Colleges and universities are places where students are immersed in course work and planned activities outside the classroom, where habits based on values and character can be formed. Whether working with students to achieve learning outcomes specifically related to academic courses or helping them work through the consequences of a conduct issue,…

Social class is a powerful and often unrecognized influence on student participation in the extracurriculum. Spontaneous student-created extracurricular experiences depend on students affiliating and interacting with each other; student social class is a powerful influence on student affiliations. Students tend to exercise consciousness of kind-…

Research suggests that students are becoming increasingly interested in exploring their meaning and purpose (HERI, 2005). How college students understand these terms and how they are prompted to reflect on such existential questions, however, deserves further attention. In this article, the authors share narratives from a qualitative inquiry with…

The author explores some of the more elusive aims of civic engagement and the tension from the role of self in context of community. Thoughtful reclamation of the role for self can be a catalyst for different "aha" moments in terms of self-authorship, multicultural understanding, and sustainable and effective change agency. This commentary seeks…

As universities look for more effective ways to address violations of behavioral standards, a proposed solution is to infuse intentional development into well-established conduct processes inherently focused on legal mandates and due process. The E.P.I.C. Journey Sanctioning Model was designed to refocus the outcomes of the conduct process to…

A growing number of universities have implemented community-based research pedagogy into their undergraduate education. Integrating academic training with community engagement has the potential to engage students in a way volunteering may not. This interview with Trisha Thorme, an anthropologist and assistant director of Princeton University's…

Student poverty is an issue with which far too many students are confronted. Student affairs professionals must increase their awareness of this human dynamic and develop programs, services, and personal knowledge to support students faced with this challenge.

From 1983-2011, the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter (HSHS) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was the only student-run homeless shelter in the United States. However, college students at Villanova, Temple, Drexel, the University of Pennsylvania, and Swarthmore drew upon the HSHS model to open their own student-run homeless shelter in Philadelphia,…

In order to build local capacity in an international higher education setting, the Qatar Study Tour and Young Professionals Institute (QST and YPI) was created as an inquiry-based learning experience shared among diverse participants and designed to enhance learning at both the local and international levels. The intent of the QST and YPI model…

This critical essay reviews Small's (2011) book reporting research on the spiritual identities and discursive practices of college students in intrafaith and interfaith dialogue. Small's recommendations and research methods are instructive and helpful to both scholars and practitioners in higher education and student affairs. This research opens…

This article explores a student's expectations and the lived realities of a two-week service learning trip to Honduras. Originally, her expectations were critical and cynical. But through a series of journal entries she made during the program, she shows how her expectations were transformed by the actual experience and how she achieved her own…

This article examines what colleges and universities are doing, and failing to do, to prepare students for careers and lives that encourage the ethical consumption of resources that benefit individuals, society, and the environment. Are colleges and universities promoting the knowledge, skills, behaviors, and values that contribute to a benevolent…

Social entrepreneurs work to find concrete solutions to large-scale problems that are scalable and sustainable. In this article, the authors explore what the framework of social entrepreneurship might offer those seeking to positively engage religious diversity on college campuses, and highlight two programs that offer examples of what such…

American democracy is in disarray. While many colleges and universities have responded to the democracy crisis, their efforts are falling short. This article reviews the current situation of civic education in higher education, explores its promise and current shortcomings, and provides a radical proposal for deepening civic education and…

Faith-affiliated colleges and universities confront a special challenge in assessing students' development relative to dispositional learning goals. Since 2007, three New England Catholic colleges have collaborated to evaluate students' religious, spiritual, moral and ethical growth. A four-part mixed-method study resulted in qualitative as well…