The Strategic Guide to Shaping Your Student Affairs Career

Sonja Ardoin

• Publisher: Stylus Publishing
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781579229603
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Higher Education

This is a book for any student affairs professional who wants to strategically shape his or her career path—and will be particularly helpful for people in early or mid-career, or contemplating a career, in student affairs.By engagingly offering us the fruits of the reflective and strategic approach she has used to shape her own career, and of the theoretical and practical approaches she has undertaken to map out the culture and dynamics of student affairs, and by gathering the voices of 25 professionals who offer the insights and advice derived from their own experiences, Sonja Ardoin has created a guide for everyone in student affairs who wants to be intentional in setting the course for their professional and personal development.She begins by describing the changing and varied student populations who are the heart of this field, and outlines the typical organizational structures of student affairs, the range of functional areas, and how practice varies by size and type of institution. She highlights major trends, discusses the typical paths of entry to the profession, the expectations and realities of starting in a new position, the process of socialization, and the required skills and competencies. She devotes the core of the book to the five key elements for developing a career strategy: Lifelong Learning, Extending Your Experiences, Planning for Professional Development, Networking/Connecting, and Self-Reflection, and provides advice on the job search, from application through interview. In doing so she ranges over choices to be made about formal qualifications, and describes activities – from volunteering and committee work to conference presentations, writing and teaching – that we can use to strategically develop the proficiencies to attain our goals.

1
INTRODUCTION TO THE FIELD

Higher education, and particularly student affairs, is not typically a career field a person dreams of pursuing during childhood. It would probably be shocking to hear a child exclaim, “I want to be a residence director . . . or dean of students . . . or vice president for student affairs when I grow up!” Children probably cannot conceive of this option, unless their parents have held similar roles. In fact, many people do not realize the field exists until they are actually on a college campus as an undergraduate student. Even then, undergraduate students may not recognize the options of higher education careers unless they are involved with campus student affairs functions or an administrator or faculty member directs them to explore the field.

The majority of student affairs educators have similar stories about how they found their way into the field. The story goes something like this: “I was a student involved on campus [in residence halls, in fraternity or sorority life, in student government, on a programming board, in multicultural affairs, on a conduct board, in campus recreation, etc.] and [insert person’s name] told me one day that I could continue that kind of work as an actual career after college. I had never thought of that and decided to see what it was all about.”

Because the typical path into the field is through undergraduate involvement and conversations with, or mentoring from, current student affairs educators, it is crucial that we understand who the students on our campuses are and how we can encourage a diverse array of people to give consideration to the field of higher education and student affairs.

Student Demographics on Today’s College Campuses

Higher education has come a long way from its roots as an all-male, all-White, wealthy, and religiously affiliated endeavor. In fact, student bodies on many of today’s campuses rarely reflect the history of higher education. This is, in part, due to the changing demographics in U.S. high schools. As both a Chronicle of Higher Education blog post and a Lawlor Group report mentioned in June 2013, “High-school populations are becoming more diverse, and more and more prospective [college] applicants are low-income and first-generation students” (Hoover, 2013, p. 1; Lawlor Group, 2013). College students are representing a wider variety of races and ethnicities, including biracial and multiracial students, and higher education admissions officers are now encouraging institutions to create recruitment and admissions publications and web content in Spanish and other languages (Hoover, 2013). Along with considering students’ race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and whether they are first generation, colleges and universities are hosting more students with a variety of sexual orientations, religious affiliations, ages, mental and physical ability levels, military statuses, and partner and caretaker roles.

Despite the increasing diversity of students enrolling in colleges and universities, higher education is not necessarily seeing the same representation in its graduates. Rather, higher education tends to repeat history in who achieves degree completion. The American Council on Education (ACE) published a report in May 2013 that revealed “individuals who earned their baccalaureate degrees in 2007–2008 were not nearly as racially diverse as the overall undergraduate student body. They were largely unmarried, childless, white young adults in their early 20s who were financially dependent on their parents and who seamlessly moved along the path toward degree attainment” (ACE Report, 2013, p. 1). The statistic ACE reports further demonstrate this disparity: “Whites represented three out of every four students completing a bachelor’s degree. Students tended to be young (an average age of 18.7 at the time of college entry) and to have graduated within five years, with Asian Americans and whites more likely to be the traditional age than other minority groups. Most graduates also came from upper or middle-class family backgrounds, and 58 percent were women” (2013, p. 2). The only change from higher education’s history, it seems, is that more females are both accessing and completing college degrees than males.

Although today’s college student populations may be more diverse in both visible and invisible ways, it is concerning that graduates from institutions are not representing that diversity. Furthermore, if we must possess a bachelor’s degree and, in many cases, a master’s degree in order to seek a career as a student affairs educator, the field will never be as representative of the students we work with if we cannot graduate more diverse students.

Have our colleges and universities really become more holistically accessible and inclusive, or are institutions allowing new populations of students to access higher education without providing them with the necessary resources and support to retain and persist to graduation? This question begs another: Can the role of student affairs on campus fill the gap between enrollment and graduation for today’s new college students?

The Role of Student Affairs on Campus

Student affairs fundamentally concentrates on the growth and development of students outside of the classroom environment. We know that student affairs educators also partake in curriculum creation and implementation for some credit-bearing courses, serve on committees to develop university policy and procedure, act as central figures in university risk and crisis management, and supply a host of other contributions. The purpose of student affairs is to work collaboratively with academic affairs to create a seamless learning environment for students that allows them to explore their career options and gain intellectual and life skills in order to contribute to their current and future communities and society at large. Many college and university mission statements refer to “developing the whole student,” and the role of student affairs is central to that type of mission.

The role of student affairs has been altered and shifted throughout the history of higher education. Fenske (1989) aptly described the evolution of the field: “[Student affairs] has never had a single functional focus, has never been stable in its role over significant periods of time, and has never had a consensual integrative philosophy” (p. 27). The role of student affairs varies from campus to campus. A functional area that may fall under student affairs tutelage at one institution is slated as an academic affairs responsibility at another institution. Variations tend to depend on how institutions are structured and what areas are coupled together.

Student Affairs by Institutional Type

Colleges and universities are designated by institutional type based on characteristics including but not limited to size, funding, degrees offered, institutional missions, and student demographics. Descriptions in size include large (over 10,000), midsize (3,000–9,999), small (1,000–2,999), and very small (under 1,000). Most institutions have a mixture of funding; however, they are separated into the two categories of public and private by their primary method of funding or their historical method of funding, which is why some state institutions are now called “state supported” rather than “state funded.” Degree offerings provide another institutional type category, splitting schools into associate colleges, baccalaureate colleges, master’s colleges and universities, doctorate-granting universities, special-focus institutions (law schools, medical schools, Bible colleges, etc.), and tribal colleges. The student populations that dominate colleges and universities further separate institutions into types, which include predominantly White institutions (PWIs); historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs); Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs); Asian American, Native American, and Pacific Islander–serving institutions (AANAPISIs); men’s colleges; and women’s colleges.

As you can imagine, there are quite a number of possible combinations for institutional type designations. You can have a large, public, doctoral-granting PWI; a small, private, baccalaureate HSI; or a midsize, public, master’s HBCU. The list could go on and on. The good news for student affairs educators is that all of these various institutional types need people to help facilitate their student affairs divisions.

Although the role of student affairs is relatively similar at all colleges and universities, there are some differences in how student affairs functions at each institutional type. Larger universities will typically have larger divisions of student affairs that need student affairs educators to be more specific in their roles, serving in only one major functional area. Smaller colleges will, similarly, have smaller divisions of student affairs that require student affairs educators to be more general in their skill sets and willing to serve in multiple functional areas or at least be open to frequent collaboration—in every sense of the word. In addition, HBCUs, HSIs, AANAPISIs, men’s colleges, and women’s colleges often seek student affairs educators who either share identities with or have an understanding of the student populations most often served by those institutions.

Institutional type may influence whether you are interested in working at certain colleges and universities or whether you are qualified to do so. It is key to recognize that institutional type can have an impact on career path. Experiences at large institutions tend to shape you as more of a specialist, whereas smaller institutions can provide you with more generalist skill sets. As you progress through graduate programs and the beginning of your career, it is important to consider whether you desire to gain experiences at a variety of institutional types. Try to utilize internships, practica, or volunteering to gain hands-on encounters at different kinds of colleges and universities to better determine what type of institution(s) best suits you and to broaden your skill sets and résumé. It may also be helpful to review books such as Where You Work Matters by Joan Hirt (2006); these books discuss at length how institutional type combines with student affairs to create unique experiences for student affairs educators and can help you understand how student affairs functions at these institutions without your having to physically visit each type.

Student Affairs Structures

Although the specifics of student affairs structures vary based on institutional type and individual institution, the two primary frameworks for student affairs structures either have student affairs as a stand-alone division or join student affairs with academic affairs as one division.

Student Affairs as Its Own Division

Around the United States, a host of institutions choose to combine their student affairs areas into their own division, often titled Division of Student Affairs or Division of Student Life. The units that compose the division vary and may or may not include other areas such as enrollment management. Examples of a single student affairs structure can be seen from Colorado State University, Florida A&M University, Florida International University, and Miami University of Ohio (see Figures 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4).

Student Affairs Combined With Academic Affairs

Since the economic downturn in the United States, colleges and universities have been receiving fewer financial contributions from state governments, private donors, and/or institutional endowments. This financial situation has encouraged many institutions to critically examine their structures. Some institutions have decided that coupling student affairs with academic affairs may ease the financial strain at the institution and encourage further collaboration between student affairs and academic affairs functions. Thus, they have created Divisions of Academic and Student Affairs. Examples of a combined structure can be seen from North Carolina State University, Portland Community College, Tulane University, and the University of New Mexico (see Figures 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, and 1.8).

Regardless of overall division structure, student affairs tends to house certain functional units within colleges and universities. The next section will briefly discuss each of these functional units.

Functional Areas

Student affairs is an umbrella term for a variety of functional units within higher education institutions. These units tend to assist students with learning and growth opportunities outside of the classroom environment. Divisions of student affairs characteristically encompass many of the following units: academic advising, accountability and advocacy, admissions, alumni affairs, assessment and professional development, campus ministries, career services, development and fund-raising, fraternity and sorority life, health and wellness or campus recreation, human resources, information technology, leade...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• CONTENTS
• FOREWORD
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• 1. INTRODUCTION TO THE FIELD
• 2. NEW PROFESSIONALS THROUGH THE MAGNIFYING MIRROR
• 3. CREATING A STUDENT AFFAIRS CAREER STRATEGY
• 4. LIFELONG LEARNING
• 5. THE JOB HUNT AND EXTENDING YOUR EXPERIENCES
• 6. PLANNING FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
• 7. NETWORKING OR CONNECTING
• 8. SELF-REFLECTION
• APPENDIX A: INITIAL SELF-REFLECTION QUESTIONS
• APPENDIX B: JOB INTERVIEW QUESTION EXAMPLES
• APPENDIX C: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
• REFERENCES
• READING SUGGESTIONS FOR NEW AND MID-LEVEL STUDENT AFFAIRS EDUCATORS FROM YOUR PEERS
• AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS
• INDEX