College student mental health is cause for concern and has declined further in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. As mental health issues rise, mental health services are underutilized or inaccessible, leaving struggling students in the absence of resources and help. Understanding the barriers to seeking mental health help and preferences in the…

Though 92% of California's community colleges are federally recognized Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs), Hispanic/Latinx students have disproportionately low success rates statewide. HSIs have been slow to center their Latinx students, opting instead for race-neutral policies and practices. Such approaches prevent educators from addressing the…

This article will examine the seismic impact that technology currently has and is likely to increasingly have on college mental health services, both direct and indirect. Numerous resources and suggestions are offered to assist college counseling center administrators and clinical staff make decisions aligned with best clinical, ethical,…

Although universities often expect student affairs staff to possess advanced leadership skills, many have not undergone formal training as leadership educators, which often leads to inconsistent outcomes in leadership development programs. Drawing on best practices in facilitating leadership learning --including the use of multiple pedagogies,…

University student support services are broad and varied. These services are generally located centrally on campus rather than in a specific academic area. Offering a decentralized, college-specific student support and retention model that partners with academic and student affairs allows for a more holistic, integrated approach to student support…

This dissertation investigates student experiences on a four-year public U.S. college campus, focusing on the impact of humanized support services in non-academic administrative offices. Chapter 1 introduces the study's purpose, while Chapter 2 reviews literature on customer service practices through the lenses of Experience Management, Service…

The principal purpose of this doctoral study was to investigate how intersectionality is understood and utilized by practitioners within the field of student affairs in North American higher education. Additionally, the study explored how intersectionality is applied to student affairs practitioners' student development and identity development…

In this article, authors explore how and why cisheteronormativity operates within scholarship on Black collegiate women and engage critical cultural theories to suggest how student affairs scholar-practitioners can be more intentionally inclusive in their conceptual, methodological, and programmatic choices.

Academic and student affairs are the two largest divisions in higher education institutions. While the benefits of academic and student affairs partnerships are evident, levels of disconnection due to professional and structural barriers still exist. One of the critical challenges faced by universities is the separation between academic and…

In this article, the authors explore how to support students with disabilities in the transition to higher education by using the metaphor of acquiring a signal to represent thriving. Drawing upon the authors' research on students with disabilities, they share stories of Taylor, David, and Ali as they transition into college life. They then use…

Today, close to 300 graduate-level higher education and student affairs (HESA) programs exist nationally, and the Council for the Advancement of Standards (CAS) recommends studying the historical context of higher education as part of the curriculum. The strong social justice emphasis within HESA programs offers a valuable hook for introducing the…

This paper asks "how can higher education and student affairs (HESA) faculty influence the development of HESA practitioners outside of the reproduction of the present?" First, I develop a theory of alter-competence, the practice of nonrepresentational thinking, through wonder. This theory is put to empirical work in a GPP classroom…

In a recent study conducted by the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), Pritchard and McChesney (2018) identified three key challenges to student affairs professionals: increasing student diversity, higher costs and reduced funding in higher education, and business-model pressures for efficiencies. The same report…

This qualitative study will investigate the unintended consequences of implementing structural change in a rural community college in the mid-South region of the United States. Specifically, this study will examine the unanticipated outcomes of merging student affairs and academic affairs into one division. Scant empirical evidence exists about…

This study aimed to address the state of data driven decision practices within the Division of Student Affairs at South County College. Framed by an exploratory qualitative case study, this project conducted semi-structured interviews of directors of student affairs and a document analysis of annual reports of the seven departments that constitute…