Sustaining change in higher education administrative student services.

Here, finally, is a publication completely dedicated to strategic planning in student affairs. This volume applies business and nonprofit techniques to higher education, bringing the topic of strategic thinking, planning, and acting to the daily work of the profession. Editor Shannon Ellis, vice president of student services in the College of Education at the University of Nevado, Reno, and contributing authors take the student services practitioner through the process of preplanning, implementation and assessment. They explore the role that student services strategic planning plays in budget work, academic relations and crisis management. With case studies from Tulane University and University of Nevada, Reno and in-depth advice from the field, this volume provides student affairs professionals with the guidance needed to launch collaborative, flexible and effective student services strategic planning in their own institutions. This is the 132nd volume of the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series New Directions for Student Services. An indispensable resource for vice presidents of student affairs, deans of students, student counselors, and other student services professionals, New Directions for Student Services offers guidelines and programs for aiding students in their total development: emotional, social, physical, and intellectual.

Change is inevitable. Managing change is a choice. Authored by three esteemed leaders in the field of student affairs, Making Change Happen in Student Affairs: Challenges and Strategies for Professionals is a thought-provoking and pragmatic guide to the increasingly complex challenges and expectations that administrators face from both students and the public. Whether it's pressure to provide better programs and services with fewer resources, or difficulties grappling with economic challenges and technological change, the book teaches how to become an effective leader and skillful strategist in order to respond to a rapidly changing landscape. Readers will learn to change their thinking about how they approach challenges by reframing their purpose, role, and function as leaders. Each chapter includes specific concepts and tools that can be used to tackle the most complex campus issues and develop effective plans of action. You'll learn how to: Manage financial resources and supervise staff effectively Advocate for specific students while still recognizing diversity and maintaining service to all Adapt to institutional culture, ethics, values, and changes in leadership Use technology as a tool to affect change on campus By applying shared foundations, ethical principles, a rich knowledge base, and experience, student affairs professionals can develop powerful strategies to confront and resolve vexing problems. With extensive examples and case studies that cover a wide array of issues, this book is an essential read for those looking to make a real difference in the lives of their students and the health of their institutions.

At a time of increasing student diversity, concern about security, demand for greater accountability, and of economic difficulty, what does the future hold for higher education, and how can student affairs organizations adapt to the increasing and changing demands? How can university leaders position existing resources to effectively address these and other emerging challenges with a sense of opportunity rather than dread? How can organizations be redesigned to sustain change while achieving excellence?As student affairs organizations have grown and become increasingly complex in order to meet new demands, they have often emphasized the expansion of their missions to the detriment of focusing on understanding their roles in relationship to other units, to reviewing their cultures and structures, and to considering how they can improve their effectiveness as organizations. This book provides the tools for organizational analysis and sustainability.Intended for practitioners, graduate students, interns and student affairs leaders, this book presents the key ideas and concepts from business-oriented organizational behavior and change theories, and demonstrates how they can be useful in, and be applied to, student affairs practice – and, in particular, how readers can use these theories to sustain change and enhance their organization’s ability to adapt to complex emerging challenges. At the same time it holds to values and perspectives that support the human dimension of organizational life.Recognizing the complexity of today’s organizations and the value of viewing them from multiple perspectives, this book follows the emerging practice of providing three general epistemological perspectives – the Positivist, Social Constructionist, and Postmodernist – for analyzing often paradoxical organizational structures, environments, and behavior.The book explores the environmental context of student affairs, and how the organization interacts with both the internal and external environments; examines the human dimension of organizations, through a review of individual attributes, human need and motivation, social comparison theory and organizational learning theory; presents the dimensions of structure and design theory and discusses why student affairs organizations need to think differently about how they organize their resources; considers the context and process of organizational change, and the dynamics of decision making, power, conflict and communication; addresses the role of assessment and evaluation; and new forms of leadership.Each chapter opens with a case study, and closes with a set of reflective questions.The authors have all served as practitioners within student affairs and now teach and advise graduate students and future leaders in the field.

What issues and trends affect higher education and student affairs today? In this fully updated handbook, leading experts discuss the answer to this and other essential questions. They provide a definitive reference for student affairs professionals at all levels of administration and management. The handbook offers specific, practical advice as well as broad approaches to planning and problem solving. It contains modernized discussions on such critical topics as institutional mission, institutional governance, understanding campus environments, finance and budgeting, assessment, program planning, staff selection, training and evaluation, and much more.

Student affairs organizations are at a crossroads. They face expanding enrollments; a concomitant increase need for often more complex services; changing demographics; a growing cohort of non-traditional and first-generation students; shifting and more demanding responsibilities; and increased expectations from the greater campus community, parents, and external constituents. These challenges are intensified by the accelerating speed of advancements in technology, globalization, innovation, and student consumerism; and by the long-term reality of shrinking resources, and limitations on the ability to increase tuition and fees. This book shares alternative ideas about organizational design, and about ways to restructure roles and responsibilities to enable student affairs organizations to respond to these challenges and demands more effectively at a time of reduced resources. It also addresses the many emerging roles that student affairs organizations are increasingly being expected to address – such as IT, fund raising and development, external communications, human resources management and professional development, as well as research and assessment – and describes approaches developed by a variety of institutions. The contributors also pay attention to the solutions appropriate for smaller institutions, and for community colleges. They explore the various dimensions of change and offer frameworks to help student affairs leaders and practitioners to more effectively understand and manage the changes they are confronting; and describe ideas and solutions adopted by others within the profession.

The multiple crises of 2020–21 have presented both challenges and opportunities for change in four-year residential colleges and universities. Evidence indicates that the historic structure of administrative and student services is increasingly mismatched to the needs of a diverse and stressed student body born in a digital age. Inspired by his leadership in a university-wide initiative that focused on how students' interactions with both academic and professional staff affect their success and well-being, Scott A. Bass presents fresh insights on the inner workings of traditional nonprofit four-year degree residential institutions. The book describes the influences of history, tradition, and internal and external pressures on the American university, highlighting its evolution to its staid and fragmented structure; it distills voices of students, faculty, and staff; and it explores how successful organizations outside of higher education deliver services, with potential applicability for the academy's ability to meet students where they are.