Despite the growing literature on culturally based sororities and fraternities, little research has examined how practitioners on college campuses support these organizations. This constructivist narrative study addressed this gap by centering the stories of fifteen sorority and fraternity life professionals who advised culturally based sororities…

Student affairs professionals must strive to address the needs of an increasingly diverse student population. As such, this review critically examines scholarly research over the last 25 years regarding the concept of cultural competence as it pertains to students, student affairs professionals, and faculty members. This review also develops a…

The continued underrepresentation of student affairs Professionals of Color poses an ongoing challenge to fully realize the supposed values of social justice and inclusion in student affairs. Midlevel student affairs administrators provide a unique experiential lens to better understand organizational culture, critique structures, and challenge…

Operating from intersecting theories of validation, marginality, and mattering, this phenomenological study investigated undocumented student support services from the perspective of 49 Undocumented Student Resource Center (USRC) practitioners. In-depth interviews highlighted the ways that USRC practitioners served as validating agents, directly…

This study examines how first-generation (FG) college students make meaning of their social class during their first-year of college. As a method, photovoice allowed for the creation of a rich set of data using student photos and accompanying narratives, through which three key themes were derived: (a) broken American dream, (b) honoring family…

Approximately two-thirds of Latinx college students attend Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). Despite the growing number of HSIs, these institutions often fail to result in better educational outcomes and success for Latinx students. As such, more research is needed to explore factors that may hinder HSIs in their ability to support Latinx…

The purpose of this study is to examine Student Affairs Professionals' (SAPs') experiences with campus racial climate at predominantly white institutions (PWIs) including how SAPs make meaning of racialized incidents on campus. This study employed the multi-contextual model for diverse learning environments (MMDLE) and critical incident technique…

Latinx undergraduate student enrollment has dramatically increased over the past 20 years. However, this growing representation of Latinx students has not come with a parallel increase in the number of Latinx higher education administrators. This dearth in Latinx administrators is especially alarming because students who are able to build…

Drawing on interviews with 70 college peer socialization agents (PSAs) across 42 U.S.-based institutions of higher education, this study explores how PSAs create "underlives" (Goffman, 1961) in response to their roles and expectations for communicating institutional messages about diversity. Findings from this study illuminate the ways…

This Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN) builds on McCluskey-Titus and Cawthon's (2004) use of the "grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" metaphor to explore the experiences of a Black American woman faculty member transitioning from her role as a student affairs administrator to a full-time, tenure-earning faculty…

This study examines the perceived changes in the geography of student support for racial/ethnic minoritized students after pursuing federal Minority-Serving Institution (MSI) designation and grants. Specifically, this qualitative multiple-case study examines the decision-making related to, and perceived changes in, space and place aimed at…

Higher education practitioners are a wide-ranging group of professionals often responsible for implementing programs and services that support student success. In this qualitative study, we examine the nature of student-practitioner relationships among a multiracial sample of 39 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) college…

In this narrative inquiry study, we interviewed 5 graduate assistants who served as the primary point of contact for their public university's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) student services. We were interested in understanding the structural challenges that affected these employees' experiences in their roles. Participants were…

In a larger study about academic affairs and student affairs partnerships for diversity and inclusion aims, participants were characterized as social gadflies (LePeau, 2015). These participants effectively pushed the status quo in their respective campus environments by unearthing inequities and working collaboratively to infuse diversity and…

This study examined how lesbian and gay student affairs professionals negotiate their sexual identity within the institutional culture and professional responsibilities at small colleges and universities (SCUs). Nineteen individuals participated in semistructured interviews. Using the concept of theoretical bricolage (Kincheloe, 2005; Kincheloe,…