The Community College Student Success Think Tank, part of the Community College Student Success Project, funded by Lumina Foundation for Education, brings student and academic affairs officers together with institutional researchers to reflect on trends and issues surrounding data-driven decision making in community colleges. Participants consider…

The differences among students who attend different types of colleges and universities are well documented in the literature. Variations in faculty roles by institutional type have also been examined. Yet disparities in the worklife of student affairs administrators have remained largely unexplored. Responses from a national sample of…

This chapter presents theoretical foundations, resources, and entertainment media applications for working with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) undergraduate and graduate students.

The author addresses two critical questions related to technology: How has students' use of technology influenced student affairs work? How do we best align our business practices with advances in information technology?

Strengths-based advising is proposed as a new lens for higher education, one that enables advisors to see diverse groups of students fulfill their potential and achieve excellence. Based on research from social work, positive psychology, and the business world, this approach enables advisors to identify and build on the inherent talents students…

A learning paradigm can transform the field of academic advising. Ten organizing principles answer the two core questions raised by a focus on learning. What should the student learn through advising? How might the learning take place? The first three organizing principles define a curriculum for academic advising and are based on the premise that…

When Jason Johnson, a student at the University of the Cumberlands in the eastern Kentucky hills, posted comments about his new boyfriend on his Myspace.com Web page, he unintentionally sparked a controversy that quickly embroiled the college, the president of the state senate, and Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher. The Baptist-affiliated college,…

In this article, the authors describe their personal experiences and offer student affairs professionals suggestions for balancing their personal and professional lives. They also share the lessons they have learned from their experiences.

To serve their campuses well, senior level student affairs administrators need to be involved as full partners in institutional decision-making. To do that effectively requires a variety of skills, including an understanding of higher education finance. The role of student affairs personnel in institutional financial decision-making has not been…

Books, music, films and other media sources are identified in terms of their unique value in teaching career development.

This chapter reflects on the simultaneous journeys of two women, one a lesbian and one an ally. One woman is a midlevel manager in student affairs while the other is the executive director of a national association.

Providing high-quality student services to students enrolled in distance education programs is a critical link to the academic success of this growing student population. (Contains 7 figures.)

Premedical students have often been viewed as academically narrow and cynical about liberal education. To investigate the veracity of this generalization, I conducted a qualitative study of premedical students at a liberal arts institution. Contrary to negative stereotypes, the students in the study expressed a positive attitude toward liberal…

Since the mid-1990s, social norms theory has become prevalent in student development literature and research. Subsequently, social norms interventions to change student behavior have spread across campuses nationwide through marketing campaigns. Theorists and practitioners have applied the social norms approach to primarily health-related student…

Several associations have provided standards and competencies in the area of faith, religion, and spirituality. This article reviews three of those sets of standards and competencies.