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.…

Nontraditional college students are causing institutions of higher learning to re-think the focus of academic and student affairs programs. Nontraditional students have needs that differ from traditional-age students. The willingness of institutions to modify existing programs and develop new services geared to adult populations will have a…

Provides citations and abstracts of documents from the ERIC junior colleges collection dealing with services such as career advisement, articulation with four-year colleges, personal development, admissions, course enrollment assistance, student assessment, course advisement, services for the handicapped, financial aid, veterans' assistance, and…

This digest focuses on the strengths and weaknesses of the student affairs profession in higher education. The strengths of student affairs include diversity and involvement. Student affairs staff are trained in many different disciplines and are located throughout the campus. The diversity of student affairs professionals is seen as the thread…

This set of digests includes 35 two-page articles in the areas of counseling programs and practices; theory and research; and professional development. Fourteen articles are presented in the area of programs and practices. These range from the efficacy of school-based drug education programs to learning styles counseling. Six articles are…

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…

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…

This information analysis presents descriptions of some of the major current issues in student services at various types of institutions of higher education. Issues are categorized as institution-based, student-oriented, and profession-based. Institution-based issues examined include excellence and access, enrollment management, academic support…

Internationalization of higher education and of the student services areas within universities is almost certainly a subject to be dealt with now or in the near future. Career centers may be pressed to internationalize sooner than other areas because of student demand. The university career center should respond to this demand and seek to assist…

This collection of articles examines the history of student development practices, reviews key issues that have emerged in the field, and proposes paths of action for the future. The volume includes: (1) "Student Development Philosophy: A Perspective on the Past and Future," by Terry O'Banion, which reviews the history of student development; (2)…

With the rapidly changing population demographics of the United States and significant growth of diverse multicultural groups, schools and professionals are being challenged on how to provide the best comprehensive educational and support services to their increasingly diverse student population. The changes between 1980 and 1990 have been…

Perspectives on the profession of guidance and counseling during the 1970's are discussed and reviewed. Major topics focus on licensure, government relations, counselor renewal, collective bargaining and counselor competence. Also included is a survey of the 1980's, focusing on testing programs and their potential future, emerging sex roles, and…

This digest urges greater collaboration between academic departments and student affairs personnel at institutions of higher education for the purpose of providing students with a seamless culture of learning. Reports of the American College Personnel Association, the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, and the American…

Student development has become a buzz word within the student affairs profession and the concept of student development has become the guiding paradigm of the student affairs profession. Unfortunately, this embracing of student development lacked the necessary critique or debate essential to academics. This digest provides an abstract of a major…

This continuing ERIC/CAPS series, entitled Searchlight Plus, consists of two components: first, an in-depth review of cited materials, including prime issues and trends, and implications for helping professionals; and second, citations from an ERIC computer search on the topic. Series topics are selected in response to user requests. Presented in…