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…

Community colleges play a critical role in the pathway to a baccalaureate degree for millions of students, especially among women and ethnic minorities. This study investigates the complexity of the transfer experience among students who began their postsecondary education at a 2-year college and transferred to a large 4-year university.…

One of the fastest-growing categories of disability in the college student population is psychiatric disabilities: bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, and borderline personality disorders, among other. Appropriate treatment and support can provide students with psychiatric disabilities the opportunity to develop their talents and realize their…

The purpose of this study was to explore effects of faculty and student affairs staff roles within living-learning programs (LLPs) on perceptions of growth in critical thinking/analysis abilities, cognitive complexity, and liberal learning among LLP participants. This study used two data sources from the National Study of Living-Learning Programs…

Approximately half the students who enroll at an institution will complete a bachelor's degree within six years (Kuh, Cruce, Shoup, Kinzie, & Gonyea, 2008). The majority of the students who decide to leave their initial institution do so during their first year (Tinto, 1993). Tinto reported that the withdrawal rate is highest during the first…

This qualitative study employed a constructivist, case study approach to explore how faculty made meaning of their experiences in a newly developed residential college at a large, land-grant research university in the Midwest. Findings revealed that faculty focused on determining how to prioritize the numerous opportunities for involvement while…

Students regularly encounter faculty in classrooms. Student affairs personnel interact with students in the main when students are beyond the classroom. Both groups are pledged to encourage student development, but they rarely collaborate. What are the reasons for this divided effort? How can the separate spheres of faculty and student affairs…

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…

Online degree programs have been one of many institutional innovations related to the enrollment growth in higher education over the last decade. The changing format of instruction alters the practice of student affairs in the virtual learning environment. This shift requires faculty, administrators, and student affairs professionals to examine…

In this study, we build on two recent works (Gaston-Gayles, Wolf-Wendel; Tuttle, Twombley, and Ward, 2004; Slocum & Rhoads, 2008) that examine faculty and staff work with student activists, but expand the scope to include new questions such as why and how they partner with students, the impact of institutional context, and what role it might play…

Dialogue on religion and sexuality is difficult because these topics consist of deeply seated concepts of self, as well as one's relationship to other selves in the world. This chapter offers practical steps for creating and navigating difficult dialogues with respect to sexuality and religion. It suggests that partnership with departments,…

Encounters with racism, racial stereotypes, microaggressions, and low expectations from professors and others undermine their academic outcomes, sense of belonging, and willingness to seek help and utilize campus resources. At predominantly White institutions, men of color may often be in classes where they are one of few students from their…

Changing enrollment profiles have introduced differences in demographics, ability, and interest among the learners in higher education classrooms. As a result, faculty must now accomplish their jobs in a fluid environment with new teaching strategies. Their partners in this work are student affairs staff, who usually educate students in a far less…

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…

This article documents the results of a qualitative study of the perceptions of 14 first-semester college men about interacting with faculty outside of class. The research site was a large, public doctoral extensive institution in the Midwest. Each of the men participated in three depth interviews (Miller & Crabtree, 2004) that sought to…