This article describes several issues in the academic and student affairs areas faced by students and faculty in the post-Katrina destruction environment. Cases are used to illustrate the issues, and a call is made for increased disaster readiness plans.

Community colleges have historically been a major gateway to higher education for many students. Students enroll in community college programs and courses for multiple reasons: closeness to home, financial issues, job retraining, remedial work, plans to transfer to a four-year institution, and a love of learning. These divergent goals make…

PEPNet gets frequent requests for information about interpreter/speech-to-text position development. Determining or analyzing a salary is often part of this challenge and the people at PEPNet trust the information in this paper will be helpful to postsecondary programs. This is the sixth survey produced by PEPNet-Midwest and the University of…

The "Talking Stick" is published bimonthly, six times a year in January/February, March/April, May/June, July/August, September/October, and November/December by the Association of College and University Housing Officers-International. Each issue is divided into three sections: Features, Columns, and Departments. These sections contain…

Isothermal Community College (ICC) is located in Spindale, North Carolina. The college serves approximately 2,000 curriculum students every fall and spring semester and about 1,000 curriculum students in summer semesters. The Student Affairs department at ICC is divided into 10 functional areas. Over the last several years, student affairs staff…

This study surveyed 239 community college students from Southern California to determine if the role of faculty and staff advisors of student clubs and organizations of intercultural, multicultural, and ethnic origin affected student outcomes in multicultural competence and career goals. These students participated in 42 different culturally and…

Student affairs practitioners must reconceptualize traditional support services in order to use the resources allocated to them more effectively, meet the needs of today's students, and increase their value to community colleges. This chapter identifies student affairs programs that are vital to the community college's mission, describes best…

This chapter, aimed at both new community college student affairs professionals and experienced practitioners hoping to further develop their skills, provides resources and information about the expanding focus on student learning, translating student development theory into practice, and assessing student learning outcomes.

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…

In a professional world characterized by change, uncertainty, and increased pressure to demonstrate that what they do really matters, community college student affairs professionals need clear definitions, a shared understanding of critical professional issues, and professional values that are consistent and congruent. This chapter provides those…

Due to the transitory nature of students at community colleges, it is often difficult for student affairs professionals to connect with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students and even more difficult for them to provide services for this invisible population.

The Luke Principle states that the successful implementation of any organizational change requires a counting of the costs (Ousley, 2003). As developers do not construct a building, nor do governments go to war, without counting costs, administrators in higher education should not reorganize units or merge departments without counting costs. This…

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…

Library involvement with Campus Reading Experiences (CRE) at two community colleges and two 4-year institutions are described. Each chosen case study reflects a strong library presence in institutional level program planning and instructional development for deeper student learning related to the CRE. In particular, the case studies highlight the…