Student affairs practitioners are inundated with a variety of ethical considerations when making day-to-day decisions regarding the welfare of students and colleagues. There is every reason to believe that confronting ethical issues will be an increasingly difficult issue for student affairs professionals in the future. This article provides a…

In the 1900s, student affairs professionals were faced with decisions about how to incorporate new forms of technology into the college community. New technologies during the twentieth century that institutions had to plan and prepare for included the telephone (invented in 1870), television (invented in early 1900s), cable television (available…

The NEAIR (North East Association for Institutional Research) 2011 Conference Proceedings is a compilation of papers presented at the Boston, Massachusetts conference. Papers in this document include: (1) Are Students Dropping Out or Dragging Out the College Experience? The Roles of Socioeconomic Status and Academic Background (Leslie S. Stratton…

This paper explores the ways in which school leaders are turning to student services staff as local experts in data analysis and use to meet the demands of high-stakes accountability. The authors have been collecting data, as part of a 5-year National Science Foundation-funded study, on how school leaders create data-driven systems to improve…

The dynamics of resistance articulated by the Privileged Identity Exploration model highlight the need to acknowledge the role of socialization in the formation of attitudes and behaviors that can support identities of privilege. Exploring individual and group related socialization processes in the context of a difficult dialogue might facilitate…

Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, faculty members and student affairs educators often believe that the answers they seek about assessment are secrets kept by an all-knowing, powerful person. If they can just find the Wizard of Assessment and be granted the secret assessment formula, all will be well. The student affairs educators at California…

Student affairs professionals in the United States were surveyed to determine the predictive value of overall job satisfaction, organizational support, organizational politics, and work/nonwork interaction on affective organizational commitment. Results indicate that a supportive work environment leads to increased affective attachment to the…

Ten new student affairs professionals participated in this longitudinal study of their first year on the job. This qualitative study used online data collection. Participants submitted monthly responses to open-ended prompts inquiring about their experiences, challenges, and surprises. Over three time phases (Pre-Employment and Orientation,…

College has traditionally been a transition to adulthood, with campus life and academic experiences providing students with knowledge, tools, and challenges that create a sturdy foundation on which students build their personal and professional lives. According to the author, that foundation is eroding because parents are the ones now wielding the…

Student affairs professionals are encouraged by their professional organizations to recognize the responsibility they have to their institutions by "supporting its mission, goals and policies" (American College Personnel Association [ACPA], 2006, p. 6) and by avoiding conflicts of interest between the self and the college or university (National…

Leadership is a key ingredient in the ultimate success or failure of any organization. In this article the authors review the research on leadership in general and then focus on how leadership in the academic world is similar to, yet distinct from, leadership in the private sector. Included in this discussion are a description of how leadership in…

The purpose of this study was to consider factors that graduate students in master's degree programs in student affairs identify as influential to their decisions to enter the student affairs profession. A total of 300 master's students from 24 randomly selected graduate programs participated in the study. Relatively few differences were found…

This article presents the methodology and findings on school attendance obtained over two years from 2006 for the National Behaviour and Attendance Review in Wales. The review was led and chaired by the author and the report was presented to the Minister for Children, Lifelong Learning and Skills and the Welsh Assembly Government in May 2008. The…

Many private colleges have begun offering courses or programs in technologically-mediated formats, specifically utilizing online or internet based programs. These programs provide opportunity and access to unique student populations, and the personal relationship element of private colleges is often challenged in these distributed programs. This…

Technology has received much praise and blame for its uses and influence in higher education over the past twenty-five years. It has been widely praised for its contributions to management efficiencies, information access and analysis, improved communications, and innovative educational applications in colleges and universities. But it has also…