Leadership skills and abilities are essential for student affairs administrators and educators. Through a narrative approach, this book addresses current issues in leadership and administration for student affairs from a variety of perspectives. Lessons, tips, and strategies for student affairs professionals at various levels are provided. Letters from new professionals in the field of student affairs are included, offering insights to graduate students on the challenges of leadership that occur when entering the profession. Additionally, these letters can be used in the classroom as case studies. The book is structured into three parts that include letters to graduate students from new professionals, mid-level managers, and senior/retired administrators. Part I focuses on making the transition from graduate student to new professional, navigating a new campus culture and environment, setting and maintaining boundaries, creating a work-life balance, the importance of campus and professional association involvement, and looking beyond traditional student affairs roles to serve students. These letters will be a valuable tool when evolving as a leader in student affairs. Part II explores the supervisory relationship, ethical dilemmas in higher education and leading colleagues, using challenge and support with students and colleagues, and preparing for the next steps for moving up from new professional to mid-manager. These letters contain the knowledge, skill, and insight to train graduate interns and supervisees new to the student affairs field. Part III studies the letters written to mid-level managers from senior/retired student affairs administrators. The importance of building relationships throughout the leadership journey, forming a professional identity, understanding the importance of budgets, the importance of leading with integrity, and the significance of strategic leadership is stressed. Reflection and Action exercises at the end of each chapter will enhance the knowledge, skills, and wisdom for the reader to map out the journey in becoming a competent leader in the field of student affairs. This book will be an excellent student affairs resource for entry-level, mid-level and senior-level professionals, and college administrators.

Student affairs and services play a critical role in student learning and success, as well as the level at which community colleges meet institutional outcomes. The evolution of student affairs as a field and recognition of its role in student experiences underscore its importance in the effort to provide quality education to college students. This volume provides a framework for excellence in student affairs work at community colleges, including assessing quality and outcomes for program development and accreditation. The authors explore: Excellence in preparing and developing professionals at multiple stages in their careers Creating and using professional standards and competencies Understanding the role of accreditation in professional practice. The issue also includes a discussion of implications for community college student affairs preparation and practice. This is the 166th volume of this Jossey-Bass quarterly report series. Essential to the professional libraries of presidents, vice presidents, deans, and other leaders in today's open-door institutions, New Directions for Community Colleges provides expert guidance in meeting the challenges of their distinctive and expanding educational mission.

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.

Styled as a complete update to the 1991 book "Administration and Leadership in Student Affairs", this work addresses issues of importance to student affairs professionals. Grounded in human development, learning, leadership, group dynamics, management theories, and social science research and evaluation methods, this book articulates the means for college student affairs administrators to function in the forefront of student learning and personal development initiatives. The book focuses on the three essential roles played by student affairs administrators: as educators who play a significant role in addressing the academic goals of their institutions, as leaders who help to shape the vision of their institution's student affairs practice and education mission, and as managers who are responsible for co-ordinating programs and services, supervising staff, and overseeing university facilities and budgets.

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.