Student Personnel Administrators Research Articles

Covey's 7 Habits Can Guide Working Mothers

There can be a huge difference between what's urgent and what's important. It all hinges on what you value. Pulled in endlessly by their families, their bosses and their own needs and desires, working mothers can be forgiven for getting confused between the two. Speaking at the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) conference held in Phoenix in March 2012, Dr. Michelle Pickett and Dr. Susana Das Neves discussed Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People from the perspective of working mothers. Both work at Northern Illinois University, where Pickett is director of the academic advising center and Das Neves is an academic advisor and counselor. “Being a mother doesn't define me at work,” said Das Neves. “Working doesn't define me as a mother.” It helps to have a boss who understands her two roles. “Discussing work/life balance and actually practicing it are two different things,” said Pickett. “It takes time to find a way to do it.” Habits are defined as the intersection of knowledge (what to do), skill (how to do it) and desire (want to do it). Applying Dr. Stephan R. Covey's seven habits along with our skills/ knowledge/desires ensures that we focus on what's important to us, not just urgent. Proactive responses result from carefully considered values, not by a “circle of concerns.” To gain more control, we need to increase our circle of influence. Feelings that are influenced by circumstances, conditions and environment lead to a reactive response. Being proactive means having a plan that stops you from responding to situations based on only your feelings. This habit is based on your principle of personal leadership. Whatever is at the center of your life is your source for security, guidance, wisdom and power. Family? Education? Career? Balance is based on your personal vision statement. Visualize your potential and develop your talents and strengths to get there. Getting there requires you to examine five dimensions: character, relationships, courtesy and respect, agreements and goals, support with a reward system that works and the process. Identify the concerns, points of view and results of others and adapt to them. It's not all about you! Covey followed up his seven habits with an eighth one: “from effectiveness to greatness,” essentially finding your voice and inspiring others to find theirs. The best greatness is to accept our choices as mothers and professionals. Accept being a “good enough” mother without needing perfection. Still having trouble deciphering urgent from important? A time management matrix divides tasks into four quadrants. In Quadrant I, urgent/important, are the crises, pressing problems and deadline-driven projects. Quadrant II, not urgent/important, contains no drama and no crises. You can concentrate on prevention, building relationships, recognizing new opportunities and planning and cooperation. The danger is in ignoring Quadrant II. Quadrant III, urgent/not important, includes interruptions, some calls, mail, reports and meetings, as well as proximate and pressing matters along with regular duties. Quadrant IV, not urgent/not important, contains trivial tasks, busy work, some mail and phone calls, time wasters and pleasant activities. We have many organizational tools for success at work. How about using them for home and personal lives? Contacts: mpickett@niu.edu or 815.753.2533 dasneves@niu.edu or 815.753.5908

Weight, Women and Work: Overcoming Bias

At the intersection of gender and weight lies the last bastion of discrimination: judging women and their abilities based solely by the way they look. Society's obsession with thinness creates a weight and gender bias. At the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) conference held in Phoenix in March 2012, two administrators from the University of Arizona, Dr. Krista Millay and Dr. SevaPriya Barrier, JD, discussed the connection and its legal implications. Millay is the director of the school's Women's Resource Center. Barrier is an attorney, compliance consultant and special advisor to the dean of students in the office of institutional equity. They agreed that there's no need for additional laws to protect overweight or obese women from discrimination. Obesity seldom qualifies as a disability since it's considered self-inflicted, except in rare cases. Discrimination occurs in the problems related to obesity. If an obese student is unable to walk long distances, the disability is not her weight but her inability to walk. Weight hides many instances of sex discrimination. What appear to be neutral policies can contribute to it. Disparate treatment, disparate impact or harassment are the basic elements of a discrimination claim. To claim disparate treatment, a person must be a member of a protected class that's received unfavorable treatment as a result of membership and/or has received damage, injury or loss as a result of the disparate treatment. Under disparate impact, practices may be considered discriminatory and illegal if they have a disproportionate adverse impact on members of the protected group without legitimate justification. If all students over 5’ 10” get 10 bonus points on a quiz, it is disparate impact since men are usually taller than women. Harassment is unwelcome behavior based on a protected classification. It could be by creating a hostile environment. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines “overweight” as having a body mass index (BMI) between 25.0 and 29.9. Those with BMIs of 30.0 or above are “obese.” Using those markers, 60% of U.S. adults are overweight or obese. Adult women are slightly less likely to be overweight than adult men; the sexes are the same in obesity. There's greater negativity associated with women being overweight. People report a visual preference for women who are smaller than average and for men who are larger than average, which promotes women's eating disorders. About 10 million U.S. women are bulimic or anorexic and 25 million do binge eating. In the workplace overweight people face discrimination in hiring, promotion, salary, insurance and termination. The burden falls more heavily on women. Why the disparity? Society holds men to a medical weight standard while holding women to an aesthetic standard that's reflected in their pay. Women experience a “wage penalty” at lower weights than men, who don't hit the penalty until they're 100 pounds or more over a normal weight. A University of Florida study showed that women who weigh 25 pounds below average earn $12,000 more a year. Those who weigh 25 pounds above earn $14,000 less. Yet overweight men earn more than those of average weight. As men gain weight, their salaries continue to grow. Students who are overweight often lack educational success. Bullying and ostracizing make high school a nightmare for them, so they're less likely to go to college. Studies and anecdotal evidence confirm that attractive students receive more rewards from teachers, better grades and more help. Their performance is judged by weight, and those who are aesthetically pleasing get higher grades. As a group, obese women are less likely to apply or attend college or graduate. They are less engaged with college life and social groups. The reverse is true for obese men. College admissions officers have an active bias in admissions and enrollment. Many professors see obese women as lazy and stupid, which is reflected in their grades and letters of recommendation. The intersection of race, gender and weight is a triple whammy for minority women. They're further rejected if they come from a lower socio-economic class. Friends and family also treat obese women poorly. Friends see them as not sexually attractive or desirable enough to be included in the popular group. They get less support from parents, who have no problems with their obese sons. Today's trend toward making campuses healthier may place more pressure on overweight and obese students, especially women. Health promotions should emphasize positive habits, not image. What helps to combat weight/gender discrimination? Institutional policies can include size in accessibility planning. Allow all students to receive accommodations and promote “blind grading” in classrooms where possible. Images used in PR and admissions materials should include positive images of women of various sizes. Make sure to welcome and support women of all sizes. Millay: krista@email.arizona.edu or 520.621.3398 Barrier: sevapriya@email.arizona.edu or 520.621.9181

Learn to ‘Get in Flow’ to Create Career Joy

Learn to ‘Get in Flow’ to Create Career Joy

Student Services: A Handbook for the Profession (review)

Reviewed by: Student Services: A Handbook for the Profession Maureen E. Wilson Student Services: A Handbook for the Profession. John H. Schuh, Susan R. Jones, Shaun R. Harper, et al.. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011, 570 pages, $80.00 (hardcover) First published in 1980, Student Services: A Handbook for the Professionhas been a mainstay in graduate preparation programs. The focus of the book has remained on helping practitioners provide strong educational experiences for college students. As in the previous two editions edited by Susan Komives and Dudley Woodard, new editors John Schuh, Susan Jones, and Shaun Harper grappled with the title, noting that "student services" is outdated and rarely used to describe contemporary practice in student affairs. However, they retained the title "to be true to the roots" (p. xii) of the book. This book represents a generational shift. Nobody who contributed to the first edition authored a chapter in this one (or the last). Only George Kuh and Schuh contributed to the second and all subsequent editions. In all, 12 writers return from the fourth edition and half them brought in a co-author. Whereas only the final chapter was previously co-authored (by the editors), 18 of 31 are jointly written here and 35 people are writing for Student Servicesfor the first time. In contrast to the fourth edition in which all of the authors were widely-known and held a doctorate and most were faculty or senior administrators, the current writers include early-career scholars and practitioners, some without doctorates, and several without high-level administrative experience. The group is also more racially diverse. Regular users of the textbook will find a very familiar structure to the fourth edition. The book contains six parts. The first three follow the same order, sometimes with revised titles. Part 4 has been shuffled with one chapter splitting into two and others relocated to or from other sections. Parts 5 and 6 are largely the same with one chapter moving into each section and another moving out. Additionally, the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) professional practice standards and the American College Personnel Association's (ACPA) ethics statements have been cut. As both are easily accessible online, that is a reasonable way to cut 20 pages of text to help manage the cost of the book. Indeed, this volume has 154 fewer pages. It is also available for download to electronic readers at a lower cost than the hardcover version. Part 1 provides a historical and contemporary context for student affairs practice. In the first chapter, John Thelin is joined by Marybeth Gasman to present a historical overview of American higher education. The chapter follows Thelin's framework from the last two editions, with updates as necessary. In chapter 2, Kimberly Griffin joins Sylvia Hurtado to focus on institutional variety (vs. diversity in the 4th ed.), including Carnegie classifications and institutions serving specific populations (e.g., HBCUs). This chapter has been shortened and topics such as for-profit institutions have been cut. The third chapter has been renamed "Campus Climate and Diversity," and has three authors new to the book, Mitchell Chang, Jeffrey Milem, and anthony lising antonio. While covering some similar territory, it is substantially different and has a greater focus on application of a multidimensional framework to improve campus climates for diversity. [End Page 169] Professional foundations and principles are the focus of part 2 and with just one author returning to the section, readers will find differences. Gwendolyn Dungy and Stephanie Gordon wrote the chapter on the development of student affairs, using a structure similar to the last edition. In chapter 5, Robert Reason and Ellen Broido discuss philosophies and values of the profession. They draw heavily the history and literature of student affairs to situate these concepts well for readers new to the field. Fried returns with her chapter on ethical standards and principles and includes good cases for discussion. Another new contributor, Gary Pavela, has written the chapter on legal issues and focuses on civility, troubled students, and risk management. Although he presents very important concepts, some may miss the inclusion of topics such as sources of the law, constitutional and civil rights...

Why Do ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ on Campus?

When pop diva Cyndi Lauper sang “Girls just wanna have fun,” it became the anthem for a generation of young women who didn't want to grow up. Nearly three decades later, girls still want to have fun, but for reasons that are less about avoiding responsibility and more about belonging. What's driving the emphasis on fun, sometimes at the cost of developing a life purpose? Dr. Annemarie Vaccaro and Amy Tedesco from the University of Rhode Island have some ideas. They spoke at the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) conference in Philadelphia in March. Vaccaro is an assistant professor in the department of human development and family studies. Tedesco is a master's degree student. While schools want their students to find a life of purpose, often students have other ideas. First-year students especially want to find their place on campus. They seek out fun in order to feel like they belong. Vaccaro and Tedesco set out to discover what was behind the behavior of students who worried more about the next social event than what they were going to do with their lives. They conducted a qualitative study of 21 traditional age, first-year students. The face-to-face retrospective interviews lasted 30 to 40 minutes. Of the 21 participants, 80% were female. Almost 90% were Caucasian, with 5% Latina and 5% African Americans. Heterosexuals were 95% and bisexuals only 5%. The lack of diversity reflected the school's student body. Decades of retention studies have shown that a feeling of belonging correlates positively with academic success, motivation and persistence. So schools have increased the quality and quantity of programming, especially in the residence halls. Orientations have expanded from one to several days and the number of learning communities has increased. But it's not only the school's responsibility to help students to connect. Most students developed a sense of belonging through “self-directed strategies.” They define belonging as “feeling comfortable, fitting in and having fun with friendly people.” A student defined belonging as “to feel like you fit in, comfortable, accepted, wanted.” Those more involved in activities reported more feelings of belonging. Involvement helped students develop competence, find a purpose and feel like they mattered. In her book, Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled – And More Miserable than Ever Before (Free Press, 2007), author Dr. Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University, analyzed multiple national studies to uncover the ethos of the Millennials. She found that members of Generation Me, unlike the Baby Boomers, were self-focused and fun seeking. Boomers have always sought self-fulfillment. They also want to change the world. Viewing their lives as a journey, Boomers developed a philosophy of life, becoming comfortable with both spirituality and abstraction. Contrast that perspective with that of the Millennials, who have traded self-fulfillment for fun, changing the world for following one's dreams, abstraction for practicality and spirituality for things. They want to feel good about themselves. But many would prefer to watch TV or surf the Web rather than protest or join consciousness-raising sessions, like the Boomers did. All 21 students in the study described feeling a moderate or strong sense of belonging. Three school activities were most likely to increase their sense of belonging: orientation, their first residence hall meeting and learning communities. Students found facilitators to be fun and “friendly people.” They defined “comfort” and “fitting in” as connecting with fun people. Having fun and finding a life of purpose are not mutually exclusive. The researchers pointed to Chickering's work on finding ways to meet the developmental tasks of acquiring competence and finding purpose. Students reported feeling responsible for making the effort to find their own fun. Their strategies included: Some students got involved to develop skills and competence. Others did it to finding a purpose, such as clarifying career goals or feeling like they mattered. Students who joined on- or off-campus organizations connected with like-minded peers. One described participating in a local Habitat for Humanity chapter: “I think they are all like me, trying to help the same cause.” Their study revealed an “interesting juxtaposition of fun, competence, purpose and mattering,” the researchers said. Contact avaccaro@uri.edu or 401.874.2270.

Network Your Way to Increased Social Capital

Much has been written about networking. When done with a purpose, this tool creates unlimited opportunities and collaborations that build your social capital, which contributes to a person's academic and professional progress. Men are especially good at it. For graduate students and young professionals, developing social capital can help get you that first research grant or land you that special job. Increasing social capital is an important career objective for David Jones, associate director of residence life at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Kelvin Harris, student conduct coordinator at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, NY and James Frier, residence life coordinator at Texas Tech University. They spoke about the power of networking with a purpose at the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) conference in March in Philadelphia. Their networks shaped the panel. Jones and Harris met as undergrads at Eastern Connecticut State University. Jones was Frier's supervisor and mentor at a previous job. Networks resemble spider webs. As you add people to your network, your web – or your social capital – grows. The web is the visual representation that links you to others who may be in a position to help you professionally. It could be as a job reference or a connection to professional development opportunities. Networking offers various avenues to gain social capital. Young professionals can learn the craft, gain skill sets and see their career through various lenses and perspectives. The benefits of networking are endless. You gain exposure, create mentorship opportunities, intentionally diversify your relationships, develop a support system and position yourself as knowledgeable. Networking best practices and strategies include holding leadership positions on committees and organizations, corresponding periodically with colleagues, keeping an updated resume and presenting and publishing whenever possible. Little things like wearing a name tag to a large event, being early to meetings and programs or exchanging business cards can also increase your network, and in turn, your social capital, to reach individual and group goals. “It's critical to professional development,” said Harris. “When faced with a crisis, I can call on someone who has faced a similar crisis for suggestions and support. Based on my own experiences, it gives you a sense of comfort during times that may be difficult.” Social capital helps you to reach experts from areas different than yours. You can use it to bring a program to campus, to collaborate with peers, to get feedback on a resume or to explore a posted job. Social capital can also enhance your personal life. Because young professionals move around a lot especially during the early stages of their career, the network can help find a place to live and adjust to the culture of the new school and the community, easing the transition. Social capital revolves around five elements: “Some people are out only for themselves while others are out for the greater good of the community,” said Jones. “You want to advance the group collectively and further the community good and growth in relationships.” Mention networking to an extrovert and she will readily embrace the concept. Introverts are less enthusiastic. “It can be intimidating, especially for those who are introverted to meet people ranking higher than them,” said Harris. But there's an exciting solution: Tools like Facebook, Twitter, Skype and LinkedIn have made it easier to make the initial connection as well as to stay in touch. Social media provide an “increased opportunity to network differently,” said Harris. For women who find overt self-promotion difficult, these electronic tools provide a comfortable and effective way of promoting their professional activities at a distance. When presenting workshops, Jones tweets about them and uses LinkedIn to showcase his skills and successes. “It provides me more credibility in my work,” he said. He posted his publishing an article in the Journal of College Student Development on his Facebook page. A Twitter hash tag community, #SAChat, attracts young student affairs professionals from across the country. Facebook, with its 500 million users, also has a chat feature. With Skype you can chat face-to-face online without incurring travel costs. Social media can be a force for good or it can derail a person's career. “You always have to make sure to hold yourself to the highest levels of ethics and behaviors,” said Harris. Someone in your network may become an unofficial reference in a future job search. Five years past their master's degrees, Harris and Jones want to enlighten their graduate students and new professionals. “It's our obligation to give back to our community,” said Jones. Contacts: Jones at David_Jones@uml.edu or 978.934.5160 Harris at Kelvin.harris@kbcc.cuny.edu or 718.368.5348 Frier at James.frier@ttu.edu or 806.742.2610

Check Your Ego at the Door: The Role of the AVP

Check Your Ego at the Door: The Role of the AVP

Ethnic and Racial Administrative Diversity: Understanding Work Life Realities and Experiences in Higher Education (review)

Reviewed by: Ethnic and Racial Administrative Diversity: Understanding Work Life Realities and Experiences in Higher Education Denise O'Neil Green, Associate Vice President Jerlando F. L. Jackson and Elizabeth M. O'Callaghan. Ethnic and Racial Administrative Diversity: Understanding Work Life Realities and Experiences in Higher Education. San Francisco: Wiley Periodicals, 2009. 95 pp. Paper: $29.00. ISBN-978-0-4705-8814-7. In the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court ruling of the Grutter v. Bollinger case, diversity research in higher education was recognized for its contributions in demonstrating that ethnic and racial diversity among students, faculty, and staff greatly benefits student learning. Since that time, higher education [End Page 710] scholars have continued to investigate aspects of diversity and its impact with respect to students and faculty. However, diversity among the administrative and executive ranks has received less attention in the literature and in practice. If diversity is, in fact, a compelling interest for society, then higher education leaders and researchers alike need a better understanding about the ways in which diversity is achieved and experienced among the administrative ranks within colleges and universities. How diverse are the ranks and what can institutions do to improve the structural diversity of their administration? What challenges do people of color face in entering and advancing in administration? What are their experiences and what coping strategies do they employ? In Ethnic and Racial Administrative Diversity: Understanding Work Life Realities and Experiences in Higher Education, Jerlando Jackson and Elizabeth O'Callaghan address these important questions by presenting an analysis of relevant literature and two national datasets from 1999. While college and university leaders articulate the need to increase racial and ethnic diversity among administrators, stating the need is often easier than pursuing and achieving change. The authors provide a thoughtful discussion that goes beyond the traditional theoretical frameworks and anecdotal information that are so often relied upon but do not yield desirable results. The book consists of five chapters. In Chapter 1, the introduction and overview, the authors outline the growing concern for the lack of people of color in senior-level positions which both results from and perpetuates a lack of a commitment to ethnic and racial diversity. They highlight empirical studies and news articles that speak to the difficulty in hiring and retaining people of color in administrative higher education posts, particularly at predominantly White institutions. Jackson and O'Callaghan then introduce two relatively new concepts to justify the importance of workforce diversity in higher education: representative bureaucracy and retention. They describe these concepts in detail to underscore their relevance to higher and postsecondary education. The remainder of the introduction briefly describes the literature review underlying the book and overviews the subsequent chapters. Chapter 2, "Status of Ethnic and Racial Diversity in College and University Administration," begins with a description of what constitutes the administrative workforce examined in the book, including both academic affairs leaders and student affairs practitioners. With the unit of analysis defined, the authors present sixteen tables detailing the distributions of the aforementioned groups by race/ethnicity and demographic, career/ job, and institutional variables. Drawing upon two 1999 datasets, the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF) and a study by the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), the authors make comparisons for both student and academic affairs personnel by race/ ethnicity. Although the data are relatively dated, the authors indicated that, based on more recent trend analysis, the 1999 datasets reflect today's demographic trends. The chapter concludes with several notable observations. First, people of color enter administrative positions earlier in their careers than their White counterparts, which has a negative correlation with their attaining such senior-level positions as provost or dean. Second, women of color hold more student affairs positions than White men or men of color. Finally, institutional type and geographic location correlate with the likelihood that people of color will hold administrative positions at a particular college or university. Although the analysis is primarily descriptive statistics, it is very instructive and fills a disturbing void in the literature. In Chapter 3, the authors articulate the barriers that frequently face people of color as they pursue careers in administration. Jackson and O'Callaghan suggest that...

Use Student Affairs Strategies to Retain Women in STEM

Use Student Affairs Strategies to Retain Women in STEM

Student Motivation and Program Participation

Student Motivation and Program Participation Robert C. Reardon (bio) and Sara Cummings Bertoch (bio) Student affairs offices in postsecondary institutions devote time and energy to developing programs for students on a wide array of topics. Inspection of college websites reveals numerous program options, ranging from outdoor recreational activities to leadership development, from current events discussions to health awareness seminars, and from college adjustment workshops to cultural diversity experiences. The views presented in Learning Reconsidered (American College Personnel Association & National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, 2004) conceptualize student services as learning events encompassing a broad spectrum of outcomes. But to what extent are students prepared to engage in such learning? If students lack clarity in terms of their goals, aspirations, and identities, they may not be able to benefit from these learning opportunities. One setting in which student affairs programs emphasize learning and development is in the area of career services. These professionals are devoted to assessing the need for programs, developing them, and then marketing them to students. In our experience, follow-up evaluations often reveal that some programs were successful with robust participation and positive outcomes, whereas others were not. Perhaps student readiness for learning is a factor in these variable results. We were interested in identifying students who might be ready to participate at a high level in a program related to career development, and we undertook a search to find a measure that would help us in this process. After reviewing the literature, we settled on the concept of motivation for our work. Given that motivation is one of the most widely studied topics in the behavioral sciences, we focused our instrument search for a measure of generalized student motivation that was brief, theory based, and documented. Moreover, given that our program was related to career development, we added that to the search criteria. Kohut's Theory of the Self Our search led us to the goal instability scale (GIS; Robbins & Patton, 1985), which is based on Kohut's (1977) psychology of the self. Kohut's theory includes two lines of development in the normal adult—the grandiose and the idealizing. These two lines, especially the idealizing line, can be useful in understanding how a person engages the career development process. Kohut's self-psychology added a humanistic component to traditional psychoanalysis, and focused more on personality than on psychological development (Kahn & Rachman, 2000). Kohut posited that, in the grandiose sector, the immature self represents one whose self-worth is obtained from external influences, such as admiration and approval from others. The mature self, on the other hand, is one able to internally regulate and energize self-esteem and ambition. In the idealizing sector, the immature self is again externally regulated and receives a sense of security and direction from powerful others. The mature self possesses an internal system of ideals and values (Robbins, 1989). [End Page 716] Kohut theorized that an underlying lack of self-cohesion and vulnerable self-esteem contribute to all disorders of the self. These two characteristics are a result of early childhood experiences and the parent's failure to provide the child with an appropriate model for normal grandiosity. Therefore, the child becomes "fixated" in a less mature stage of self-development, characterized by a lack of mature goals and a healthy expression of grandiosity. Such a person is characterized by an inability to empathize with others; a vulnerability to criticism, separation, and loss; and an inability to formulate realistic life plans, or the persistence to meet those plans (Robbins & Patton, 1985). Motivation as Goal Stability Kohut's psychology of the self addresses motivation by theorizing that the two lines of development in the normal adult—the idealizing and the grandiose—work together to sustain the structure of experience, which is the primary basis of motivation. Kohut believed that individuals who could not develop and maintain a healthy structure of experience were characterized by a sense of not being "real," "inner emptiness," "falling apart," and a lack of purpose, direction, energy, and focus (Pauchant & Dumas, 1991, p.54). The idealizing sector of development is thought to lead to a sense of self-cohesion, which is demonstrated by an internalized and coherent system...

Keys to Survive/Thrive as African American Women at PWIs

Keys to Survive/Thrive as African American Women at PWIs

Tips to Help Minorities Win the SSAO Position

Tips to Help Minorities Win the SSAO Position

Manage Your Boss for a Successful Career

Manage Your Boss for a Successful Career

Help Black College Women Reconcile Hip‐Hop's Misogyny

Help Black College Women Reconcile Hip‐Hop's Misogyny

Women Reflect on the SSAO Job Search Process

Women Reflect on the SSAO Job Search Process

Methods for Assessing Inner Development: Spirituality andBeyond

As practitioners and scholars of student affairs administration, we are committed to the development and growth of the whole student, a concept that has guided our profession since its inception (American Council on Education, 1937; American College Personnel Association & National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, 2004). Likewise, accompanying students on their journey of developing meaning and purpose has long been a foundational pillar of liberal education (Astin, 2004). We believe creating environments and conditions that enable students to focus on existential issues in their lives and discuss the Big Questions (Who am I? What can I believe in? Will my life make a difference?) (Dalton, Eberhardt, Bracken, & Echols, 2006) is one of the central purposes of college. As such, we must find means to measure and assess the inner workings of students’ lives: How do they make meaning? How do they define themselves? What is the state of their psychological well-being? What role does spirituality or religion play in their lives? How do they relate to others? However, the instruments and methods used–and the concepts and language they engender–will affect how students react and respond to assessment efforts. In the past 10-15 years, spirituality has been the term used to signify this aspect of student development, garnering much attention by postsecondary educators and administrators alike; yet the use of the term spirituality may not be appropriate for all students.

Where I Am From: Student Affairs Practice From the Whole of Students' Lives (review)

Reviewed by: Where I Am From: Student Affairs Practice From the Whole of Students' Lives Darrell C. Ray Where I Am From: Student Affairs Practice From the Whole of Students' Lives Susan E. Borrego & Kathleen Manning Washington, DC: National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, 2007, 140 pages, $30.00 (softcover) Where I Am From is a reflective narrative on the experiences of students who participated in the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) Undergraduate Fellows Program and how their experiences should be utilized in the application of theory and practice. The NASPA Undergraduate Fellows program is a semi-structured mentoring program for undergraduate students wishing to explore and better understand the field of student affairs and/or higher education. Students and mentors apply as a pair, and if selected are provided the foundation to establish a semi-structured mentoring relationship at their institution. Students, once selected, are known as Fellows, and are also given the opportunity to attend a national conference, participate in paid internships, and participate in the NASPA Summer Leadership Institute. The mission of the NASPA Undergraduate Fellows Program is to increase the number of persons of ethnic-minority, persons with disabilities, and/or persons who identify as LGBT in student affairs and higher education. At the time of data collection for this text, the program was officially called the NASPA Minority Undergraduate Fellows Program. The name officially changed from Minority to National to become more inclusive of underrepresented populations beyond race or ethnicity. However, for this text the term Minority Undergraduate Fellow was utilized. The authors of the text were facilitators at the Summer Leadership Institute for the fellows and had them complete a writing exercise entitled "Where I am From." The depth and richness of the responses led the authors to write this text to share the voices of the fellows and discuss the implications they bring to the practice in student affairs. Divided into two sections with eleven chapters, the first half focused on the students' narratives and the second section is dedicated to the application of the students' experience to theory and practical application. The introduction frames the text and operationally defines the author's notion of "voice" for understanding the narratives. They also lay out the organization of the book and the setting for the interviews. The first six chapters focus on the narratives of the students divided by the themes that rose out the data. In chapter 1, "Family, Neighborhoods, Love, Disappointment, and History," students share information on their upbringing and home lives. Through vivid language the students paint pictures of their upbringings and their home life. The students openly discuss obstacles faced and the impact on their current lives. Through "Multiculturalism, Multilingualism, Identity," the students discuss the impact of the multiplicity within their identity. Within the chapter the students with multiple backgrounds share how those identities merge and exist in their life. They all effectively articulated the multiplicity and the instances of rejection from mainstream aspects of society. They share about the richness of the cultures, familial roles and relationships, and their subsequent growth. [End Page 633] "Celebration, Hope, Survival, Flawless, Dreams, Determined," the third chapter delves into their personal feelings and experiences. With brutal honesty each narrative appears to open wounds and provide a release of sharing life experiences. A sense of celebration and pride are also shared through these narratives. "Bridges, Looking Back/Looking Forward, From Here and There, "the next chapter contains narratives of reflection in which the students connect their past experiences to their current experiences. Throughout this chapter the students seem to revel in their past and understand how it has shaped them. Chapter 5, "Brilliant, Talented, Strong, Perseverance, and Persistence," depicts the hope and inner strength possessed. As one student stated, "I am from a divergent world of those who haven't gone anywhere and those who forget where they have come from" (p. 57). Additionally, there were strong descriptions of their homes and the geography. Articulation of religion, sexuality, and feelings of isolation are communicated. The students also speak of the hope that has sprung in their life as a result of their past, even the negative aspects. "Freedom and Running to, Not...

Character Values Congruence and Person-Organization Fit in Student Affairs: Compatibility Between Administrators and the Institutions That Employ Them

This study examined the frequency of selected character values deemed important for work in student affairs administration by 953 members of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators. Demographic characteristics of gender, graduate curriculum, institutional type and functional area of employment were examined to determine the level of congruence for the purposes of studying person-organization fit.

Student Affairs Professionals at Catholic Colleges and Universities: Honoring Two Philosophies

Student affairs professionals are encouraged by their professional organizations to recognize the responsibility they have to their institutions by “supporting its mission, goals and policies” (American College Personnel Association [ACPA], 2006, p. 6) and by avoiding conflicts of interest between the self and the college or university (national Association of Student Personnel Administrators [NASPA], 1990), others point out that most students affairs professionals are educated at secular universities and experience little preparation regarding the Catholic intellectual tradition (Estanek, 2001). The purpose of this study was to explore the following questions: Are there student affairs professionals at Catholic colleges and universities who are able to bring together a student affairs philosophy with that of catholic colleges and universities? If these professionals do exist, what can we learn from their knowledge and approaches that might help other student affairs professionals at Catholic colleges and universities to honor both philosophies? The results suggest that a great deal can be learned from seasoned professionals in Catholic student affairs, which may well assist new professionals in negotiating these two different philosophies.

Problem and pathological gambling among college students

AbstractThis chapter examines problem and pathological gambling among college students and reports on prevalence rate, risk and protective factors, prevention and intervention, and recommendations for college student personnel and other university administrators.