Performance appraisal is widely endorsed as an essential part of the staffing process, yet most student affairs practitioners acknowledge that it is done poorly, or not at all, in their institutions. The reasons for this neglect are outlined, and suggestions are offered for ways to make performance appraisal a more valuable staffing tool.…

Despite long-standing calls for more intentional professional development as a way to ensure a higher quality workforce in student affairs, little progress has been made. Various committees and task forces have suggested frameworks for program development, the certification of program quality and attendance, the recording of individual…

Professional associations have an obligation to ensure the quality of professional preparation and practice, to provide continuing professional education, and to recognize those practitioners who take steps to improve their knowledge and practice. To date, no student affairs association has fully operationalized or embraced these ideas. The future…

Based upon themes generated in this qualitative study, "high quality supervision" was defined by student affairs professionals as an educational endeavor demonstrated through principled practices with a dual focus on institutional and individual needs. Findings reveal that high quality supervisors engaged in common sense and ordinary supervisory…

A total of 580 ethical problems faced by 303 student affairs administrators were examined by category using Kitchener's ethical principles. Reports of these problems differed significantly when gender, level of experience, administrative level within the institution, and institution size were examined. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)

The first "Student Personnel Point of View" (1937) still stands as the premiere statement of excellence for the student personnel profession. Several propositions are requisites to achieving the goal of development in students. Students, professional staff, and institutions must all achieve their goals. The environment must be…

Results of a survey of chief student affairs officers to determine the nature of program innovations using student development goals underscored the importance of leadership and championship, in the Probability of Adoption of Change Model. (Author/ABB)

Student affairs professionals in community colleges are facing several major issues in need of resolution including: the insufficient use of existing knowledge about adolescent and adult development and organization development in program design and execution; and the insufficient use of knowledge of program evaluation for understanding the…

This paper explores the readiness of student affairs professionals to utilize adult development knowledge in everyday interactions with college students. Four types of knowledge about the adult development process (cognitive-developmental, psychosocial, person-environment interaction, and humanistic-existential) are briefly defined, with…

During the period that student services evolved into a profession, it articulated a set of core values that are still intact. However, no one has explored how these values inform staffing practices in student affairs. Accordingly, the effects of these core values on student affairs staffing patterns are examined in this text. The volume targets…

A survey of (N=423) community colleges showed 44 percent had human development/human relations classes. Results found a strong impact on improving self-concept, and modest impact associated with increasing retention and student employability. Little improvement of opportunity for student input into curriculum development was noted. (JAC)