The phrase "best practice" is used often in student affairs, but the term lacks a common and accepted definition. This results in the implementation of programs and services that are neither grounded nor assessed. A model is proposed here that suggests a best practice process that integrates foundational student affairs documents and applies the…

Walter Dill Scott (1869-1955), tenth president of Northwestern University and pioneer of industrial psychology, is an essential architect of student personnel work. This study of his accomplishments, drawing on records from the Northwestern University archives, tells a story about the people he influenced and his involvement in codifying what was…

Scholarly inquiry into identity development is a foundation of the student affairs field; typically, such scholarship examines domains of student development as discrete entities. This paper explains the process an autoethnographic research group employed to explore how multiple identities have been shaped during coresearchers' lifetimes. Findings…

Since the 1950s, the critical incident technique (CIT) has aided researchers in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of qualitative data. In the student affairs literature only a very small number of CIT studies exist. Using the two most recent publications as examples, this article provides a detailed overview of the CIT, highlights its…

In this article, we synthesize existing theory-to-practice approaches within the student affairs literature to arrive at a new model that incorporates formal and informal theory, institutional context, and reflective practice. The new model arrives at a balance between the rigor necessary for scholarly theory development and the adaptability…

This paper interrogates the concept of opportunity. Opportunity programs provide access to educational services and assist students to overcome barriers. However, the language governing them constricts and controls both the programs and staff-student relationships. A Foucauldian analysis of the regulations governing a federally funded program…

Racially themed parties are all-too-common occurrences on college campuses. Using critical race theory as a lens, this article provides a contemporary overview of these events and deconstructs these incidents as examples of overt forms of racism often emanating from subtle, everyday occurrences of covert racism or racial microaggressions.…

Despite the significant attention that drugs and alcohol receive on college campuses, few resources and supports are available to students who are recovering from an addiction. Student affairs professionals are uniquely positioned to support these students with a variety of strategies. This article summarizes what is currently known about college…

Student affairs stands at a pivotal point in time and within its own history. By increasingly encouraging interdisciplinary learning across the curriculum, our profession is well positioned to help students understand the multiple purposes of higher education, including both the practical and the transcendent. Addressing these twin purposes is the…

In 2005 there were 1,825 alcohol-related unintentional injury deaths (e.g., vehicular accidents, falls, drowning, burns, suffocation, and gunshot wounds) among college students from 18 to 24 years of age. Of these, 468 college students died from alcohol-related, nontraffic injuries. Unfortunately, there is no good estimate of the number of college…

Burns B. Crookston was a man ahead of his times. He left a legacy to the student affairs profession that inspired the practice of student development education. His writings described a role for higher education in training students to become active citizens by learning about leadership, decision making, and conflict resolution in democratic…

The popularity of hip-hop among young Black college women, coupled with the deluge of negative and positive messages in this culture regarding these women's identity, signals an opportunity for the arrival of a contemporary, culturally relevant epistemology--hip-hop feminism. Through the lens of Black feminist theory, this article explores hip-hop…

With its focus on building human strengths, scholarship from the field of positive psychology can be an asset in actualizing student affairs' human development and learning goals. This article synthesizes findings from positive psychology, illustrating specific ways in which practitioners can benefit from this emerging area of scholarship. The…