Reports on a survey on career development of female student affairs professionals and graduate paraprofessionals from a Southeastern land-grant institution. Participants of the study were found to have had specific purposes for joining student affairs, and face different challenges in the field. Also reports their personal strengths, aspirations…

Boundary spanning is a concept developed and used in organizational theory but rarely applied to education. A survey of activities that spanned institutional boundaries was adapted to student affairs and used to assess the efforts of 42 senior student affairs officers. All participants indicated that they engaged in the eight boundary spanning…

Examines the perceived attrition crisis in student affairs and reviews the literature on attrition in the field that has been reported to date. Explores overall career patterns, distinct factors that may influence decisions to leave student affairs, and some potential effects of attrition. Discusses implications for practice and offers…

Presents the results of a study examining fear of AIDS and the level of AIDS knowledge and homophobia among student affairs administrators and faculty members. Student affairs administrators were found to have more knowledge and less fear of AIDS than faculty members. Presents a discussion of these results and recommendations for practice.…

States that student affairs administrators must choose wisely between increasing reliance on legal minimalism and a more reflective judgment model that can evolve toward a model of unified practice balancing policy and law with developmentally appropriate practices. Offers recommendations concerning the future of student affairs. (Author/MKA)

Surveys 344 student affairs administrators concerning burnout and related factors. Women reported higher levels of emotional exhaustion; men and women differed with respect to many personal and job-related characteristics and activities, and the relationship between emotional exhaustion and many of the characteristics and activities differed for…

Addresses general perceptions regarding student affairs work in higher education and the role of the student affairs staff member. Discusses the purpose and value of student affairs work in the face of negative perceptions about the profession. (GCP)

Defines and offers a framework for understanding intolerant behavior, looks at roadblocks that can result in reluctance to interrupt intolerant or bigoted behavior, and offers tips on how to form alliances with like-minded groups and use those alliances to proactively address the issues of intolerance. (EV)

As a part of a larger hermeneutic phenomenology study, six white graduate students in a student affairs graduate program described themselves as connected to family, place, race, and ethnicity. Such connections are contrasted with descriptions in the literature of white culture as individualistic. These connections have implications for student…

Reviews the unique perspectives and key points made in a collection of papers that focused on institutional research and student affairs research, offering suggestions for improved practice in both types of research and speculating about what a truly collaborative research effort might look like. (SM)

Study seeks to determine the content of higher education law courses in student affairs graduate programs and the legal focus in presentations at the American College Personnel Association and National Association of Student Personnel Administrators national conferences. Reviews syllabi from 23 institutions and conference programs from 1990…

Offers suggestions for college admissions and financial aid officers on coping with job stress and managing burnout. These include: remember that it's usually not personal, a little paranoia is a good thing, don't hire difficult people, and accept not being able to do your best work on every task. (EV)

Describes a reflective exercise for student affairs professionals aimed at confronting commonly held stereotypes and biases regarding race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation. Tailored to different learning styles, this activity has both group and individual components that stimulate participants to think about the implications of diversity…

Explores how, despite various administrative "solutions," the tension experienced by student affairs professionals at Catholic higher education institutions remains because they stand at an uncomfortable practical interface of two epistemological systems, one stemming from the Catholic intellectual tradition and one stemming from the…

Describes what qualitative research is in theory and how mid-level student affairs administrators can best use it to enrich their understanding of the deep complexities of the student clientele. Aids administrators in initiating a qualitative research process appropriate to their own departmental needs. (EV)