Running head: A PHILOSOPHY OF STUDENT AFFAIR

A Philosophy of Student Affairs

Krysta Coleman
Western Michigan University

A PHILOSOPHY OF STUDENT AFFAIRS

A Philosophy of Student Affairs

As a young student affairs professional, my goal is to give my own students the same great
experiences that I had the privilege to embark upon as an undergraduate student. However, it
was not until I began the Educational Leadership program that I really stopped to reflect on what
that meant. Initially, my instinct was to tell students about the incredible programming that I was
a part of, all of the impactful projects I participated in, and all of the amazing, long-lasting
friendships I have built. The longer I thought, the more I realized that those experiences were
much more than what they appeared to be on the surface. Through engaging in programming
and meeting new people I grew to understand how I identified myself, and developed a sense of
self-authorship that had been missing for most of my life. Now, at the end of this program, I
have redefined my philosophy as a professional, probably not for the last time. As a young
student affairs professional, my student affairs philosophy is to provide a challenge and
support environment that promotes self-authorship and identity realization by engaging students
in programming and experiential learning that will prepare them for their next steps in academia
and beyond.
Student involvement as a precursor to success
Involvement in college is a great way for students to make a connection to campus and to
begin to meet new people as they embark on writing their next chapter. However, involvement
can do much more for a student than increasing social aptitude. Astins (1999) Theory of
Student Engagement defines involvement as the quantity and quality of the physical and
psychological energy that students invest in the college experience (p. 628). He goes on to state
that this involvement must take place inside and outside the classroom, and must involve a high
quality experience; quantity alone is not enough. As student affairs staff, we can help students to
find quality opportunities for involvement that are strongly correlated to their own interests and

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their areas of study. As someone who identified student leader as being her one and only hobby
during her undergraduate career, I can now appreciate the things that my involvement outside of
the classroom helped me to achieve inside the classroom, as well as outside of the university.
After switching my major to business, I found that my involvement translated well to the
management skills I was learning in the classroom. I was then able to practice those taught skills
within my student organizations and was more readily able to discuss them during class
discussions.
Likewise, I have seen the same results with the student leaders that I have worked with here
on Westerns campus. In my role as a graduate assistant and interim assistant director in the
Student Activities & Leadership Programs (SALP) office at Western Michigan University
(WMU), I worked with others in our office to collect data on students GPAs and graduation
rates. The data that we collected demonstrated that involved students have higher GPAs and are
more likely to graduate than their non-involved peers. Through their involvement, our student
leaders engage in leadership roles, critical thinking scenarios, and creative problem solving that
help them to develop transferrable skills that will benefit them throughout college and beyond.
These statistics and stories of student leader successes epitomize the benefits of our work to the
institution. By increasing student retention by providing opportunities for involvement that
promotes persistence, and by providing students with opportunities to develop skills that are
often found in job descriptions, we can ensure that we are providing the university with
consistent quality programming that will produce successful, well-balanced graduates.
The hidden benefits of a college education
Before starting my own graduate program, I believed that I had a fairly strong grasp on the
benefits of higher education: getting a good job, networking, gaining transferrable skills, etc.
However, as Pascarella (2005) suggests, college students gain numerous skills during their time

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at a university that their non-student peers do not ever, or take longer to, develop. Students
develop these skills, including the development of morality and psychosocial skills and values,
through a variety of experiences including involvement with student organizations and in class
projects. Being challenged to solve problems in a group setting develops students critical
thinking, teamwork, communication and conflict management skills.
The development of these skills also helps students to gain a better understanding of their
identity, and serves as the foundation for their self-authorship process. Baxter Magolda defined
self-authorship as the internal capacity to define ones beliefs, identity, and social relations (as
cited in Evans, Forney, Guido, Patton, and Renn, 2010, p. 183). Self-authorship takes place
when students realize that they are able to write their own story based on their own beliefs and
growing understanding of their intersecting identities, while still taking into consideration the
people who are closest to them. Developing self-authorship comes with many challenges,
including changing relationships, questioning identity, and determining a sense of purpose, to
name a few. Many students must fail, or at least stumble, in order to truly develop their voice in
each of these areas. Universities provide a safe place for students to make those mistakes,
which, while frustrating in the moment, ultimately become the most successful learning moments
throughout a students college career.
As such, I have been intentional about providing the same environment for the students that I
work with. Through working on design projects for clients, and dealing with other students and
departments in a customer service setting, they have an incredible amount of autonomy in their
positions. This autonomy puts a tremendous amount of responsibility on them, as well as on me.
As their supervisor, I have found that the best way for my students to learn is for me to provide a
supportive, yet challenging environment, and to later reflect on their experiences and decisions,
both good and bad. When it comes time to assigning projects, I have found that it is incredibly

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important for me to explain to them the context or the why behind the project. Providing
context and fostering a challenge and support environment has helped many of them to develop
their self-authorship skills, especially as they approach graduation. I see them beginning to
understand their own ability to take control of their lives and my discussions with them have
become less about what others expect of them, and more about what they want to pursue during
their college journey and after graduation.
In response to our students needs, and the development challenges they face, student affairs
professionals must develop a set of skills that can help students to navigate the college journey.
Being committed to student success and development is one of the most important values that a
student affairs professional should embody. Without this dedication to helping and advising, our
efforts may fall short of truly being effective, despite the other positive experiences that are
taking place. This commitment to student development is one of several competencies listed by
ACPA and NASPA that student affairs professionals should work to attain through their everyday
interactions with students. I have noticed that this is vital as I work with students in beginning
their involvement with student organizations, as well as in supervising my own student
employees. While some of my approaches to development with these groups are the same, I
often find that they differ substantially based on the relationships that I have built with each of
those students. Being able to individually consider each student and their developmental needs
is a challenging, but necessary piece of this development process.
Beyond developing competence in the areas that ACPA and NASPA have defined as being
most important to our field, student affairs professionals must encompass a variety of other
values through their work with students. Chickering and Gamson (1987) highlight the
importance of cooperation amongst students in Seven Good Principles for Undergraduate
Education. Learning is enhanced when it is more like a team effort than a solo raceWorking

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with others often increases involvement in learning (Chickering & Gamson, 1987, p. 4). We
can create this cooperative environment through promoting involvement in student organizations
and various leadership roles across campus. By developing their own leadership style through
engagement outside the classroom, students develop valuable transferrable skills that will benefit
them in the classroom setting during group projects, as well as in their careers post-graduation.
The importance of student development dedication
To truly enhance and provide a co-curricular experience for our students, providing
opportunities for leadership development outside of the classroom is not enough. Student affairs
professionals must also set and communicate high expectations for learning. Expectations
should address the wide range of student behaviors associated with academic achievement,
intellectual and psychosocial development, and individual and community responsibility
(Bliming & Whitt, 2002, p. 3). Specifically, we can address these issues by communicating high
expectations for students, and then evaluate that success through assessment procedures. As
mentioned previously, the SALP office has assessed several programs that indicate student
success through student involvement. For example, in my role as an interim assistant director in
SALP, I advise the Campus Activities Board (CAB) and give their executive board members an
incredible amount of responsibility in booking acts and leading other students in planning
successful events. This level of responsibility comes with a high expectation for student
development. Last year, the executive board was tested on the National Student Leader
Competencies Assessment, and as a group, improved most in the areas of context, empathy, and
role-modeling. The teams development of these skills demonstrates that by holding students to
a higher standard we can help them to develop transferrable skillsets.

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Conclusion
Providing support for students is important, but allowing them to fail in a safe environment is
perhaps an even more important piece of the learning process for those that work in institutions
of higher education. Often, we learn more about ourselves in scenarios in which we fail, more
than we learn about ourselves when we succeed. Reflections on these experiences are where
learning moments happen, where we develop our self-authorship, and come to understand our
identities. My experiences as an undergraduate student leader helped me to develop the
foundation for my own self-authorship and understanding of my own identities. As a graduate
student and young professional, I have deepened my understanding and sense of self. It is a
journey that I am excited to continue, alongside my students, for the rest of my career.

A PHILOSOPHY OF STUDENT AFFAIRS

References
American College Personnel Association (ACPA) & National Association of Student
Personnel Administrators (NASPA). (2012). ACPA/NASPA professional competency
areas: For student affairs practitioners. Washington, DC: American College Personnel
Association.
Astin, A. W. (1999). Student involvement: A developmental theory for higher education.
Journal of College Student Development, 40(5), 518-529.
Bliming, G.S., & Whitt, E.J. (2002). Principles of good practice for student affairs. About
Campus, 3(2).
Chickering, A.W., & Gamson, Z.F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in
undergraduate education. The Wingspread Journal, 9(2).
Evans, N. J., Forney, D. S., Guido, F. M., Patton, L. D., & Renn, K. A. (2010). Student development
in college: Theory, research, and practice (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Pascarella, E. & Terenzini, P. (2005) How college affects students (Vol. 2): A third decade of
research. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass/Wiley.