A dissertation research study was conducted to examine the conditions behind the continued lack of advancement for Black student affairs professionals within the California State University (CSU) System. This study sought to understand the perspective of the executive and management-level positions categorized as the Management Personnel Plan…

Student Affairs Administrators have been in the business of monitoring and maintaining the welfare and well-being of the students they service at academic institutions around the world to extend university roles to produce global citizens with will contribute to an increasingly diversified workforce and society. This is a qualitative…

During the COVID-19 pandemic, student services leaders needed to adapt to working entirely virtually, find creative solutions to adjust their service delivery, and change how they engaged with their teams. Before COVID-19, studies of virtual leadership focused on virtual teams developed because of the geographical distance between team members.…

This qualitative study grounded in feminist theory uses narrative inquiry to explore the stories of 26 senior women student affairs leaders. We tell the collective story we heard participants bring forward by describing plotlines that reverberated across their accounts. We call these plotlines: "Experiencing Communication through Gendered…

The purpose of this study was to assess the personal and professional spiritual beliefs and practices of Chief Student Affairs Officers (CSAO) through examining three areas of spirituality as it related to purpose/meaning in life, beliefs, and connectedness to each other and this world. An initial step was to shed light on whether spirituality was…

This study explored how mid-level student affairs professionals professionally socialized to their work roles in order to understand how this socialization process contributed to the exchange of institutional values, norms, and customs within the work place at two small liberal arts colleges. This study is structured around three questions: 1) how…

Modern higher education institutions face tremendous challenges, including dwindling financial resources, waning public support, demands for greater accountability, and daunting student needs and expectations. Campus presidents simply cannot face these challenges as isolated or solitary leaders. High functioning, inclusive, collaborative, and…

As senior student affairs administrators (SSAAs) seek to lead effectively in higher education, some SSAAs consider spiritual resources to enhance leadership practice. Yet, empirical literature on the intersection of spirituality and leadership in higher education is relatively absent and needs to be deepened and broadened. The purpose of this…

Career service directors lead the third most common division within student affairs departments, but the leadership of a collegiate career services office has not been represented in higher education research. Obtaining a "good job" has consistently been noted as a main reason to attend college (Pryor, Hurtado, Saenz, Santos & Korn,…

The purpose of this study was to examine, understand, and describe the life, leadership, and influence of Dr. James Edward Scott on higher education and more specifically student affairs; as one of the most well-known and respected African American male chief student affairs officers in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Using a qualitative…

This study examines senior student affairs leadership through the diverse lenses of subordinates, administrative peers, presidents, and senior student affairs officers (SSAOs). Guided by an interpretive paradigm, a qualitative methodology was employed consisting of a six-case comparative analysis and grounded theory approach. The findings provide…

Dr. Melvene Draheim Hardee was a higher education administrator, scholar, and leader. She earned degrees from Iowa State Teachers College, Teachers College Columbia University, and the University of Chicago. The majority of her professional career played out at Florida State University where she first served as coordinator of counseling and later…

Interim leadership appointments in higher education are a common strategy used to fill leadership gaps in executive positions. Because student affairs executives are particularly vulnerable to high turnover rates, interim appointments are becoming more widespread. Even with the prevalence of this trend, little attention has been given to the…

The purpose of this study was to identify the leadership competencies and characteristics that are "preferred" by student affairs administrators, and to compare these preferences across generations to determine if there were any differences. The term "preferred" was used to indicate that the study asked respondents to assign a value or a level of…

Relatively little is known about the presumably thousands of branch campuses and centers represented among U.S. higher education institutions. In an effort to fill this void, the research committee of the National Association of Branch Campus Administrators (NABCA) conducted a web-based survey targeting the leaders of branch campuses and…