. III. Achieving Inclusive and Equitable Learning Environments addresses crafting learning environments that include students whose needs are often labeled “special,” or students and/or student subcultures that are often marginalized and encouraged to adapt to normalizing expectations. IV. Organizing Student Affairs Practice for Learning and Social Justice addresses the organizational and professional implications of placing learning and social justice at the epicenter of student affairs practice.

Prepares readers to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse college student population This is a timely and comprehensive overview of key theories of student development that illustrates their application across a range of student services with diverse student populations. It is distinguished by its focus on nontraditional student populations including adults changing careers, parents, veterans, and international students. The book examines relevant theories of cognitive, ethical, moral, and personality development and theories of identity development in terms of ethnicity, gender, and ability. Also covered are theories relevant to disability issues, LGBT identity issues, and to choice of career and major/degree. Unique to the text is information on how theories can be applied, beyond understanding individual students, to student groups and to guide the coordination of student affairs services across the campus. Engaging case vignettes immerse readers in diverse perspectives and demonstrate the application of theory to a wide range of student types and issues. The book covers the history and development of each theory along with its strengths and limitations. Also included are useful suggestions on how to best assist students with current challenges. Reflective questions concluding each chapter help students to reinforce information. An insightful text for courses in college student development in relevant graduate programs and for student affairs professionals who wish to enhance their abilities, this book reflects the realities of contemporary college student life and student affairs practices. Key Features: Applies student development theories primarily to non-traditional college students Presents chapter-opening/closing examples reflecting student diversity Explores the strengths and limitations of each theory Describes how theories can be applied in varied student affairs settings and in broader contexts of student affairs Includes instructor’s resources

Contested Issues in Troubled Times provides student affairs educators with frameworks to constructively think about and navigate the contentious climate they are increasingly encountering on campus.The 54 contributors address the book’s overarching question: How do we create an equitable climate conducive to learning in a dynamic environment fraught with complexity and a socio-political context characterized by escalating intolerance, incivility, and overt discrimination?Rather than attempting to offer readers definitive solutions, this book illustrates the possibilities and promise of acknowledging multiple approaches to addressing contentious issues, articulating a persuasive argument anchored in professional judgment, listening attentively to others for points of connection as well as divergence, and drawing upon new ways of thinking to foster safe and inclusive campuses.Among the issues this volume addresses are such topics as sexual violence; historically underrepresented racial and ethnic groups; transgender and undocumented students; the professional skills, knowledge and/or dispositions needed to thrive and facilitate systemic change in contemporary higher education organizations; the implications of maintaining personal and professional identities via social media; and self-care.In this companion volume to Contested Issues in Student Affairs (whose issues remain as relevant today as they were upon publication in 2011), a new set of contributors explore new questions which foreground issues of equity, safety, and civility – themes which dominate today’s higher education headlines and campus conversations.The book concludes with calls to action, encouraging student affairs educators to exhibit the moral courage needed to critically examine routine practices that (un)knowingly perpetuate inequity and enact the foundational values and principles upon which the student affairs profession was founded.

The goal of this book is to help the reader gain knowledge on ethical and legal issues in the field of student affairs and develop competency to follow the profession’s principles and standards of conduct. The significance of the book is due to its focus on the practical value of ethics and legal issues and its aim to address the knowledge, skills, and dispositions required of student affairs educators to develop and maintain integrity in their life and work as described by the ACPA/NASPA. The text offers readers a number of major unique features: It offers multiple ethical decision-making models to guide student affairs educators in their ethical decision-making process. It proposes that ethics is not an individual but an organizational responsibility. It offers that ethical decision making is a professional skill that can be practiced and applied in student affairs educators’ day-to-day practice. It presents the reader with the most current legal issues in student affairs and higher education. Finally, it reflects three themes: integration of ACPA/NASPA competency areas; development of professional identity; and application of knowledge and theory to practice. The book is critical and timely. A book that focuses on ethical and legal issues in student affairs is needed for faculty in preparation programs, new professionals navigating their identity as student affairs educators, and a resource for mid- and senior-level professionals facilitating ongoing professional development. The book begins to address what it means to have a professional identity, which is ground in the shared ethical and legal values espoused within the profession and academia. Each chapter uniquely contributes to the complexity embedded in the study of ethics and how that is applied to practice. Additionally, the volume is a balance of procedural knowledge, case illustrations, and guided practice exercises to facilitate the reader’s ability to translate the theory and research discussed into professional decision making and application.

Now in its fifth edition, Student Services: A Handbook for the Profession has been hailed as a classic reference in the field. In this important resource, a new cast of student affairs scholars and practitioners examine the changing context of the student experience in higher education, the evolution of the role of student affairs professionals, and the philosophies, ethics, and theories that guide the practice of student affairs work. The fifth edition covers a broad range of relevant topics including historical roots and development of the profession, philosophies and ethical standards, legal issues, theoretical bases of the profession, organizing and managing student affairs programs, and essential competencies: leadership, multiculturalism, supervision, teaching, counseling and helping skills, advising and consultation, conflict resolution, community development, professionalism, and developing institutional partnerships. It also addresses the future of student affairs practice and how it is informed by student learning outcomes and technology. "The painstakingly thorough coverage of topics important to the profession of student affairs makes this handbook a valuable resource to the scholarly and practice communities of the profession." —John M. Braxton, professor, Higher Education Leadership and Policy Program, Peabody College, Vanderbilt University; editor, Journal of College Student Development "Continues three decades of excellence in providing a comprehensive set of resources that provides firm grounding for the higher education student affairs community in all aspects of our profession." —Michael J. Cuyjet, professor, Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology, University of Louisville "Casts an impressively wide net, thoroughly capturing critical topics and offering a deeply nuanced and technical, yet readily accessible narrative trajectory and study of student affairs in higher education." —Theresa A. Powell, vice president for student affairs, Temple University

This book is as a primer on the business-related aspects of student affairs that practitioners should understand. The author discusses a variety of skill sets to equip student affairs practitioners-educators with the means to analyze circumstances, alter environments, invest in structures and programs, and lead campus progress.

Tracing the transformation of early modern academics into modern researchers from the Renaissance to Romanticism, Academic Charisma and the Origins of the Research University uses the history of the university and reframes the "Protestant Ethic" to reconsider the conditions of knowledge production in the modern world. William Clark argues that the research university—which originated in German Protestant lands and spread globally in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries—developed in response to market forces and bureaucracy, producing a new kind of academic whose goal was to establish originality and achieve fame through publication. With an astonishing wealth of research, Academic Charisma and the Origins of the Research University investigates the origins and evolving fixtures of academic life: the lecture catalogue, the library catalog, the grading system, the conduct of oral and written exams, the roles of conversation and the writing of research papers in seminars, the writing and oral defense of the doctoral dissertation, the ethos of "lecturing with applause" and "publish or perish," and the role of reviews and rumor. This is a grand, ambitious book that should be required reading for every academic.