Volume 12, Issue 4 - Volume 12, Issue 4 (2011) Is There an Enduring Purpose for Student Affairs?

Some periods of rapid social change become transforming, watershed moments for reassessing the basic mission and purposes of student affairs work. The old forms and structures cannot carry the new realities and require new paradigms of meaning and purpose. In selected articles of this issue of the JCC, authors explore the question of whether student affairs work today has an enduring purpose, and they examine the implications of this question for the contemporary work of student affairs.

Student affairs is a relatively new professional field in American higher education, although its primary functions are rooted in some of the earliest American colleges. Despite its growing presence and influence in American colleges (and increasingly in colleges and universities in other countries) the field of student affairs work has struggled throughout its history to clearly define its central mission and role in higher education. The authors of this article examine some of the reasons for the profession’s failure to achieve broad agreement on an enduring mission and purpose and some implications of this circumstance for student affairs’ future role and contributions to American higher education.

Student affairs is a relatively new profession and has changed in significant ways in response to new developments in higher education, innovations in practice, new conceptual paradigms, and changing economic and political conditions. As a result there is much debate about the core mission and purpose of student affairs and whether it is possible to identify and agree upon an enduring core mission and purpose. The author examines these issues and their implications for the work of student affairs in higher education today.

In this article, the authors argue that the relevance of student affairs depends on the will to redefine the mission, structures, and practices to provide the leadership that institutions require. They begin with an overview of challenges to higher education and student affairs, examine the implications of those challenges for student affairs, and conclude with specific ideas and examples for redefining student affairs work.

As a result of environmental turbulence created by economic turmoil and shifting social policies, the world of higher education is experiencing widespread change. Student affairs professionals are well-positioned to influence the future direction of higher education and the impact education has for students and society. The NASPA 2012 conference theme Ignite Leadership Influence Change will offer attendees the opportunity to explore dynamics associated with elevating our presence and our impact.

This article focuses on one individual’s perspective about the reason she has continued to work with college students over the course of many years and what has influenced her own commitment to character development and values-focused education. Using her love of Negro spirituals for inspiration, three themes, responding to injustice, facing failure, and role modeling, are highlighted, and recommendations related to the themes in the context of college student work are offered.

Although sexual assault has long been recognized as a problem among college students, little attention has been paid to why first-year women are the most likely to be assaulted. In this article the author drew on two studies of college students to analyze peer culture and the organization of gender and sexuality within a college party scene. Within this scene, fraternity men’s masculine identities and peer status were linked to their ability to hook up with women. However, strong sexual double standards stigmatized many sexually active women, reducing their appeal as sexual partners. In contrast, men saw first-year women were seen as “fresh,” “clean,” and especially alluring. The organization of campus life at the beginning of the year also made these women particularly available.

First-year students typically come to college with little knowledge about the city they will call home. Universities can unite with their local communities to provide opportunities for student involvement while giving students a chance to learn what their city has to offer. Learning outcomes from a Mississippi State University first-year experience course and campus-wide day of service illustrated how service within a local community impacted the beliefs of students about their city and provided new ways to link town and gown. A discussion of student benefits, as well as information about how to create town and gown experiences, is shared.

Helping students understand and cultivate moral and spiritual friends is perhaps one of the most important gifts a college or university can give a student. Having meaningful relationships contributes significant energy to students’ inner lives—their values, moral commitments, and self-understandings. The topic of friendship, and all that it entails, offers educators a powerful tool to engage students in the discovery of meaning and purpose. Individuals should not fear the word “spiritual” at public universities, nor be convinced that faith-based institutions do spiritual well. This article invites colleges and universities to explore friendship as a learning outcome for all students.

When public discourse around religious diversity is so fraught, how might faculty teach about religion in a way that encourages civic engagement and participation in a diverse society in college students? The authors suggest a way forward, what they call "interfaith literacy," and explore how it might play out in the college classroom.

The purpose of this article is to discuss a coach’s perspective of the good that sport should do. The author argues that the relationships developed through the coaching experience are powerful, formative, and exceptional. She discusses the important moral values of sharing and caring and how these are important in the moral development of the athlete.

For those who advocate for greater attention to the development of the whole student, promoting a climate of student-centered learning on our campuses should be a major component of our endeavors. In Leading the Learner-Centered Campus, Harris and Cullen provide some concrete proposals for achieving student-centered learning as central to the academic enterprise. Student success in the learning process is directly linked to developing an intrinsic motivation to learn, clearly a change in emphasis from our current approach to teaching, which focuses primarily on conveying knowledge. Rather, to promote student development in this area requires adoption of learner-motivated teaching.

The author argues for the myriad benefits of extracurricular involvement to students' psychosocial development and calls upon administrators and professors to encourage students to participate in carefully selected activities with earnest commitment of their time and efforts. The author contends that colleges demonstrate that they encourage prospective students to take their involvement in activities seriously when college admissions emphasize the level of student involvement in each activity over merely the number of extracurricular activities in their profiles of first-year students.