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…

This study aimed to address the state of data driven decision practices within the Division of Student Affairs at South County College. Framed by an exploratory qualitative case study, this project conducted semi-structured interviews of directors of student affairs and a document analysis of annual reports of the seven departments that constitute…

The purpose of this research was to explore the perceptions of student affairs administrators, working in both public and private higher education institutions, regarding how they learned to use technology and gain insight into how their work would evolve in the future. While the COVID-19 pandemic affected everyone in the higher education…

This executive dissertation assumes a sensemaking lens to investigate how Assistant and Associate Vice President (AVP)-level administrators in student affairs approach their supervisory roles within the current climate of higher education and employment. The study's primary goal is to identify how leaders can prepare for changing employment trends…

Ximena was sure she would be appointed as the Director of Student Life at Aspirante University, a Hispanic-Serving Institution. As interim director, Ximena strove to enact servingness in her everyday practice. Her efforts to create a culturally responsive, relevant, and affirming campus environment for Latinx students were unparalleled. However,…

In this article, we discuss major themes on Black males' mental health that have emerged from this monograph. We will also discuss and emphasize how various institutional agents such as student affairs practitioners, faculty, and administrators can use this information to better support Black males in higher education. Finally, we will also…

The United States continues to become more racially and ethnically diverse, and the nation's colleges and universities' demographics are commensurate with that growth. Between 1976 and 2017, the percentage of White students enrolled in postsecondary institutions fell from 84% to 56%, while the percentage of American college students who identify…

The increase in mental health concerns of higher education employees in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused mid-level higher education administrators to reconsider their approaches to wellness and self-care. The purpose of this study was to explore specifically how mid-level student affairs administrators perceive and approach…

Spiritual perspectives in organizational theory are relatively recent approaches to understanding the behaviors of complex organizations. Emerging in the 1990s, the literature on modern organizations, especially in the United States, saw a rise in individuals questioning if they could find meaning and purpose in their work. This study investigated…

Using the Applied Critical Leadership (Santamaría & Santamaría, 2012) framework to operationalize leadership and to celebrate the ways in which Black women Vice Presidents of Student Affairs (VPSAs) acquire institutional access to create real change, this study sought to identify what motivates Black Women to engage in creating supporting…

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…

Research that examines the lived experiences of Black senior level student affairs administrators at predominately white institutions remains limited (Wolf & Freeman, 2013). The underrepresentation of administration of color in higher education is one of the most important ethical dilemmas facing colleges and universities today (Wolf &…

This study explores the mental and emotional well-being of Black women Student Affairs administrators by examining their experiences while working at historically White institutions. Their experiences were examined using critical narrative inquiry and Black Feminist Thought to understand the layers of race and gender on their well-being in an…

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 article relays the author's experiences and lessons learned after she was selected to serve as the faculty coordinator for first-year student scheduling at her institution. The new assignment to run the first-year scheduling function in the summer was supposed to be a way to do something interesting and engaging in the summer. It turned out…