Considerable attention by scholars for the last two decades has focused on issues of spirituality and higher education. Literature in the field of college student affairs suggest that, in order promote the development of the whole student, practitioners in the field should consider adopting theories of faith and spiritual development. This study considered the application of faith development theory, as developed by James W. Fowler, for contextualizing students' response to the 1999 Bonfire tragedy at Texas A&M University. The primary intent of this study was to (1) understand how a student's level of faith development relates to the transformational learning resulting from the Bonfire tragedy, (2) whether such a tragedy was a trigger for transformational learning, and (3) how student affairs professionals can utilize faith development theory for understanding students' narrative account of the tragedy and their commitment to the university. This study utilized a comparative case study approach. Nine respondents were recruited and participated in a semi-structured and the classic Faith Development interviews. The accounts provided by three respondents were selected for in-depth analysis. The investigative tools used for this analysis were hermeneutical and included constant comparative methodology and narrative analysis. Results from the study indicate that transformation of meaning schemes and meaning perspectives are key components of young-adult faith development. Evidence indicates that Bonfire was a student activity that was unique to Texas A&M University and had the potential to become a center of value and power for many students. Findings suggest that faith development theory can be an effective tool for exploring the structure of students' faith relationships and their commitment thereto. Based on an analysis of the narrative accounts, the Bonfire tragedy was a source of cognitive dissonance but not necessarily a disorienting dilemma. For some students the 1999 tragedy was part of a longer cumulative process that advanced the faith development process. Implications from the research findings and recommendations for future research are explored at length.

Women make up a majority of those employed in higher education, yet they are still a minority in leadership positions. Completing a doctoral degree, relocating for career advancement, and working in demanding, high time commitment roles are typically required to achieve the chief student affairs officer (CSAO) position, as well as contributors to burnout and attrition in the field. This study sought to gain a deeper understanding of the intersection of career progression (work), balance (nonwork) and relationships (network) of women chief student affairs officers, specifically, how gender is an influence, understanding life roles and whether there is a cost of achievement in the field. The literature in the field suggests the achievement and constant maintenance of balance, which is viewed through a male construct, is the norm. It is evident that the need to understand the particular phenomenon of work and nonwork intersections of women, particularly in the chief role, gives voice to an issue for women that have been rarely heard in the field. This study utilized the naturalistic inquiry paradigm of research. The author conducted in-depth interviews of nine women CSAOs at colleges and universities across the United States. Data were analyzed using a constant comparative method which allowed the findings to emerge. The results show that women CSAOs felt that gender had a clear impact on their career both in their choices and how they were treated by others. The impact of gender has been felt at all stages in their careers including in their roles as CSAOs on issues of discrimination, leadership style, spousal expectations, and choices regarding if and when - or whether - to have children. Respondents also articulated the different domains of their life in terms of roles, but did not seem them as distinctly separate in the manner in which they manage their lives. Additionally, all of the respondents felt their public and private lives intersected and that keeping them in separate domains was not only impossible, but unnecessary. Lastly, there were significant and ongoing costs of achievement in the field, mostly notably lack of friends and short and/or long term health problems.

Student affairs practitioners develop a variety of skills in order to serve students and the institutions in which they work. This research study used a newly developed instrument to assess the perceived performance of a variety of skills and the methods that student affairs professionals use to develop those skills. The population included professional affiliates of Region III of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators. Faculty members and those not practicing in student affairs were excluded from the surveyed population. The professional affiliates were identified as new professionals, mid-managers, and senior student affairs officers. The instrument identified 72 skill statements in ten categories: leadership; student contact; communication; personnel management; fiscal management; professional development; research, evaluation, and assessment; legal issues; technology, and diversity. For each skill category, fifteen learning methods were identified. A usable response rate of 61.6% was obtained. The data supported the stage theory of student affairs professional development for nine of the ten categories: senior student affairs officers rated their mastery of skills greater than did mid-managers, and mid-managers rated themselves higher than did new professionals. All groups rated their communication skills high. In several categories, there were statistically significant differences between the administrative levels. The exception was for the technology category. There was not a statistically significant difference between the groups. Professionals use a wide variety of methods to gain competence in the skill areas. The most common methods involved interaction with other practitioners and included mentoring, discussion with colleagues, and professional conference program sessions. Very few professionals have taken a sabbatical or on-line course to develop the identified skills. Several skill categories revealed differences between administrative levels, although the student contact category did not reveal any statistically significant differences.

The culminating recommendations of the United States Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings’ 2006 Commission on the Future of Higher Education report demand greater access, affordability, quality and accountability in higher education. Student affairs, as well as their academic counterparts, must show that they function effectively and contribute to student learning and development. A promising program review process for student affairs to fulfill this expectation is found in the Education Criteria of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and its state-level equivalent, the Texas Award for Performance Excellence in Education Criteria. The purpose of this study was to determine the usefulness of the Texas Award for Performance Excellence Education Criteria, Progress Level, as the basis for a comprehensive program review in two diverse student affairs departments. Additionally, the study was to determine the potential usefulness of the Criteria as a management strategy for senior leadership in each department to focus on assessment, planning, improvement and change. The descriptive case study was conducted using naturalistic inquiry methodology with two student affairs departments. The researcher spent nine months in the field as a participant observer. Methodology included observations of training and team leader meetings; interviews with participants, department directors, and the Office of the Vice President; document review of both self-study reports; and the researcher’s reflexive journal. Student affairs departments are particularly well-suited for the quality concept of serving customers and, in this case, students as their primary customer. The researcher concluded that the Texas Award for Performance Excellence in Education Criteria serve as a useful basis for a comprehensive program review and as a management strategy for senior leadership under the following conditions: The department must be a mature and functional unit. Student affairs staff need a foundation in quality principles, in general, and the core values, Criteria and language of the Texas Award for Performance Excellence in Education before embarking on the self-study process. The Measurement, Analysis and Knowledge Category and the Planning Category provided the most introspection and action planning for both departments. The Process Category was the most challenging for both departments.

With the increase of first-year initiatives throughout postsecondary education around the world, student affairs personnel are becoming more involved with the programs and strategies of the First-Year Experience. This report focuses on the First-Year Seminar (FYS), one of various strategies that could be used as a part of an institution’s First-Year Experience. Student affairs personnel are increasingly being asked to instruct and take part of an FYS course. In this endeavor, these individuals sometimes lack the background and knowledge to begin the process for planning, developing, and teaching such a course. This report provides theoretical foundations, case studies, and descriptions of general considerations for future development of a FYS course by student affairs personnel. / text

One segment of the academic community that is overlooked in most research is the large cadre of professionals who deliver a multitude of services to students outside of the classroom. From the perspective of students, the student affairs professionals they encounter in the residence halls, advising offices, and within other aspects of the campus life fabric, are the face of the university. This case study of student affairs professionals within four departments at one large, public, Research-I University seeks to define the core values of the work, understand perspectives on the individuals they work with, how practice unfolds within the organization context of the campus, and what values guide practice. The literatures drawn upon include; student affairs ideology, service delivery patterns and techniques, institutional theory, professional specialization, and trends in higher education. The findings from this study illustrate that the work experiences of student affairs professionals are dominated by brief encounters with students that occur within a work environment that is frequently overwhelming. High volumes of students seeking service and limited opportunities to develop ongoing relationships create challenging work expectations for student affairs professionals. The core values of the profession are in transition as institutional priorities that focus on efficiency and competitive advantage become further established within academe. Policy recommendations for the student affairs profession and institutional decision makers are made in the final chapter.

Leadership courses are emerging across higher education institutions taking various shapes and forms. Some are coordinated and run by faculty sometimes leading to a minor, major, or certificate. Others are coordinated by student affairs professionals. The focus of this study is to understand the experiences that student affairs professionals have in implementing and coordinating leadership courses in academic units. Because on many campuses leadership courses are being implemented by student affairs professionals, there are distinctive intricacies involved. Plagued by the complexity of the inter-profession relationship between student affairs and faculty, implementing and coordinating courses is not a simple matter. In addition to learning about student affairs professionals' experiences, this study also shares strategies that these professionals use in trying to implement and coordinate leadership courses in academic units. Drawing from literature on the professions as well as leadership development helps shed light on the complex dynamics underlying the course implementation and coordination process. Implications for both research and practice are included.

February 2003 was the inauguration of the Foundations of Excellence project with an open invitation to chief academic officers at approximately 900 of both the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and the Council for Independent Colleges (CIC) member institutions. The Policy Center on the First Year of College, under the direction of the Executive Director, John N. Gardner, invited the various campuses to develop standards and guidelines for the first year, which were termed as Foundational Dimensions or simply Dimensions. As a result, over 200 member institutions agreed to participate in the project by establishing campus-wide task forces to look at the initial list of six Dimensions developed by the Policy Center and Penn State research partners. These Dimensions were designed to be essential characteristics of institutional effectiveness in promoting the learning and success of every first-year student. This is a case study of one of the founding institutions of the Foundations of Excellence endeavor, Public State University (PSU). In particular, this study utilizes the Foundations of Excellence Dimensions Statements as a basis to assess Public State University’s first-year experience collaboration efforts. Furthermore, this research is specifically grounded in the 2nd Dimensions Statement of the Foundations of Excellence, looking at what the Public State University first-year experience program looks like through academic affairs and student affairs collaborative partnerships. This study specifically examines PSU’s established partnerships within the First Year Orientation and Advising Committee (FYOAC) and the University College Advisory Council (UCAC) and determines what participants mean by collaboration. Through the use of a rubric, the analysis of the data resulted in a significant finding in reference to collaboration literature. The findings indicated that the literature on academic and student affairs collaboration should include information on institutional culture and investigate whether the underpinnings of institutional culture are actually social systems that are inextricably tied to their external environments, which in turn have a direct impact on foundational benchmarks on collaboration for First-Year Experience programs. Implications of this study’s results are addressed, limitations of this study are discussed, and recommendations for future research are given.

Alternative work arrangements (AWA) policies allow employees to select varied work schedules that are both conducive to the organization’s goals and to employees’ personal needs. Though common in the business sector, such policies are rarely articulated within American colleges and universities. Practitioners within the student affairs profession regularly work beyond the average 40-hour week due to the fundamental nature of their work with students’ co-curricular involvement outside of the classroom; as a result, the lack of work-life balance can result in high employee turnover which can be detrimental to an organization. Utilizing grounded theory, a qualitative methodology that allows researchers to espouse new theories to explain phenomena based on data, 14 student affairs practitioners employed at a large research institution in the southeast were interviewed to examine their experiences which emanated from the institution’s AWA policy implemented in 2007. The emergent theory collectively affirmed the importance of flexibility as participants indicated that they expected variations in their work hours given the unusual hours that are commonly associated with the student affairs profession. They reported benefits such as better work-life balance, increased productivity, reduced stress, and increased job satisfaction. Conversely, participants expressed concerns that AWAs were not consistency available to all employees and awareness of the policy was limited. They also experienced feelings of guilt and often felt the need to prove that they were working. Finally, participants recommended that AWA policies should be transparent, regularly assessed, and benchmarked against existing policies at other universities. Results provided evidence of how proven strategies used in corporate human resource models can be applied in a higher education setting, and the findings further suggested that employees and employers could greatly benefit from the establishment of formal policies that allow flexibility in the workplace through the use of AWAs. Implementation of these policies may provide employees with more opportunities for work-life balance, thereby improving job satisfaction and increasing employee retention in the student affairs profession.

Using McClusky"s (1963) Power Load Margin (PLM) theory, this study employed a correlational research design to investigate if relationships existed between involvement in career-related professional development outlets and activities, and Margin in Life (MIL) scores for full-time student affairs professionals at Ball State University. Correlation coefficients (Pearson r) were calculated to determine if relationships existed between MIL scores and the number of career-related professional development outlets and activities. Partial correlation coefficients were calculated to determine if relationships existed between subjects' ages and the relationship between MIL scores and the number of career-related professional development outlets and activities.Subjects (n = 107) were identified using the 2004-2005 Ball State University Directory and mailed a Professional Development Questionnaire (PDQ), created by the researcher, and Stevenson's (1982) Margin in Life Scale. Responses from 64 subjects were used in this study (31 females and 33 males). Subjects' ages ranged from 22 to 67 years (M = 41.5 years).PDQ results indicated that subjects averaged involvement in 10.6 outlets in the previous 12 months. Six indicated involvement in more than 20 outlets. Excluding these responses, the mean for outlets was 8.8. The mean for activities was 8.4.The mean MIL score for subjects was .60. All subjects in this study had a sufficient amount of power; thus, no subject had an excessive amount of load.Results of the correlational analyses suggest the possibility that a negative correlation may exist between MIL scores and the number of career-related professional development outlets. Although the correlation and partial correlation coefficients were weak, this may have been a function of the relatively small number of subjects who participated in this study. Additional research with a larger subject population is suggested to investigate this possible relationship. No relationship was found between MIL scores and career-related professional development activities. No differences in relationships between outlets and activities, and MIL scores were found when the age of subjects was factored either in or out as an influence. Further PLM research in student affairs is suggested, including qualitative methods investigating areas of professional development relating to power, load, and margin. / Department of Educational Studies