Why is student affairs important

NASPA is a member-centered association supporting a diverse and passionate network of 15, professionals and 1, institutions across the globe. Whether you are looking for a transformational in-person experience, or wanting to learn and engage from where you are, NASPA has the perfect professional development for you. As higher education continues to evolve, NASPA serves a leading role in the innovations that are shaping the future of student affairs.

Student affairs is a critical component of the higher education experience. The work done by student affairs professionals helps students begin a lifetime journey of growth and self-exploration. Opportunities for teaching and development exist everywhere on campus, and it is the responsibility of student affairs professionals to seize these moments and promote positive interactions.

Encouraging an understanding of and respect for diversity, believing in the worth of individuals, and supporting students in their development are just some of the core concepts of the student affairs profession. NASPA understands the importance of student affairs work and provides opportunities for our members to continue to expand their knowledge and skills. To understand the field of student affairs and the role of the profession in promoting student learning and development, it is important to examine the historical roots of the field - once known as student personnel administration and now referred to as student affairs - and reflect on the mutual influence exercised between institutions of higher education and the broader society.

In the first 12 hours, we received over 3, responses, and with reminders, we heard from more than 6, -- or almost half of all of our undergraduates. Administrators in various departments have reached out to students experiencing technological challenges, those concerned with issues in their specific classes, those needing financial assistance and those who have self-reported mental health difficulties.

We also have learned that student respondents also prefer communication in the form of a weekly email from the president. Coaching programs are one of the fastest-growing student support initiatives of the past decade, and multiple research studies show the effectiveness of such programs.

One reason they are thriving is that they are student centered versus university centered: you can direct each student to various specialized departments to help them with their distinct needs and guide them to the best resources.

Virtual meetings with students might include conversations about academic behaviors, financial matters, social integration, personal struggles, career guidance, self-care or setting priorities,. Baylor is rolling out a Bear Care Coaching program this week, having spent countless hours the previous two weeks planning for it.

Several hundred university staff have volunteered to serve as coaches and have watched several short videos made by existing staff about how to coach, how to log comments in a database and how to connect students to other campus resources. The coaches are now contacting the students in our survey who evaluated themselves as struggling or who expressed a desire for someone to reach out to them.

The current online educational delivery model at most colleges and universities is centered on course delivery. But students will still want to communicate with each other outside of class time. Most learning management systems allow for noncredit groups to use the course platform, and many colleges and universities have purchased web-conferencing software like WebEx or Zoom that can work within their LMS to allow students to communicate with each other.

Many students use group text messaging for this, but the LMS functionality, with staff guidance, may strengthen the connections among students not included in group text chats.

Another option: some universities have purchased student organization platforms, like CollegiateLink and OrgSync , that allow students to communicate with one another.

At Baylor, the student affairs staff creates a Facebook group for each entering class before they arrive on the campus. Unprompted, students interact and engage with each other, asking who is going to live where on the campus, who is taking what classes and so on. Often, students who meet each other on these Facebook groups have even decided they wanted to room together in the fall. You could create a similar-type social media group for current students geographically separated by COVID campus closures, allowing them to talk to and support each other.

The staff overseeing the group would only interject if a question came up that no students could answer. As a former residence hall director, I always found it fascinating to see how, at 5 p. What message did that send to the students about faculty and staff's willingness to help? In the COVID era, physical campus-based institutions need to take every possible step to engage, encourage and equip students for success.

If student affairs staff work from home and potentially have some daytime interruptions like children, pets and household work, they might also consider an expectation that to best serve students they might need to be available and willing to help later in the evening and on weekends.

For a student juggling a job and a family, however, Sunday evening can be a prime time to do schoolwork. I am not saying people must work outside traditional work hours, nor am I saying that there should not be a balance between work and a personal life. Not everyone, every day, has to work nontraditional hours. But colleges that do provide availability and outreach outside traditional work hours are most likely to be successful in serving students effectively and staying competitive in a rapidly changing educational environment.

Many universities already know what groups of students will be less likely to stay in college and graduate. At many traditional campuses, where to year-old white students make up the majority of students, these groups might include first-generation students, underrepresented minorities, older students who are parents and many others. Unfortunately, the structural and cultural bias towards more traditional students at many higher education institutions can make it difficult for many underrepresented students to succeed.

Student affairs and academic support staff could identify and reach out to students who fall in one or more of the groups that are particularly less likely to remain and graduate. The challenge with this approach is that it can be seen as stereotyping a group of people without knowing them individually. But I would argue that the university is reaching out to students whose success we want to make a priority. By using some open-ended questions like those in the previous survey, we might open the door to further dialogue.

SM: There are three primary misconceptions that often negatively affect the perception of senior student affairs officers in the higher education space. First, there is a perception that student affairs officers first and foremost are student advocates.

Second, people tend to think student affairs officers are only responsible for the fun stuff: big-name concerts; residence halls with first-rate amenities; fitness centers with state-of-the-art equipment. Traditional academics, with PhDs in academic disciplines, are often skeptical about the more practitioner-oriented EdD, or the fact that one can actually get a degree in higher education administration.

However, graduate programs at Penn, Harvard, and UCLA—as well as hundreds of others—suggest that the leadership and management of colleges and universities is a recognized field of study. Programs and services to support students through graduation are increasing on all campuses; research on persistence to graduation is essential for colleges to fully understand their enrollment challenges. Student affairs officers are often leaders of campus efforts to increase retention and understand and remedy challenges to persistence.

Student affairs officers often are responsible for major ancillary revenue sources like housing and dining; some have significant fundraising operations within their programs as well. A comprehensive and engaging outside-of-classroom experience is now a core expectation and the SSAO must be experienced with strategies and practices to create that experience for an increasingly demanding client to impact the financial health of the institution.

SM: Student Affairs played a leadership role in the academy in thinking through how issues like advising and counseling—traditionally taking place in a one-on-one, in-person transaction—could be effectively handled via an online model for students who are rarely present on the campus. Many very comprehensive services and programs for veterans now spring from student affairs divisions.