It is time for the field of student affairs to put aside its four-decade preoccupation with professional status and recognize that its identity as a field is essentially an administrative convenience linked by an allegiance to a common philosophical perspective on its work and by nature of its clientele and the milieu in which it is practiced.…

This digest focuses on the strengths and weaknesses of the student affairs profession in higher education. The strengths of student affairs include diversity and involvement. Student affairs staff are trained in many different disciplines and are located throughout the campus. The diversity of student affairs professionals is seen as the thread…

This monograph provides an intensive examination of the student development movement in college student affairs. Chapter I examines student development as a reform movement within the field of student affairs in higher education. Chapter II challenges the assertion that student development as conceptualized in its seminal documents represents a…

For student affairs, a professional field heretofore dominated by the positivistic design structure imposed by quantitative research methodology and traditional graduate research courses, an increased utilization of an alternative methodology, the qualitative, would lead to a greatly expanded range of researchable questions. The use of qualitative…

This information analysis presents descriptions of some of the major current issues in student services at various types of institutions of higher education. Issues are categorized as institution-based, student-oriented, and profession-based. Institution-based issues examined include excellence and access, enrollment management, academic support…

With the rapidly changing population demographics of the United States and significant growth of diverse multicultural groups, schools and professionals are being challenged on how to provide the best comprehensive educational and support services to their increasingly diverse student population. The changes between 1980 and 1990 have been…

Student development has become a buzz word within the student affairs profession and the concept of student development has become the guiding paradigm of the student affairs profession. Unfortunately, this embracing of student development lacked the necessary critique or debate essential to academics. This digest provides an abstract of a major…

The efforts of student affairs aimed at improving quality of life, integrating new student groups, and attracting and retaining students are becoming critical to colleges and universities. Student affairs organizations can respond to the changing conditions and take a leadership role in new institutional strategies; they can become…

A discussion of the role of the student personnel worker in counseling adult students, identification of the needs of women students and the reasons they return to college, and a review of research regarding women's utilization of a student personnel department are presented. Other areas of concern addressed in this monograph include: (1)…

Based on a review of the management literature in the fields of business and education and on case studies, interviews, and discussions, this monograph identifies the prerequisites for the successful management of student affairs programs. Chapter 1 presents perspectives on the student affairs profession, summarizes the problems facing the field,…

Concerns about enhancing availability and access to mental health services in schools range from sparse resources to the proliferation of piecemeal and overspecialized interventions arising from categorical funding. This paper discusses such concerns and stresses that they must be addressed from a perspective that fully appreciates the degree to…

Although the role of the student development professional has changed along with the mission of the community colleges, the models providing a theoretical framework for the profession have remained relatively unchanged. In 1937, the American Council on Education published a statement which declared that student development professionals were to…

Surveys of influential counseling and student services professionals to obtain a broad range of perspectives regarding the future of guidance and student services were conducted by the ERIC Clearinghouse on Counseling and Personnel Services (ERIC/CAPS) as a part of its ERIC Futures Issues Components (EFIC) project. The ERIC/CAPS Advisory…

This monograph concerns the role of the student personnel worker in counseling adult students, especially female students. Reasons why women return to college and their utilization of a student personnel department are reviewed. An analysis of admission requirements for adult students and an outline of institutional activities that promote sex…

This publication is designed to broaden exposure to the ideas presented at the 2001 International Career Development Conference. It provides authors with an international forum for communicating their current research, proposals, and projects to the international career development community. The articles in this symposium include: (1) "Chaos,…