As Annie Jonas witnesses college students experiencing stress, anxiety, and depression at alarming rates, she seeks a more active role as a faculty member to support their well-being; a central role off the sidelines that integrates an investment in her students' well-being in the years they are on campus and beyond. Counseling centers on college…

Student persistence to graduation remains a critical measure of institutional success. Degree attainment is not only essential to the personal achievement of students arriving on campus each fall but has become a high-stakes measure for performance-based funding. It is telling, that even now, the pursuit of a college degree is characterized as…

Limitations come in many forms for educators of color: access, opportunities, networks, but perhaps most crucially, through forms of invalidation. Toward healing, some educators of color have written about the isolation and trauma they have experienced on college campuses. Other have written in the spirit of resistance, boasting about the skills,…

One cannot underestimate the social components of learning. Why are we not educating for an era in which the skills of connecting and constructing are more important than ever? Millennials are by far the most accomplished generation at productive collaboration. An active, student-centered experience will serve them well the rest of their lives.…

Faculty members in graduate preparation programs and former practitioners in the field often come together to think about issues and trends in the field. A pressing trend noticed lately is the proliferation of self-care. Self-care is often thought of as relaxation tactics one must complete in light of the ongoing stressors, anxieties, and duress…

Instructors and professors know from their experiences as learners that engaged, interactive, dialogical learning can enhance understanding and increase joy in the learning process. Yet many were primarily taught through traditional lecture-style techniques and continue that pattern in their own teaching. As a professor who believes learning…

As higher education professionals, we all wield power to shape the educational environment for our students. Conor P. McLaughlin and Christopher B. Newman use the metaphor of the superhero, whose power has the potential to be both democratic or fascist, to consider how we use our power as higher education professionals. More specifically, they…

The alarming low completion rates in postsecondary education for Latinx students should be a national concern. Teachers can have a strong and direct impact on the academic success of students. College students spend a large portion of their time interacting with faculty in class or during office hours. To assist Latinx students in getting to the…

In 2007, "About Campus" published the author's article "Humble and Hopeful: Welcoming First-Generation Poor and Working-Class Students to College." It has been used as a handout in various student orientations, included as a chapter in Teresa Heinz Housel and Vickie Harvey's "The Invisibility Factor: Administrators and…

This article describes what the author, a faculty member, learned from the student development professionals at his university, the people who plan student activities and run residence halls. Most faculty think little of their student development colleagues, to the extent that they consider them colleagues at all. The author describes how he…

Without question, sustainability efforts and initiatives are on the rise on college campuses. In a 2007 American College Personnel Association (ACPA) presentation, Debra Rowe reported that across the country there were 250 sustainability coordinators/offices/committees, 300 LEED (green) buildings, 275 campus sustainability assessments that had…

In this article, the author reflects on the learning opportunities provided by the tragedy at Kent State University forty years ago for educators and learners. Four students were slain and nine students were wounded by the bullets of National Guardsmen who had been sent to quell anti-war demonstrations and vandalism. The events of May 4, 1970,…

Dana is a graduate assistant in the second year of a master's program in student personnel. In a class discussion of assistantship issues, Dana reveals that he has decided not to enforce the university's policy of "writing up" all underage students who are in a residence hall room where alcohol is present. He says that in his opinion the punitive…

In this article, the authors share an approach to enriching student learning through building on relationships among faculty, student affairs educators, and administrators. As their examples suggest, campuses where academic and student affairs educators work together most effectively have broad representation on campuswide committees and other…

How can higher education faculty, staff, and administrators create campus environments that guide students in their development within chosen disciplines and careers as well as in ways that contribute to a common good? How can they help students find a sense of calling in life? What does it mean to cultivate a sense of purpose in students? Are…