It is time for the field of student affairs to put aside its four-decade preoccupation with professional status and recognize that its identity as a field is essentially an administrative convenience linked by an allegiance to a common philosophical perspective on its work and by nature of its clientele and the milieu in which it is practiced.…

Presents a summary of the general thrust and specific recommendations made to the Executive Council of the American College Personnel Association by its Long-Range Planning Committee. (Author)

This paper, a critique of student development as a reform movement in higher education, addresses seven concerns about the student development movement and the model of student affairs that it articulates. First, the paper notes that student development appears focused on the personal development of the individuals seemingly detached from the…

This document looks at the research that has been conducted on the student development concept and considers its nature, effectiveness, and deficiencies. Research in student development is defined as research that attempts to ascertain if a particular theory-based student development intervention or treatment resulted in the theorized effect or…

Originally published in March 1972, traces the evolution of college student personnel services through the history of its professional groups. Acknowledges the continuing drive for coordination or consolidation of the diverse groupings that represent the many ways in which student personnel work is defined. (Contains 23 references.) (GCP)

This monograph provides an intensive examination of the student development movement in college student affairs. Chapter I examines student development as a reform movement within the field of student affairs in higher education. Chapter II challenges the assertion that student development as conceptualized in its seminal documents represents a…

College and university response to the sense of anomie experienced by students --especially those attending large, complex institutions-- has been to implement several plans for reducing the students' feelings of impersonality and estrangement. In one of these plans, based on the "ombudsman" concept, students register complaints to 1 individual,…

Some perspectives on the potential of undergraduates' formal and informal experiences outside of the classroom are detailed. The paper presents historical information beginning with the concern of inculcating good manners and habits of responsibility as learning objectives for the extracurriculum. It discusses the analogy of the extracurriculum…

For student affairs, a professional field heretofore dominated by the positivistic design structure imposed by quantitative research methodology and traditional graduate research courses, an increased utilization of an alternative methodology, the qualitative, would lead to a greatly expanded range of researchable questions. The use of qualitative…

In the area of college athletics, the chief concern of the student affairs professional is the relationships which ought to exist between institutions as represented by the division of student affairs and the student athlete. The athlete faces the same set of academic and social demands that the non-athlete faces in addition to the unique demands…

The notion that student personnel work was more than the administration of student services, that total full-rounded education and development was a legitimate concern of higher education, is not new but is a theme that has surfaced in publications of 30 or 40 years ago. What was purportedly new about the student development movement of the late…

Argues that while student personnel training for the chief student affairs officer may be desirable, it is unnecessary. Suggests that student development education is a field distinct from the administration of higher education. Training programs must reflect these differences. (Author/CMG)

The Student Learning Imperative (SLI) was created to stimulate discussion on how student affairs professionals can enhance student learning and personal development. This paper outlines the antecedents and background of the SLI position paper. A member of the committee that developed the SLI discusses here student affairs' historical goal of…

The student development movement may have represented a digression from the central educational mission of higher education. The Student Learning Imperative is the latest attempt to redirect student affairs into a realignment with student learning. This article offers practical suggestions for conceptualizing the content, methodology, and…