Where is the Scholarship in Student Affairs?

Abstract

Four years ago the American College Personnel Association (ACPA) published a special issue of the Journal of College Student Development (JCSD) entitled "Scholarship in Student Affairs Reconsidered" (2001). A year later, the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) also compiled an issue of the NASPA Journal on "The Scholarship of Student Affairs" (2002). In these two volumes, 16 articles written by 17 notable scholars and practitioners in the field were presented for our careful consideration. Each association held a session or two at their annual conferences those years, and perhaps 100 colleagues from around the country discussed the ideas presented in these volumes. The vast majority of us, however, skimmed an article or two and went on with the immediate pressing demands of our daily lives. Three years later, the NASPA Journal has no backlog of articles to print. Our online process has enabled us to go from submission to publication in 4 to 6 months. We also have reduced our publication rate from the upper 40 percentile to the mid-20s. We are now waiting for quality manuscripts to arrive. The JCSD also is actively seeking new manuscripts. What has been missing in these past few years is a national discussion of the ideas presented in the two important volumes on scholarship that our associations published.This essay will provide a case for the imperative facing us: What is scholarship in student affairs? How does it inform our practice? How does practice lead to new theory and research? The NASPA Journal editorial board will elaborate on these questions in the coming year, with the intention of bringing together in 2006 a group of scholars and practitioners for a summit on scholarship in student affairs. The board will advance a national conversation among all the related associations (e.g., ACPA, AAHE, CAS, ASHE, ACUHO) on this important topic. Over the next year, we will initiate discussions with the leaders of these and many other associations with the goal of coming together in 2006 at our national conference in Washington DC. We will also present a few essays such as this one over the next year to help provide the framework for this future conversation.On the theory of "If you build it, they will come," we will provide thoughtful consideration of questions regarding scholarship in our field with the hope of creating interest and action. The "action" may have several outcomes: (a) raised awareness and knowledge by our members and colleagues about student affairs scholarship; (b) production of new knowledge that enhances our field and higher education in general; (c) deepening connections with related fields of academic study such as anthropology, sociology, and psychology; and (d) practice based on theory and research. We look forward to engaging you in this effort.