Academic-Student Affairs Collaboration and Integration in the Modern University
A Vision Statement
John L. Baier, Ph.D.
Professor of Higher Education
University of North Texas
Many books, articles and reports have been written during the past two decades about some of the failures of American higher education to adequately address a number of social and educational problems facing the nation and the communities that host our college campuses (i.e. Boyer [1987]--College: the Undergraduate Experience in America; Boyer [1990]--Campus Life: In Search of Community; Justiz & Bjork [1988]--Higher Education Research & Public Policy; and Kerr [1994]--Troubled Times for American Higher Education; Matthews [1997]--Bright College Years). Others have been written about how these institutional failures and societal changes might (or should) impact the administration and leadership of student affairs programs and organizations as we enter the third millennium AD.
Since the turn of the century many universities, both public and private, have been striving to bring about greater balance between research and teaching and the curricular and co-curricular aspects of the college experience to improve the quality of learning and student and community development. At the end of the 20th century three Carnegie Foundation reports called for: (a) an expanded definition of scholarship to include the scholarship of DISCOVERY(research), INTEGRATION (interdisciplinary activities), APPLICATION (solving social programs, service, consulting, and applied research), and TEACHING (the transmission of knowledge in a way that promotes learning); (b) an increased emphasis on our "global village" or INTERNATIONALISM; (c) increased participation of students and faculty in community service-- SERVICE LEARNING; (d) increased use of coordinated-studies programs and "learning communities" to provide opportunities for greater participation in campus programs and student-student and student-faculty interation; and (e) more effective linkages between the curriculum, co-curriculum, and the workplace--COLLABORATION and COOPERATION. Institutions willing to embrace and implement the recommendations contained in the Carnegie Foundation reports are fast becoming beacons for the growing educational reform movement in higher education.
Improving undergraduate education is not the only academic concern facing universities and StudentAffairs divisions, however. There is also considerable interest in graduate education, as evidenced by the rapidly rising number of students seeking admission to graduate school and the increase in the number of graduate programs being offered to meet student demand. With these increasing numbers of graduate students and programs has come greater diversity among the graduate student population, with many being "non-traditional" graduate students relative to historical graduate student profiles. For example, many of these "new" graduate students are minority, female, somewhat older re-entry students or somewhat younger first-time graduate students, part-time, foreign born, somewhat less academically prepared, etc. This means that they bring to their graduate programs and their universities a differing set of needs and expectations than has historically been the case.
Challenges & Opportunities Facing Student Affairs
All of these challenges are directly related to Student Affairs. Simply stated, student affairs educators must find innovative ways to increase and improve the overall quality of the educational experience (both academically and developmentally), increase the institution's ability to successfully manage its enrollments (both qualitatively and quantitatively), improve on the delivery of critical services that support the successful matriculation of both undergraduate and graduate students, and build communities that are conducive to learning and student development. Additionally, because there is limited funding available, all of this must be done more efficiently and effectively than has historically been the case.
More specifically, it is the time for competent and creative student affairs professionals to find the ways to improve linkages between co-curricular and curricular programs; increase service learning opportunities and community service involvement of students, faculty and staff; increase faculty participation in the development of policy and the administration of the student affairs division; increase minority student access, participation, retention, and graduation rates; improve student recruitment and retention programs and enrollment management capabilities; increase the diversity of the professional staff; increase the delivery of support services to a diverse and rapidly growing graduate student population; improve financial aid and scholarship programs (for both undergraduate and graduate students); improve campus alcohol, drug, sexual harassment, sexual victimization, AIDS and safety education programs; renovate (or build new) student housing, health, athletic, recreational, and co-curricular facilities; increase campus safety; and build real "learning communities" both on our campuses and among and for distance education students--wherever they may reside and study.
Student affairs professionals must also find ways to improve communications with students and their elected leadership; reduce problems which have historically plagued Greek systems (see Baier & Whipple, 1990); increase the availability of safe, affordable, properly managed housing; reduce incidents of sexual harassment (see Baier, 1990) and sexual victimization (see Baier, Rozensweig, & Whipple, 1991); improve campus civility; help students to improve the quality of their physical and mental well-being, and ensure that student rights, responsibilities, and due process are maintained, especially during this period of "political correctness" which is impacting every segment of our society and almost every utterance by students, faculty, and administrators on every college campus.
In summary, student affairs professionals need to improve the overall quality of student life, increase and improve the quality of student/faculty interaction, increase opportunities for applied learning and service, and increase the emphasis on those programs and activities which foster a sense of community and help build improved climates for learning.
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