Disrupting Student Affairs Staff Departure: Examining Needed Changes to the Field of Student Affairs to Attract and Retain a Diverse Workforce

Abstract

Abstract: 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 2020 and March 2022, we developed a departure model that describes participants' experiences from their interest in and socialization into the field to their departure. Our model highlights how the conflicts between personal life, values, and approach to work and institutional policies, practices, and leadership rooted in white supremacy decreased participants' commitment to staying in the field over time. While our model focuses on departure, it also points to opportunities for disrupting current practices and transforming the working conditions in the field to attract and retain a diverse staff of student affairs professionals. In sharing implications, we take a both/and approach, highlighting how we can disrupt white supremacy culture and decolonize higher education and how we can foster student affairs professionals' ability to navigate the current cultural norms and environments.