|
The Role of Student Affairs
Introduction
Learning and Personal Development
The Campus Environment
Providing and Interpreting Information about Students
The Importance of Standards and Guidlines
Conclusion
Student Affairs Units
Introduction
The Division of Student Affairs, with a diverse and complicated
set of responsibilities, contributes a special perspective about
students, their experiences, and their campus environments. The
mission encompasses the dual paradigms of student services and
student development. Student services address the programs and
activities that support the academic enterprise while student
development involves those interpersonal and affective strategies
through which students learn. Student services and student development,
when properly designed to correspond with the institution’s mission
and goals reinforce and extend the university’s influence beyond
the classroom. As a result, student’s experiences and opportunities
become an integral part of the educational process. The quality
of the university experience for students is significantly affected
by the availability, variety, and integrity of services and development
activities provided by Student Affairs.
The Academic Mission of CSUF is, of course, preeminent. We know
that colleges and universities organize their primary activities
around the academic experience: the curriculum, the library, the
classroom, the studio and the laboratory. The work of Student
Affairs should not compete with and cannot substitute for that
academic experience. As a partner in the educational enterprise,
Student Affairs enhances and supports institutional productivity
in learning. Therefore, what and how much students learn must
also be the criteria by which the value of student affairs is
judged (as contrasted with numbers of programs offered or clients
served). The student affairs division’s mission complements the
University’s mission, with the enhancement of student learning
and personal development being the primary goal.
Top
Learning and Personal Development
The American College Personnel Association, in the document "The
Student Learning Imperative," says that "The concepts of learning
and personal development are inextricably intertwined and inseparable.
Higher education traditionally has organized its activities into
academic affairs (learning, curriculum, classrooms, cognitive
development) and student affairs (co-curriculum, student activities,
residential life, affective or personal development). However,
this dichotomy has little relevance to post-college life, where
the quality of one’s job performance, family life, and community
activities are all highly dependent on cognitive and affective
skills. Indeed, it is difficult to classify many important adult
skills, (e.g., leadership, creativity, citizenship, ethical behavior,
self-understanding, teaching, mentoring) as either cognitive or
affective."
We must function in ways that recognize that students benefit
from many and varied experiences during their years at the university
and that learning and personal development are cumulative, mutually
shaping processes that occur over an extended period of time in
many different settings. The better the balance between curriculum
and co-curriculum, the more students gain. Student Affairs must
work to make "seamless" the inside and outside class activities
of students. These activities are often perceived by students
to be disjointed, unconnected experiences; student affairs professionals
should address these perceptions by bridging organizational boundaries
and forging collaborative partnerships with faculty and others
to enhance student learning.
Top
The Campus Environment
The campus environment is extremely important because it is rarely
neutral. It will add or detract from a student’s university experience.
Interaction between students and their environment shapes attitudes,
readiness to learn and the quality of the university experience.
Student Affairs must work to help create an environment in which
personal integrity, cross-cultural understanding, and human sensitivity
flourish. Student government, recreational, cultural and social
affairs, and other supplements to the formal instructional program
should be integral parts of, and contribute directly to, the effectiveness
of the total educational program. Concerted administrative efforts
to promote positive faculty-student relationships can contribute
immeasurably to the enhancement of the quality of campus life.
Further, we must understand that students are individuals. No
two come to the university with the same expectations, abilities,
life experiences, or motives. Therefore, students will not approach
the university with equal skill and sophistication, nor will they
make equally good choices. This is particularly true at a large
public university.
Since diverse student constituencies have differing needs, some
students may require special support. Student services should
be broad enough to meet the special needs of students, including
part-time and older students, international and non-traditional
students, students with disabilities and first generation college
students. Given this diversity, faculty and staff must be responsive
to the spectrum of ability, preparation, and the special needs
of the student population.
For example, within the diverse student population at CSUF there
are students with varying counseling needs. Students require counseling
in a variety of areas, including personal concerns, academic choices,
and career planning. Student Affairs has the major responsibility
for making counseling available to all students. The aim should
be to provide counseling, advocacy, intervention, and referral
services so that students can resolve problems that might otherwise
interfere with the achievement of their educational objectives.
Top
Providing and Interpreting Information about Students
Another major role for Student Affairs is the responsibility to
provide and interpret information about students. In order to
assess its objectives, and to develop and modify institutional
policies, service, and practices, an institution must have knowledge
and understanding of contemporary and emerging student populations.
This information goes beyond demographics. It should include
student beliefs, attitudes, values, interests, skills, cultural
awareness, and other aspects of psychological and social development.
Knowledge about student characteristics should influence and inform
the learning process, the campus climate, the programs offered,
and the services provided.
Student affairs professionals should know how students spend
their time and whether students are using the institution’s resources
to educational advantage.
Student Affairs shares responsibility for initiating conversations--with
students and other institutional agents--about how students could
make more effective use of their time and institutional resources.
We should monitor whether institutional policies and practices
enhance or detract from learning and personal development. Moreover,
we should integrate data about student performance from faculty
and others with our own observations of students’ experiences
and disseminate this information to stakeholders.
Top
The Importance of Standards and Guidelines
We must have standards and guidelines for the Division of Student
Affairs in general and our respective units in particular. This
will assist in not only designing and sharpening our mission but
also help us to advance our goals and objectives. Standards and
guidelines provide focus, direction, and a greatly needed new
perspective to student affairs practices. Together they provide
a guiding vision of substance and stable criteria against which
to measure our services, programs, and activities. They can also
provide a blueprint for program establishment and enhancement
as we seek to determine ways to respond to the needs of our students
in the future. Standards and guidelines can be helpful in reducing
the credibility gap between Student Affairs and other constituencies
by educating the campus community to the value of student services
and student development programs in advancing the mission of the
University.
We have chosen to use the Council on the Advancement of Standards
in Higher Education (CAS), Book of Professional Standards for
Higher Education, as the vehicle to do a self-assessment and evaluation
of the units in the Division of Student Affairs. As an added benefit,
this activity can be a positive development experience for the
staff involved in the assessment of their area of responsibility,
as well as for those beyond their purview. In using the CAS standards,
we have an excellent tool to create, expand, explain, evaluate
and defend the important student services and student development
programs we provide.
Top
Conclusion
To ensure the preeminence of learning at CSUF, we must focus on
more than classroom teaching and learning. For faculty to simply
teach more or to teach better is not enough. A true university
education encompasses much more than what is learned in the classroom,
laboratory and library. We must create conditions throughout campus
and throughout divisions that motivate and inspire students to
pursue educationally purposeful activities, both in and outside
the classroom. Student Affairs must help ensure that CSUF student
learning and student development are seen as inseparable. We must
help foster a positive and supportive campus environment for all
students. We must become the major source for information about
students. Finally, we must continually review and evaluate our
effectiveness in meeting our goals and objectives.
As a partner in the educational enterprise, the Division of Student
Affairs must contribute effectively to the comprehensive education
of students by providing a diverse and complex set of programs
and activities that enhance and support the mission of CSUF.
Robert L. Palmer, Ph.D.
Vice President for
Student Affairs
Top
Student Affairs Units
- Dean of Students Office
- International Education and Exchange
- Associated Students, Inc.
- Women’s Center and Adult Re-entry
- Titan Student Union
- Student Academic Services
- Career Planning and Placement
- Financial Aid
- Housing and Residence Life
- Student Health and Counseling Center
- Disabled Student Services
- Student Research Center
- Assistant Deans for Student Affairs (one in each academic
school)
Top
|
