Scholarship in Student Affairs: Thinking Outside the Triangle, or Tabasco on Cantaloupe

Abstract

How do we make meaning of the experiences and lives of our students, and how do questions of meaning relate to scholarship? This article expresses a concern about language and whether we as professionals examine the language we use. It explores a concern about the deafening silence on our campuses and in our professional organizations, about allies who do not speak out for the "other." And it ponders how we learned what we know about marginalization of populations on our campuses; or, more accurately, what we don’t know. This article then briefly explores eight areas within student affairs, specifically for sexual orientation and gender identity content: Curriculum, Staff and Administrator Training, Mentoring, Research, Development, Leadership, Service, and Balance and Renewal. It is a completely biased, onesided view as seen through the eyes, heart, and scholarship of one university's professional gay-for-pay.