Provides a summary of key propositions on how college students may optimize their learning experience by using programs and interventions offered through student affairs. Organizes what is known about the learning process as propositions that can guide student affairs professionals toward the design and implementation of strategies that enhance…

Advocates that campus professionals, particularly student affairs professionals, refocus on student learning in all its dimensions. Discusses research and learning, students' 24-hour needs, engaging in professional inquiry, collegiality, and classroom assessment techniques. Reiterates that learning is the goal of all education and that students…

Presents needs assessment as a necessary part of program planning in student affairs. Questions (N=12) are suggested as a framework to guide needs assessment activities. When staff and students become responsible for assessing their own needs, the process becomes educational and goals are more likely to be met. (JAC)

Explores why few disabled students of color use student services. Details why some of these students were unnecessarily placed in special education programs and focuses on the experiences of this group. Addresses general cultural differences that can affect responses between people of color and disability services. Provides guidelines for service…

College faculty do not know enough about the current generation of college students, what they seek in college, how they spend time, what they expect of faculty and themselves. To accomplish the college's objectives for students' intellectual and personal development, they need the cooperation of student personnel workers, who work with students…

Due to the transitory nature of students at community colleges, it is often difficult for student affairs professionals to connect with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students and even more difficult for them to provide services for this invisible population.

As leaders and community builders, senior student affairs officers face the challenge to end the hostility, oppression, and invisibility that often characterize the experiences of LGBT students on college campuses.

This paper begins by discussing a National Institute of Education report (NIE, 1984) which was compiled by the study group on the conditions of excellence in American higher education and which focused on student involvement, higher expectations, and assessment and feedback. The NIE report is presented as a framework which academic professionals…

There is a substantial literature covering efforts by college counseling centers over the past 20 years to identify problems faced by students and their needs for counseling services on campus. A study was conducted which surveyed a representative sample drawn from the general student population of a large university, across the undergraduate,…

Because student participation in the affairs of higher education has metamorphosed from a discussion level of expression to one of overt activity, the author expresses various ways in which student personnel workers may assist in preparing other segments of the academic community for the new forms of student participation. Current and historical…

The Rap Room, as described in this report, is a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week, drop-in center for troubled students. Peer rather than professional help is available to students worried about personal, academic or financial problems. Three major intentions are discussed: (1) to give students an alternative to professional counseling; (2) to offer training…

The bulk of this report is devoted to presenting the findings of a study, which was designed to determine student and faculty desires for counselor and counseling center functioning. The results of questionnaires, one developed for students and one for faculty, indicate that the 3 traditional counseling services (personal, vocational and…

Parents of students, student services personnel, faculty, counselors, and the general student body were sampled to gain an understanding of the perceived role of a college counseling center. Significant differences were found between the various groups. Counselors differed most from the other groups on the Adjustment to Self and Others problem…

Surveyed college freshmen and professionals involved in orientation planning to compare their perception of student needs. Planners emphasized money and housing needs while students ranked academic concerns highest. Program activities responding to these needs included personal interviews, course schedule planning, registration assistance and…

The centrality of the student affairs mission to the goals of higher education in the United States is emphasized by an examination of its origins and evolution. (Author)