Starting a new job can be likened to be thrown into the deep end of a pool and being expected to swim with no prior lessons. Not only is this practice dangerous at actual swimming pools it is also detrimental in the workforce. Student Affairs is a high turnover field with over 50% of new employees leaving the field completely within the first 5…

In this interview study, I examine how student affairs administration (SAA) works at rural community colleges as well as how rural senior student affairs officers (SSAOs) function in their leadership roles. The study purports to understand student affairs in the context of "rurality," or what it means to be rural. Two primary research…

A correlational student was conducted to explore the relationships between student affairs professional self-efficacy, participation in professional development, and career commitment. For the quantitative portion, the researcher ran Pearson r correlations for self-efficacy scores, career commitment scores, and the number of professional…

This qualitative study considers how gender affected women vice presidents of student affairs' (VPSAs) or senior student affairs officers' (SSAOs) professional experiences and career trajectories to gain insight into the influence of gender on all women professional's working experiences and ability to advance in the field. Although there is a…

This case study examined how eight higher education and student affairs (HESA) professionals' racial ideologies functioned in their understanding of racial conflict. Findings revealed that participants aided in delegitimizing students' perceptions of racial conflict based on their campuses' compositional diversity, history of racial conflict, and…

This article introduces the concept of a scholarship of practice and its potential for improving student affairs research and practice. Student affairs graduate preparation faculty members and student affairs scholar-practitioners can engage in a scholarship of practice by using research to inform their practice and using the findings of their…

This qualitative inquiry examined the supervisory practices of 12 student-affairs professionals who were identified by their supervisees as modeling the tenets of inclusive supervision. Through a deductive research design and pattern-matching analysis, this study sought to test the consistency of the inclusive supervision model through the…

The purpose of this quantitative correlational-predictive study is to examine if and to what extent performance expectancy, effort expectancy, attitude toward using technology, social influence, facilitating conditions, self-efficacy, and anxiety, individually and combined, predict the behavioral intention of U.S. higher education student services…

Early career professionals' attrition in student affairs have been reported at rates as high as 60% before year five in the last few decades of literature. Retaining these professionals is vital to the sustainability of the field (Winston Jr. & Creamer, 1997). This study explores experiences and retention in the field of student affairs,…

Now in its sixteenth year, the "2024 Student Financial Services Benchmarking Report" has become a key component in our efforts to help institutions compare their key financial indicators against national averages and self-selected institutional peer groups.

On May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard opened fire on students at Kent State University (KSU), killing four and wounding nine. Although this event marked a watershed moment in American culture and the start of a decline in activism related to the war in Vietnam, its place in higher education history is not well-understood. This paper traces the…

The concept of engagement was first introduced to literature in 1992 by William Kahn. The notion was originally described as psychological presence. "Psychological presence" is described as "the experiential state enabling organization members to draw deeply on their personal selves in role performances, that is, to express thoughts…

By framing the phenomenon of resilience around adverse, harmful experiences and drawing a direct relation to positive outcomes, society desensitizes Black Women to the scale of the adversities they face and ignores the magnitude of psychological stress they have had to endure as a means of survival. The praise and reinforcement associated with…

This study explored how 14 higher education and student affairs (HESA) professionals navigated institutional policy vacuums to address interpersonal racial conflict between students. Grounded in perspectives of policy vacuums, findings revealed that HESA professionals learned about racial conflict by referring to their own personal, professional,…

This executive dissertation assumes a sensemaking lens to investigate how Assistant and Associate Vice President (AVP)-level administrators in student affairs approach their supervisory roles within the current climate of higher education and employment. The study's primary goal is to identify how leaders can prepare for changing employment trends…