Volume 35, Issue 1

The authors present a conceptual framework or taxonomy to assist campus personnel who are concerned about how physical artifacts on campus communicate institutional values associated with multiculturalism. The four dimenions of the taxonomy - typeof physical artifact responsible for the message, multicultural parameters relevant to specific groups on campus, content of the message, and evaluative impact of the message - are described and their usefulness in evaluating campus environments in terms of messages that promote, neutralize, or discourage the spirit of multiculturalism is discussed.

This study investigated the leadership behaviors of Orientation Advisors (OAs) to determine whether certain practices made any difference in the effectiveness of OAs or in the value of the orientation programs to the new students. Relationships between the leadership practices of OAs and effectiveness assessments provided by both themselves and new students in their groups revealed significant and consistent relationships between leadership behaviors and perceived effectiveness and satisfaction. Implications and suggestions for structuring leadership development for student leaders are discussed.

Based on their previous study which determined a list of the "great books" that influenced student affairs practice, the authors here seek to ascertain the extent to which these books are used in master's and doctoral programs; discover what other books not included in the authors' original list are commonly used in master's or doctoral curricula; and, based on selected demographic characteristics, map the use patterns for the books in the selected programs.

The authors review the history of First Amendment rulings as they relate to speech codes or other regulations whose prohibitions are directed at the content of speech. A case study, based on an experience at Trenton State College, details the legal constraints, principles, and practices that Student Affairs administrators should be aware of when confronted with such situations.

Perceptual mapping can provide a means of evaluating a campus through the eyes of diverse student groups. By providing a fuller understanding of areas of interest and exploring the initial perceptions of new students of these areas, percpetual mapping can have important ramifications for the retention of African American students at predominately White institutions. The authors describe a study that illustrates the use of this technique for the environmental assessment of a campus environment.

The authors explore the usefulness of orientation programs for students aged 27 and older who delayed entry to graduate school and whether differences in personal importance of orientation programs, willingness to participate in them, and preferences in matters of scheduling and topics. The results indicated that several demographic variables affected the interest level in some topics, suggesting that a cafeteria-workshop style format, which would allow students to select just those sessions that were of interest to them, may be the best for this group.

The author reflects on several years of teaching ethics to student affairs graduate students. He presents an innovative, applied problem-solving method useful for helping graduate students, as well as more experienced student affairs administrators, analyze and resolve the ethical dilemmas they face in the workplace. The article focuses on an actual case and, using a step by step format, demonstrates how students can work their way through the complexities of an ethical dilemma to reach a defensible resolution.