The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of an act of academic misconduct on transfer student GPA, retention and completion. Three groups were compared from data compiled from 2009-2015: freshman and new transfer, transfer and native student in honor code violations, and transfer student between violators and non-violators. The outcome determined if not committing an act of academic misconduct benefits students’ immediate academic success as seen through a maintained or higher GPA, retention from one semester to another, as well as completion. The study utilized the quantitative, quasi-experimental study design. The research was conducted using descriptive statistics to analyze data research question one, What are the differences in the number of honor code violations for transfer and native students. Then, an independent t-test was administered to determine significance regarding research question two: What are the differences in academic indicator for violators and non-violators? (a) GPA in the semester of violation, (b) Retention, and (c) Graduation rate and research question three: What are the differences in academic indicator for transfer student violators and non-violators? (a) GPA at the end of the first semester (b) Retention and (c) Completion

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Career services in higher education has a long history of supporting student development and post-graduation success (American Council on Education, 1937; Rayman, 1999; Dey & Cruzvergara, 2014). However, there is a dearth of research identifying specific connections between engagement with career services and student success. College student thriving has been established in previous studies as positively contributing to traditional measures of college student success, including intention to persist, grade point average, institutional fit and satisfaction, and self-reported learning gains (Schreiner, 2013). Examining the relationship of student experience with career services and thriving provides a new way to evaluate the contribution of career services work to college student success. This study utilized the Thriving QuotientTM (Schreiner, 2016), a valid and reliable survey instrument, with 952 clients of Career Services at Brigham Young University. Three career services variables included are frequency of interaction, satisfaction, and quality of engagement with career services. Confirmatory factor analysis established thriving as a second order latent construct and confirmed other latent pathway variables to thriving in the model. The final model explains 72.1% of the total variance of student thriving with excellent model fit. Student experience with career services does not directly contribute to student thriving, but it does strengthen other thriving-supportive variables. Sense of community and major certainty has the strongest overall contribution to thriving. Satisfaction with career services has the largest effect of the career services variables on factors which contribute to thriving: spirituality, sense of community, major certainty, experience with faculty, feelings of institutional integrity, and campus involvement. The contribution of student experience with career services to thriving is indirect, with small to moderate correlations through thriving pathway variables. Thriving Quotient scores of various student demographic groups are compared using independent sample t-tests and one-way ANOVA tests. Students with higher grades and seniors have higher thriving quotient scores; sophomores have lower scores. No significant differences are noted for first-generation students or non-white students.

This study investigated the relationships, if any, between the number, nature, and organization of partnerships between academic and student affairs and measures of institutional success and student learning. Specifically, this research sought to: (a) investigate the relationships between the number, nature, and organization of partnerships with institutional retention rates, graduation rates, and students' engagement in educationally purposeful activities, (b) test the feasibility of a classification system for the organization of partnerships developed by O'Halloran (2005), and (c) explore the alignment between reported goals for engaging in collaboration and the actual nature of existing partnerships. The population for the study consisted of 93 Senior Student Affairs Officers (SSAOs) at doctoral-granting institutions who participated in the spring, 2005 administration of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). The survey instrument was adapted from O'Halloran (2005) and was administered in spring 2006. Of the 93 surveys administered, 52 were completed for a response rate of 55%. The findings indicated that the nature of the partnerships has significant effects on measures of institutional success and student learning. Furthermore, 75% of the respondents reported that their institutions had developed partnerships for the purpose of enhancing academic performance or increasing student retention and/or persistence. Implications of these findings are discussed in terms of the iterative relationships between the number/nature of partnerships, goals of partnerships, and outcomes of partnerships mediated by organizational structures and institutional characteristics.

The researcher utilized the 2007 American College Personnel Association (ACPA) Steering Committee on Professional Competencies report, Professional Competencies, to determine the importance of a set of competencies for work in entry-level student affairs positions. The researcher also studied whether there were any differences in importance of these competencies based on functional area (e.g., residence life/housing, student activities) and institutional type (i.e., four-year public and four-year private). Via an online questionnaire, the researcher sent the list of competencies to a sample of 970 members of ACPA who were self-selected as entry-level members and received 224 usable responses. Of the 75 individual competency items studied, 66 were found to be, minimally, 'important' for entry-level positions overall, thus reinforcing the fact that entry-level practitioners need a wide array of competencies to perform the responsibilities within their positions. Competencies related to advising and helping others, including students and colleagues, were rated the highest, while those related to the legal foundations of the field were rated the lowest, yet still at least 'somewhat important.' Several significant differences were found between groups within the studied demographic variables and the degree of importance of the competencies. Specifically, there were very few significant differences in the degree of importance of competencies based on respondent institutional type. Compared to other demographic items, functional area by far indicated the most significant differences between groups.

Seminarians’ existential crises of faith are often-experienced but little-studied. Through surveys of Millennial MDiv students (n=30) and seminary Student Affairs and Student Services Professionals (SASSPs) (n=44), this study suggests crises of faith are fundamental to MDiv students’ spiritual formation, mirroring the pattern of Mezirow’s Transformative Learning Theory model (TLT). TLT also undergirds secular Student Affairs, where SASSPs regularly provide co-curricular “student learning” support. This study recommends training seminary SASSPs to be similarly-utilized within theological education, which would require resources for professional development from both their institutions and the Association of Theological Schools. Implications for multi-cultural theological education are also discussed.

The intent of this study was to explore and understand the effects of professional experience on the ethical profiles of housing and residence life staff. Through a survey design, this study used the Managerial Ethical Profile (MEP) to analyze the professional experience of members of the Association of College and University Housing Officers – International (ACUHO-I). The MEP scale measures the range of influences on respondents and describes the major tendencies by placing respondents in ethical profiles. Results from this study indicated that professional experience does influence respondent ethical profiles. This study contributes to the field of higher education by informing university administrators how professional experience plays a role in their staff members’ day to day work and responses to decision making.

This hermeneutic phenomenological study investigated the experiences and perspectives of Black male residence life professionals regarding attrition in student affairs, especially in the context of the COVID-19 global pandemic. In higher education, the phenomenon of high attrition among student affairs professionals is a major concern, with minoritized communities facing unique challenges. This study aimed to fill a gap in the literature by concentrating on the experiences of Black male residence life professionals working at a predominantly White institution in the United States in 2020. The study used Bronfenbrenner's bioecological systems theory as a theoretical framework to understand factors that impact attrition rates. Due to the pandemic and the complexities of institutional racism and microaggressions, Black male residence life professionals faced significant challenges and displayed incredible resolve during an unprecedented higher education crisis, according to this study. These findings are important for devising strategies for recruiting and retaining underrepresented professionals in student affairs.

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