This article uses data derived from an institutional ethnography of diversity work at a large public university to examine the experiences of student affairs professionals engaged in diversity work with students of Color and LGBTQ-identified students. Rather than describing their exhausting experiences providing emotional labor to multiple campus…

This 2-phased instrumental case study explored how student affairs educators in the California State University system experience values congruence in their work environments, specifically in the context of neoliberalism. It also examined how position descriptions convey the values of the student affairs profession and job duties related to…

Given the nature of student affairs work, practitioners may be exposed to work-related stress that impacts their professional and personal well-being. In this phenomenological study, we examined the lived experiences of 9 professionals who worked with undocumented students and how they experienced and managed their compassion fatigue. Findings…

The intent of this narrative dissertation was to uncover how staff members in divisions of student affairs experience bullying, how it has affected their trust for the profession and their colleagues and supervisors, and how the power dynamic within workplace bullying has an effect on the experience for professionals. It is important to recognize…

In this narrative inquiry study, we interviewed 5 graduate assistants who served as the primary point of contact for their public university's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) student services. We were interested in understanding the structural challenges that affected these employees' experiences in their roles. Participants were…

This dissertation examines Burnout and Compassion Fatigue in Student Affairs Professionals actively working in various Student Affairs roles at small, residential colleges and universities within Southern California. The study investigates factors related to Burnout using the three constructs identified in Dr. Christina Maslach's Maslach Burnout…

Despite the increase in efforts to recruit Black student affairs professionals in the field to keep pace with the growing level of Black students entering university doors, Black student affairs professionals are still heavily underrepresented across campuses in proportion to their White counterparts. This is attributed to the often subtle, yet…

Student affairs professionals are often called upon to act as first-responders to students experiencing trauma, leaving them exposed to secondary traumatic stress. In this study, I used phenomenological methods supported by an arts-based research exercise to explore the experiences and meaning making processes of student affairs professionals who…

Bell's (1992) thesis of racial realism, in concert with the work of Wilderson (2007), Hartman (1997), and Sharpe (2016), positions the afterlife of slavery as an irreconciled event that is ongoing and permanent. If the assumption is that racism exists and, subsequently, racial battle fatigue is and will be an enduring embodied experience that…

Staff participation in professional development is critical for the success of divisions of student affairs and institutions of higher education at large. However, mandating participation can lead to adverse effects and hostile workplace climates. This study examined what individual and organizational culture factors predicted participation in…

The purpose of this study was to understand the role that White people can play in dismantling systemic racism and oppression in the supervision of people of color in student affairs. The primary goal of the study was to better understand, from the perspectives of people of color, how systemic racism and bias in the supervision of people of color…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the experiences of midlevel student affairs professionals who navigated a mental health condition as a new professional and remained in the field. New professionals' attrition and retention concerns continue to warrant further exploration through research. Research is lacking on new…

Over the past two decades there has been an increased interest in research on interpersonal mistreatment in the workplace and its influence on organizations (Schilpzand, De Pater, & Erez, 2016). The majority of research has focused on physical, active and direct forms of inappropriate behaviors at work, however, the most prominent form of…

LGBTQ+ affairs professionals are often marginalized in their work and identities and therefore develop strategies to resist this continued marginalization. Using a critical conceptual framework, the traditionally heterogendered institution (THI), we show how LGBTQ+ affairs staff resist bureaucratic systems in their praxis to center LGBTQ+ (and…

Abusive leadership has multiple interchangeable terms, such as destructive leadership, dark side leadership, petty tyranny, toxic leadership, tyrannical leadership, and harassment, to explain roughly the same thing. Whichever term utilized, none of them are healthy for a work environment in Student Affairs, whose purpose is to provide guidance,…