This article describes the college choice process of graduate students in College Student Personnel programs at a public university and a private religiously affiliated university. Despite differences in size, mission, and location of the two institutions studied, the research findings show that respondent populations were similar demographically…

Fraternities and sororities promote the ideals of scholarship, leadership, service, and friendship. Little or no research, however, has demonstrated that college students who join fraternal organizations actually grow in these areas as a result of their fraternal experience. The purpose of this descriptive study was to assess the extent to which…

This empirical study utilized, qualitative methodology, appraising internal factors used by students regarding tattoo decision-making. Twenty-four students, in two qualitative research waves of data collection, provided in-depth interviews about their personal constructs regarding choosing to tattoo. Results showed evidence of intrinsic…

This article examines the psychological theoretical foundations of college student development theory and the theoretical assumptions of this framework. A complimentary, sociological perspective and the theoretical assumptions of this approach are offered. The potential limitations of the overuse of each perspective are considered. The conclusion…

An April 2011 "Dear Colleague" letter issued by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights provided new guidance related to Title IX and the civil rights violation inherent in sexual harassment cases. Using the "Dear Colleague" letter as a guide, this article will provide best practice suggestions to remedy gender discrimination…

While there has been growing research that explores the impact of race- and cultural-specific student organizations or spaces on Black students and particularly Black males (Dancy, 2011; Harper & Quaye, 2007; McClure, 2006; Museus, 2008; L. Patton, 2006), there have been fewer studies (Ellis, 2009) examining emerging, institutionalized Black male…

Student governance has existed as an integral part of higher education since the time of the first college in Colonial America. Through a detailed history of each phase of student self-governance--from the earliest literary societies to the present-day student government associations--the struggles of students in higher education to acquire and…

In 2002, Pearson and Bowman examined the issues and trends in the "College Student Affairs Journal" over its first 20 years, from 1979 to 1999. This manuscript expands that analysis to examine trends from 2000 to 2007, paying particular attention to changes that occurred as the journal transformed from a regional to a national journal and how the…

Today, the student affairs profession values the diversity of race, class, and gender in their educational mission. However, the profession's growing respect for pluralism demands a more inclusive history. This article is one academic measure toward creating a contextualized and nuanced history of the development of the field as it was impacted by…

This article examines the relationship between online social networking (OSN) and perceptions of academic and social integration for first-year residential students at a rural regional comprehensive university. Students spent an average of 2.5 hours on OSN websites per day, primarily interacting with campus peers, friends and family. There was…

This qualitative study employed focus group interviews to explore students' perceptions of three well established academically based living-learning communities at a large, land-grant university in the Midwest. Three themes merged that illustrated students' perceptions of a culture that promoted seamless learning, a scholarly environment, and an…

This article will introduce the Privileged Identity Exploration (PIE) Model. This model identifies eight (8) defense modes associated with behaviors individuals display when engaged in difficult dialogues about social justice issues. Implications for the model and ways it can be used to assist facilitators as they engage participants in…

This article reviews findings from a related study of 15 White racial justice allies, which highlighted the importance of re-articulating a sense of Whiteness. The author explores how the rearticulated sense of Whiteness demonstrated by these students may assist others to mitigate some of the defense mechanism discussed in the Watt (2007)…

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is an organization development (OD) philosophy that utilizes and builds on past successes, using these as positive momentum for future change. AI provides student affairs with an alternative and generative approach to improving their organizations' processes and culture. As student affairs professionals look to the future…

Student affairs practitioners are inundated with a variety of ethical considerations when making day-to-day decisions regarding the welfare of students and colleagues. There is every reason to believe that confronting ethical issues will be an increasingly difficult issue for student affairs professionals in the future. This article provides a…