This quantitative study was based on the survey results of 216 chief student affairs officers' (CSAOs) at United States' colleges and universities whose enrollments were between 500 and 3,000 students. In the spring of 2001, 58% of the CSAOs returned the 42-item Survey of Student Learning Principles, based on the seven "Principles of Good…

The mission of the liberal arts institution is to educate the whole student; this parallels the aims of student affairs administration. How does this mission affect what student affairs professionals employed at these institutions do? For this study, researchers examined the nature of work for student affairs administrators at liberal arts…

A multiyear effort to understand and improve the practice of learning communities across North America has revealed encouraging trends and areas in which work should continue. The authors asked fifty-six educators involved in the work to write and talk about the state of learning communities. The authors wanted to learn how learning community…

The structure of undergraduate advising at private institutions that offer degrees beyond the baccalaureate level is considered. Shared advising models are found to be suitable for highly selective, extensive doctoral institutions with sizeable full-time undergraduate populations and relatively basic programmatic structures. Similar but more…

John Holland's typological theory of persons and environments is regarded as the most influential in the field of career counseling (Brown, 2002), but few have carried the theory over to the field of higher education and academic advising (Smart, Feldman, & Ethington, 2000). Therefore, Holland's theory and the subsequent research on it were…

A philosophy of advising referred to as the learning-centered paradigm is described and compared to the dominant developmental paradigm. Through the learning-centered paradigm, one can explain, better than through the developmental theory, how advising is, or can be, similar to teaching. Under the learning-centered approach, the excellent advisor…

This article details the challenges that UC Merced faced in building up the critical areas of student and residence life. The new institution held great promise for achieving the ideal of a student-centered university, but certain bedrock problems proved difficult to overcome. One was that at the beginning, both administration and faculty saw…

Collegiate student athletes are faced with the same developmental challenges and stressors as their nonathlete peers, but they are also expected to deal with the challenges of athletic involvement (e.g., time demands, physical demands, travel schedules). Such additional demands may put athletes at greater risk for experiencing physical and…

With the rapidly changing population demographics of the United States and significant growth of diverse multicultural groups, schools and professionals are being challenged on how to provide the best comprehensive educational and support services to their increasingly diverse student population. The changes between 1980 and 1990 have been…

This article describes the ideal roles for the student development specialist as developed by the Commission on Professional Development of the Council of Student Personnel Associations in Higher Education. (Author)

This book articulates an integrated conceptualization of theory, assessment, application, and evaluation through the study of assessment and its role in linking theory and practice. Part 1 of the book contains six chapters which address the conceptualization of these four components, the potential for integrating them in the context of…

The present and future training needs of financial aid practitioners (financial aid officers, counselors, and support staff personnel) at Arizona colleges and government agencies were assessed. Attention was directed to the literature on training and programs for financial aid practitioners, as well as the possibilities of developing a…

Student affairs professionals in community colleges are facing several major issues in need of resolution including: the insufficient use of existing knowledge about adolescent and adult development and organization development in program design and execution; and the insufficient use of knowledge of program evaluation for understanding the…

Describes a program utilizing faculty in an intrusive counseling approach. The results include a reduction in academic attrition, probation, suspensions and withdrawals; and an increase in Dean's Honor List and "B" average achievement. (Author)

The concepts of deliberate psychological education are utilized, together with use of the student personnel worker as a developmental instructor, to implement the developmental aims of higher education. A project is described involving the design, implementation, and evaluation of an interdisciplinary English-psychology course in which student…