Over the past decade, the preparation of student affairs professionals has evolved. Historically, curricular professional preparation existed solely at the graduate level. Today, there is a growing trend around designing and offering undergraduate student affairs coursework (UGSAC) packaged as stand-alone electives, minors, certificates, or…

This exploratory embedded case study examined the personal and professional social media use of entry-level student affairs professionals at four campuses from a state university system. Bounded by the profession of student affairs, this study focused on how entry-level student affairs professionals used social media platforms. Findings suggest…

The COVID-19 crisis presented unique challenges for senior student affairs officers (SSAOs). Through interviews with a diverse group of 23 SSAOs, this study investigated SSAOs perceptions of this crisis as different from other crises. SSAOs identified several characteristics that made this crisis unique: no playbook to use as a guide, the…

In this article, we discuss the role of scholarly practice in activism and advocacy for student affairs professionals. We provide an overview and history of scholarly practice in student affairs, highlight the challenges and barriers to scholarly practice, and provide a needed connection between scholarly practice and activism in student affairs.…

The CAS Standards are commonly used in undergraduate-facing student affairs practice but rarely discussed in legal education. This study explores law student affairs professionals' awareness and use of the CAS Standards, finding a significant divergence from the rest of the field and suggesting that (in the current era of increased scrutiny) law…

This study explores how students' professional learning is distributed across and mediated by multiple learning environments during student affairs graduate preparation. Utilizing activity system analysis and qualitative case study, the study reports on the experiences of four second-year Master's students at a Midwest preparation program.…

Student Affairs Professionals of Color (SAPC) serve a critical role in the field of higher education. Using a phenomenological approach, this study gathered data from semi-structured interviews with eight SAPC from various backgrounds and institutions. Findings from this study illuminated how the participating SAPC experienced code-switching,…

Scholars and practitioners have discussed the professionalization of student affairs almost since the birth of the field in 19th century. Professionalizing a field can improve its status and better serve members of an occupation and their clients (Pavalko, 1988). The purpose of this paper is to identify points of tension that illustrate efforts to…

This qualitative narrative inquiry examined the professional preparation of sorority and fraternity (SFL) professionals working with culturally-based sororities and fraternities. Using narratives drawn from 15 professionals and guided by our conceptual framework, we unpacked important findings in terms of ways participants referenced their limited…

In this manuscript, we use Reason and Kimball's (2012) Theory to Practice Model to illustrate our experience building a Center dedicated to addressing dating and sexual violence among college students. We provide details of the context in which we work, highlight the processes we engaged in to recruit a broad swath of campus community members to…

Student affairs practitioner-scholarship has the potential to transform higher education and improve the lives of students; however, it is rarely cultivated on college campuses. Instead, many practitioner-scholars struggle with systemic barriers to their success, much of which can be linked to the influence of neoliberalism in higher education. In…

Vice Presidents of Student Affairs (VPSAs) lead in a context nuanced around race that conflicts with their duty to enact the student affairs profession's espoused values of social justice and inclusion. This paper summarizes findings from a critical qualitative case study conducted with 10 VPSAs from a diverse group of institutions located in the…

The COVID-19 pandemic placed an immense amount of stress on student affairs professionals, who were exposed to numerous potentially traumatic events as a result of changing workplace environments, health and safety risks, and their emotional support of students. This study explored the impact of supervisor emotional maturity on supervisee trauma…

A national survey of 350 student conduct administrators set out to determine the ways in which the changing nature of their profession affected their personal lives, professional work, and beliefs about the profession of college discipline. The Concerns About Litigation Survey for Student Conduct Professionals revealed significant differences in…

Student affairs (SA) professionals have advanced from being generalists to specialists. Protivnak, Paylo, and Mercer (2013) discussed the perceived value of counselor preparation by functional area. We pose that counseling skills are used by student affairs professionals across a variety of functional areas. In the current mixed-method study, 60…