Student Affairs And The Higher Education Field

“It’s not a place for the fainthearted. Student politics at Alabama are as rigorous as the student athletics” (Brown). In 1914 Theta Nu Epsilon fraternity at the University of Alabama formed a secret organization known as “The Machine”. This organization was formed in order to ensure that the Greeks would have total control over the Student Government Association(SGA). Each year when elections roll around The Machine places their nominations for each government position. In years past at the University of Alabama this organization has done whatever it took to ensure their candidates were elected, even if that meant physical or emotion harm to the other candidates. The Machine must come to an end. In order to end an organization that is so ingrained

Student affairs is charged with finding the resources needed to better services, programs, student learning experience, and the teaching of technology to students (Jones, et all, 2011, p.539). In 1890 LeBarron Russell Brigs was appointed dean of men, the first dean appointed. Briggs’s duties as the first dean of men was dealing with student issues. As colleges developed into more than just a place for students to learn the dean of men’s role had changed, the role became focused on helping students to become more rounded in not only education but, help them to become better citizens, and to teach students to have a better social and moral foundation. There are several major roles of student affairs, helping in retention of students, learning

My personal philosophy is that the role of a Student Affairs Professional is to always help students when needed, refer students to additional resources as necessary and enable student learning when possible. One can accomplish these through a variety of activities/tasks and utilize different theories depending on one’s job, functional area and organization. In helping students, I seek to foster positive relationships, to take a holistic approach whenever possible and to support student learning. In order to accomplish these, I will implement different student development theories into my practice when working with students such as Chickering’s Theory of Identity Development and Perry’s Theory of Cognitive Development. I have found Perry’s

The history and construction of student affairs in higher education is multifaceted because of all the major changes that have taken place during the development of this profession. It started as a response to attend to issues of student conduct and has shifted into a variety of functional areas that focus on the support and development of their students. Student affairs professionals changed from acting in loco parentis to focusing on academics and extracurricular activities. It is the main purpose of student affairs professionals to understand how students develop in different function areas and help create opportunities to move them through their development. Student affairs help students find parts of their identity which then helps them

The retention of students in the IT and ELCT programs where under the required limit for retention. To improve these programs I had to implement a plan that would improve the overall success of the programs. The issue was with the first quarter classes, failure rates, instructors teaching style, and issues understanding the material (lessons and assignments) were identified as the key issues with retention. I developed a plan to improve the retention of the programs. Even though this is a team effort, I was the lead department manager in coming up with the overall implementations to improve the programs. The following were implemented to improve the departments:

The group is an online community where alumni can connect with one another and enjoy books on professional topics such as business, communication, leadership, and productivity. Student Affairs alumni engagement • The Division of Student Affairs began a quarterly electronic newsletter for alumni who have a connection with Student Affairs to reconnect them with programs, services, events, and initiatives of the division. • Student Affairs added to the number of alumni events hosted each year, specifically aimed at bringing together individuals who were highly engaged students while on campus. • Diverse students and alumni met in small groups to discuss how to effectively transition from college to career as diverse individuals at a Student and Alumni Diversity Meet-up event hosted by the Career Center.

Adaptability, “the ability to adjust oneself readily to different conditions,” is needed in order to be successful in student affairs (Merriam-Webster, 2015). As I begin my student affairs journey, I was looking for experiences outside of my comfort zone in order to grow as a professional. This reasoning led me to seek a summer experience outside of housing and student engagement. After searching the ACUHO-I’s database for internships, the position in facilities at Texas Tech proved to present an opportunity that would be a catalyst for me reaching my goal of becoming more adaptable.

Arnold and Kuh (1999) also expanded our knowledge on the functional area of academic affairs with examining the assumptions about “undergraduate learning and personal development that guide faculty, student affairs professionals, and students” (p.199). Mental models are a type of

It is obvious that due the declining education funding and drooping domestic student enrollment have forced many U.S. colleges and universities to adopt new revenue strategies and attracting international students seems a reasonable solution. This strategy aims to bring more revenue to the institutions as well a more diverse environment through a greater diversity of languages, cultures, and perspective in the classroom.

Several key decision makers are present in this case. The first of which is Susan Mayberry, VP of Student Affairs. Susan has been given the task of increasing the number of partnerships between faculty and the division of academic affairs. She has specifically been asked to find ways to improve the academic advising of students. This case study is written from the perspective of Susan. Leslie King, director of academic advising doesn 't know what to do and is frustrated about the current system and faculty involvement. John Clinton, Dean of Students, knows about the student survey and Leslie 's frustration because she reports to him. Sheila Jimenez, Director of Career Services, is also John Clinton’s subordinate. Sheila has proposed that Career Services join together or take over advising. Sheila has previous experience with this from her last school. John likes Sheila’s enthusiasm but is unsure about implementation. Christina Kowalski is an untenured faculty member who wants to do research around academic advising and how it relates to student retention and persistence. Leslie was unresponsive to Christina so now she is appealing to Susan to get approval so that she can write a grant proposal to obtain funding. John Anthony is the head of the Faculty Senate and wants to ensure that more work is not created for faculty and that faculty will have a voice in the advising discussion.

The cultures and functions of academic and student affairs are different enough that there is an accepted inclination for the two to remain separate. However, it is critical to design unique and engaging ways to encourage personnel in the two divisions to come together in the shared purpose of improving student learning. It is important to facilitate discussion between the two divisions. As Baxter and Baxter (2011) explain, “we need to organize our institutions in a way that engages mixed groups of people and forces us to venture outside traditional silos” (p. 70). Before academic and student affairs personnel can create meaningful collaborative programs and services, they need to engage in cross-divisional dialogue to discuss each other’s roles,

Institutions of higher learning compete amongst each other, enabling them to focus on subjects that do not pertain to education. The education system has become more of a business organization, making learning their second priority and further shifting their focus from the quality of education and students to the quantity of students and the popularity of their institution. The economy of the country has also had a big impact on shaping universities operating systems. American modern economy is based on knowledge, thus there is an increasing high demand for higher education. Higher education has become a market system, and universities have to change their traditional structure in order to become a valuable competitor; although education is in demand, the supply of quality in education is decreasing. Competition among traditional universities and the increase of for-profit schools have diminished the value of higher education.

It is important to note that the right to access higher education is a fundamental aspect embraced in a number of international human rights. Concerning the economic covenant of 1996 on the Social and Cultural Rights of the UN International; the declaration in article 13 states, higher learning deserves equal accessibility to all, in full capacity and means by introducing free education. There are important facts that work effectively with higher education. After completion of high school or secondary school, there are necessary entry requirements that validate an individuals' acceptance in any higher institution of learning. This means that minimal requirements as a measure exist to ensure quality in higher institutions of learning (Davidovitch, 2011).

The current search for excellence in higher education in Nigeria has concentrated primarily on institutional issues such as input resources, rapid expansion of higher education, managerial and allocative efficiency, programme relevance, and output mix in terms of students’ employability, research, and service. lndeed, overwhelming evidence suggests that there has been a dramatic decline in the quality of higher education and in die general performance of institutions of higher-learning in the last decade. Solutions being articulated include improvement in funding, management, revamping of die curriculum and retention of quality teaching staff. However, the broader issues of the social context of higher

Oyaziwo Aluede, Basil Jimoh, Beatrice O. Agwinede and Eunice O. Omoregie Department of Educational Foundations, Ambrose Alli University, P.M.B. 14, Ekpoma 310001, Ekpoma, Nigeria E-mail: oyaziwoaluede@yahoo.com