A national survey of 350 student conduct administrators set out to determine the ways in which the changing nature of their profession affected their personal lives, professional work, and beliefs about the profession of college discipline. The Concerns About Litigation Survey for Student Conduct Professionals revealed significant differences in…

This study sought to understand Latinx student servingness through the lens of Latinx student affairs employees working at Hispanic Serving Institutions. Interviews were conducted with 20 student affairs employees, all except one worked at a Cal State campus. The interview protocol was developed using the Hispanic Serving Institution conceptual…

This article explores supervision as a form of professional socialization. Accordingly, we provide an overview of socialization theories before examining the role of supervisors in (re)socializing student affairs educators to norms, values, and standards of good practice in the field and in their workplaces over the span of their careers.

African American male student conduct professionals consciously engage in code-switching in professional settings. Student conduct professionals hold significant responsibility within a college or university. The impact of their decisions creates immense pressure and results in lasting consequences for students involved. In this qualitative,…

The COVID-19 global pandemic brought about a new form of traumatic stress with catastrophic impacts felt in every industry, including higher education. During this prolonged state of trauma, professionals in the division of Student Affairs have continued to be called upon to support students in the campus community. Student affairs professionals…

Neoliberalism and patriarchal norms have shaped the working conditions for student affairs professionals. This case study collected individual and focus group interviews, leveraging the experiences and situated knowledge of working mothers in student affairs to develop organizational guidelines for more equitable and unified work environments. By…

Student affairs staff members experience stress and burnout as a result of frequent transformation within the higher education landscape. Although change affects all employees in the field of higher education, staff members in student affairs are faced with unique challenges that lead to the adoption of healthy or unhealthy coping behaviors. The…

The field of student affairs has seen an exodus of staff members over the past few years. Employee attrition, however, is not a new problem in student affairs. This grounded theory study aimed to understand why student affairs professionals leave the field. Based on interviews with student affairs professionals who left the field between March…

Through an unsustainable moniker that often receives no reprieve, Black women student affairs professionals become the institutional fixer--the StrongBlackWoman who can do all. Through a raced and gendered expectation, they support the needs of their students, many of whom are students of color. This effort creates a precarious double bind that…

One of the most impacted areas in higher education is the field of student affairs (Lynch, 2017). While job satisfaction is problematic in higher education; only 1% of professionals are "extremely satisfied" with their job, giving the field a much lower overall satisfaction level than many other occupations (Kinman & Wray, 2014).…

This basic qualitative study contributes to what is known about mentoring in higher education: the mentoring experiences of minority women leading in academic and student affairs at Pacific Island community colleges (PICC). This study examined the mentoring experiences of these minority women leaders and related mentorship to their leadership…

This study explored the explanations for why Black diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practitioners in higher education between Fall 2020 and Fall 2022. Nine participants participated in semi-structured interviews lasting 60-90 minutes to explore a range of topics including their experience as Black DEI practitioners in higher education, their…

Background: This study aimed to explore perceived work stress and its association with burnout, compassion fatigue, and compassion satisfaction and the mediating effect of psychological flexibility on these relationships. Method: Two hundred and fifty-one disability support workers across Australia reported on work stress, psychological…

While student affairs (SA) practitioner expertise can inform a faculty member's knowledge in the classroom, the transition into a tenure-track faculty role from student affairs administrative roles is complex. One of the differences new faculty members with SA administrator backgrounds experience is a change in the work community and shift from…

This qualitative study explores the experiences of mid-level higher education professionals navigating workplace changes post-Coronavirus-19 Pandemic and during the subsequent Great Resignation. The study, framed by the theory of ambiguous loss to interpret the impacts of unresolved losses, underscores the importance of equipping higher education…