Resident assistant hiring decisions are critical to the residential student experience and ultimately to the success of housing and residence life departments. The purpose of this study is to explore the influences existing in the hiring decision-making process for housing and residence life staff. We also compare the influences of hiring…

For decades, the student affairs field has viewed supervision as a vital function of many professional roles for which staff rarely receive intentional training. While there is limited scholarship outlining what effective supervision should entail, the frameworks available to intentionally guide supervisory skill development is sparse. The…

The purpose of this narrative inquiry was to understand how institutions of higher education implemented a gender-inclusive housing option for students from the perspective of student affairs administrators. Of particular interest was how housing administrators perceived a gender-inclusive housing option impacted students and the campus community.…

Students with minoritized identities (SMI) are increasingly engaged on college campuses as activists and often feel unsupported by faculty and student affairs professionals (SAP). This phenomenological study examined how eight SMI activists described their experiences partnering with faculty or SAPs. Data analysis from semi-structured interviews…

This study examined the phenomenon of being geographically bound as a student affairs professional. Participants described challenges in career advancement, tension between personal and professional aspirations, and self-doubt about their professional identity due to pervasive messaging that "you need to move out to move up." Results…

Mattering is the subjective perception that others are aware of us, care about us, and depend on us at the interpersonal (e.g., friends) and societal levels (e.g., workplace, school). Interpersonal and university mattering explain important variances in college students' well-being and academic performance; therefore, shorter, more tailored…

This article highlights several examples of student affairs practitioners and graduate preparation faculty engaging in the scholarship of practice. In doing so, these individuals merit a designation as scholars of practice because they are conducting research using their disciplinary knowledge and skill to address an institutional problem or…

During the 2020-2021 school year, more than 60% of college students met the criteria for at least one mental health problem, according to the Healthy Minds Study, which collects data from 373 campuses nationwide. Since then, many colleges have developed mission statements that seek to ensure and preserve access to higher education and success for…

Framed by family engagement frameworks, this study presents four types of interactions college access professionals (CAPs) have with the families of underrepresented college-going students - inconsistent communication, transactional exchanges, student-family mediation, and trusting relationships - to explore the nature of family-educator…

The field of student affairs has seen an exodus of staff members over the past few years. Employee attrition, however, is not a new problem in student affairs. This grounded theory study aimed to understand why student affairs professionals leave the field. Based on interviews with student affairs professionals who left the field between March…

Through an unsustainable moniker that often receives no reprieve, Black women student affairs professionals become the institutional fixer--the StrongBlackWoman who can do all. Through a raced and gendered expectation, they support the needs of their students, many of whom are students of color. This effort creates a precarious double bind that…

Through outside-the-classroom activities (OCA), college students accumulate currencies for graduate school or the workforce. Because parents' education level may foster both the ability and predisposition to participate in OCA, insight into its connection to this type of participation may help practitioners and policymakers tailor students' campus…

Using a systematic literature review approach, this article examines the expanding landscape of LGBTQ+ student affairs in higher education. In reviewing 38 pieces of scholarship, several themes emerge about this line of work: how LGBTQ+ student affairs work came to be, how students experience LGBTQ+ centers, and ongoing organizational concerns.…

One of the most impacted areas in higher education is the field of student affairs (Lynch, 2017). While job satisfaction is problematic in higher education; only 1% of professionals are "extremely satisfied" with their job, giving the field a much lower overall satisfaction level than many other occupations (Kinman & Wray, 2014).…

This qualitative study explored how U.S. higher education/student affairs (HESA) master's graduate preparation programs and curriculum socialized graduates for full time HESA work abroad post-graduation. Participants revealed that the formal curriculum was U.S.-centric in classroom conversations, course projects, and electives. The informal…