The scholarship of student affairs has neglected to carefully review its contextual past and, in the process, failed to fully integrate historical research into practice. The story of Thyrsa Wealtheow Amos and the history of the Dean of Women's Program at the University of Pittsburgh, 1919-41, helps us to reflect on the true reality of our work in…

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 study examines the perceptions of 104 mid-and senior-level student affairs administrators of positions, responsibilities, competencies, and theories important for professional practice for new student affairs professionals. In regard to competencies, the results of this study provide important information about preprofessional abilities that…

Nussbaum (1998) proposed that Socratic activity is a worthwhile pursuit with regard to academic advising relationships. While it offers the promise of certain benefits, such as the development of critical thinking skills, Socratic activity arguably cannot be universally applied to all advising relationships. In presenting and analyzing issues…

A shared perspective on the extant and ideal organizing principles for an institution's advising system is important to the overall effectiveness of advising. In this essay, I develop a vision of advising as educating, and from that vision, derive some higher order principles for an institutional advising system that will accommodate the wide…

Heavy drinking continues to be a nationally recognized problem on college campuses. This article describes how student affairs professionals play a pivotal role in identifying and referring these students for relevant services. A five-step model for alcohol screening, advising, and referral is described using motivational enhancement strategies.

This qualitative study examined the supervision of new professionals from the perspectives of new professionals and their supervisors. Analysis of interviews with four new professionals and their supervisors suggested the following: (a) supervisors supervised the way they wanted to be supervised, (b) new professionals had difficulty identifying…

Over the last decade the Australian higher education sector has become increasingly reliant upon the income generated by overseas fee-paying students. Yet the experiences of these students are sometimes traumatic, and institutions have been slow to develop appropriate structures to support them. The authors report on recent efforts to overcome…

Professionals with responsibilities for student affairs can play a major role in the increasing emphasis on academic achievement, student learning, and retention. The outlines of future perspectives on professionalism and personal development can be found in examples from the recent past. The new developments will combine historical perspectives…

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore (a) how student affairs professionals define the concept of balance in the context of balancing their personal and professional lives and (b) how student affairs professionals identified as "balanced" describe their experience of achieving and maintaining balance in their lives.

After 18 years as a student affairs professional, the author is now headed in a different direction. The personal lessons that she has learned about work-life balance over the past two decades are very similar to others. Instead of focusing on personal lessons, the author offers some structural observations, and--with respect, as she leaves the…

Student affairs practitioners often rely on anecdotal evidence when asked to demonstrate their contributions to the community college, but their future may depend on their ability to become more data-based and outcomes-oriented. This chapter discusses the need for a culture of evidence in student affairs, describes how to build such a culture, and…

This chapter identifies eleven factors that, when present in a community college, substantially increase the probability that student affairs professionals will be able to create programs that matter to the institution's core mission. The chapter also provides student affairs practitioners with tools to assess the climate in student affairs as…

This study examined student leaders' attitudes towards lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) students and compared resident advisors' (RAs) attitudes to those of other student leaders. Despite careful selection, training, and supervision of RAs, results revealed no differences between RAs' attitudes and those of other student leaders. The number of LGB…

We present a theoretical basis for engaging in academic advising as friendship and offer examples of the applicability of friendship in advising. We begin with interconnections between civic friendship and personal friendship in the context of academic advising. Next we overview theoretical work on communication and friendship that offers…