Volume 46, Issue 1

The vast majority of college students gamble, with some doing so problematically. This article discusses gambling and problem gambling among college students, framing it as an emerging health issue on college campuses nationwide. Given that 4 out of 5 college students admit to gambling, and that approximately 8% gamble problematically, it is imperative that student affairs professionals be familiar with the literature and be prepared to address, and ideally help prevent, gambling-related issues and their attendant problems on college campuses. This article summarizes briefly what is known about college student gambling and problem gambling, discusses the range of gambling problems that exist, and, in the end, offers seven recommendations for addressing this important, yet largely overlooked student health issue. It also offers a few recommendations for future research.

Parents of today’s college students bring unique experiences to the academic journey. They support extended parenting into the college years, demonstrate commitment and knowledge as prevention specialists with regards to their son or daughter’s safety, and value the opportunity for partnerships to be developed with the institution of their child’s enrollment. They also find themselves concerned with alcohol and its effect on the learning experience. The authors in this conceptual article introduce a new component to a comprehensive alcohol education model that capitalizes on the strengths that parents can bring to the college experience and explores the effect of providing evidence to parents that, through consistent and quality communication, they can influence their son or daughter’s decisions about alcohol consumption Literature specific to the attitudes, beliefs, and values of parents of college students about alcohol use is limited; but it confirms that accurate parental awareness of their student’s use and honest dialogue about alcohol use may serve as mediating factors in decisions about alcohol consumption. The department of parent services may be well positioned to encourage and motivate consistent and quality conversations between parents and their student.

This study examined the relationship of student use of campus recreation facilities (CRFs) with retention and graduation rates at a large, public, Midwestern Carnegie doctoral-extensive university. Tinto’s interactionalist theory of student departure provided the conceptual framework. An extensive review of the literature on the relationship between academic performance and recreation facility use identified a set of critical explanatory predictors. Although anecdotal evidence and studies of student perceptions support the contention that use of CRFs promotes social integration, thereby increasing the likelihood of persistence, few studies have employed both actual CRF visit counts to quantify use and advanced statistical methods to analyze the data. The linking of visitation data to individual student records is a unique component of this preliminary study. Maximum likelihood estimated models were used to identify which factors were related to retention and graduation. Results show positive associations between CRF usage and both first-year retention and 5-year graduation.

This qualitative exploratory content analysis examined student perceptions of personal change in conjunction with their participation in an international service-learning program in South Africa. Twelve undergraduate students self-rated the extent to which they agreed that they were affected personally by their service-learning placement experiences. In addition, these students offered written responses to an open-ended question regarding the ways in which their service-learning placements changed them personally. All respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that they had been personally changed. Additionally, content analysis of written responses revealed the emergence of five themes of personal change in connection with service-learning placement experiences: (1) Increased Awareness, (2) Relational Growth, (3) Professional Growth, (4) Increased Gratitude, and (5) Unspecified Change. Relevance of emergent themes to higher education practice and future research are discussed.

Student affairs organizations have become complex entities and serve as a critical link to student success and the quality of the overall educational experience in collegiate institutions. Over time, new programs and services have been added to the array of existing programs and services with little attention focused on how these organizations might be designed to effectively meet the institution’s mission or address student needs. This research study was designed, in part, to investigate student affairs organizational structures within colleges and universities across the United States. The focus of this study was on the design and structure of student affairs organizations, but it also investigated where in the institution the senior student affairs officer reported. It explored questions related to what changes were made in student affairs organizations and why. The findings indicated that some change has occurred in student affairs organizations, but these changes have been modest. While student affairs organizations have retained their functional structures they also appeared to be generally organized by institutional type, and as a result somewhat reflective of institutional mission. The influences of revenue source and availability of resources appeared to remain the dominant influences in the current functional structures of student affairs organizations. While some of the desired reasons for organizational redesign appeared to be strategic and environmentally oriented, the actual changes and redesigns that were reported were not directly focused on these issues. These findings have implications for student affairs organizational effectiveness in the future.