College Administrators

The hugely popular New York Times “Your Money” columnist and author of the bestselling The Opposite of Spoiled offers a deeply reported and emotionally honest approach to the biggest financial decision families will ever make: what to pay for college. Sending a teenager to a flagship...

Tone Setters in the Academy is your guide to transforming challenges into opportunities. Discover the power of becoming a "tone setter"—someone who shapes their environment with positivity and wisdom. This book offers practical strategies, known as "tone setter mindsets," to help you cultivate your unique tone, manage energy, and build resilience. Whether you're early in your career or contemplating a pivot, you'll find actionable insights to elevate your experience and effectiveness.

Small and Mighty: Student Affairs at Small Colleges and Universities explores critical opportunities and challenges at higher education institutions with fewer than 5,000 students. Written by a diverse group of seasoned campus leaders, this comprehensive text covers a range of topics relevant to higher education and student affairs while providing detailed insights and actions to take for, in support of, and alongside students at small colleges and universities. Thriving in the small college culture requires flexibility, collaboration, and the ability to shift rapidly within the changing ...

Community colleges educate nearly half of all undergraduates in the United States, yet they remain largely absent from the national conversation on leadership development. Employers consistently report that new hires lack the “soft skills” required to thrive—communication, teamwork, adaptability, and initiative. These are not luxuries; they are the leadership competencies that determine whether graduates advance in their careers. The Pragmatic Student Leader argues that community colleges are uniquely positioned to close this leadership gap. Drawing on original research, years of ...

What do students learn in college? How effective are higher education institutions in producing intended student learning outcomes? How do student affairs and other cocurricular programs contribute to student learning and success? How does the impact of college learning activities vary among student populations? Beyond the College Transcript explores innovative practices for assessing and documenting student learning to help higher education leaders answer these questions. This timely publication examines the current state of student learning data, with chapters that discuss methods for ...

A leading educational thinker argues that the American university is stuck in the past -- and shows how we can revolutionize it for our era of constant change Our current system of higher education dates to the period from 1865 to 1925. It was in those decades that the nation's new universities...

In the last two decades, growing numbers of colleges and universities have started to focus specifically on fundraising for student affairs, raising money for everything from facilities to scholarships to student food banks to support for students from diverse backgrounds. Student affairs professionals of all levels must have a strong understanding of fundraising in order to be good campus partners, avoid fundraising missteps and, most importantly, help the divi­sion of student affairs garner donations that will impact student success. Student Affairs Fundraising: Raising Funds to Raise ...

A culture of evidence is a commitment among student affairs professionals to demonstrate with hard data that the programs they offer, the processes they implement, and the services they provide are effective and contribute significantly to an institution’s ability to achieve its goals and fulfill its mission. Building a Culture of Evidence in Student Affairs: A Guide for Leaders and Practitioners is an interactive tutorial that illustrates how to collect, analyze, and evaluate data; how to build, nurture, and use cultures of evidence; and how to demonstrate the value of student affairs by...

When college students are in a mental health crisis, they often turn to a peer or a trusted faculty or staff member first. As the number of students struggling with mental health issues continues to rise, higher education professionals are called upon to do even more. Basic Counseling Skills for Higher Education Professionals equips college and university leaders with the basic knowledge and skills to address and respond to students with mental health concerns. The authors provide foundational information on the signs and symptoms of the most common mental health issues educators are likely...

Equity-Driven, High Achievement Assessment of Student Learning and Development provides a framework and accompanying questions to consider as you refine your outcomes-based assessment process into one that is equity driven. Equity driven infers that leaders have evidence to inform choices so all students can experience high achievement in their learning and development outcomes. The invitation is for leaders to critique institutional performance indicators, analysis, and decision-making processes that inform the selection of those performance indicators, and align resources accordingly to ...

Free speech and expression constitutes a cornerstone of higher education and the student experience. Issues of speech and expression, however, can result in tension and conflict on college and university campuses and beyond. A new era of student activism and protest—as well as concerns over controversial speakers—has only added to the challenges that higher education professionals face when navigating free speech matters on campus. The Contested Campus combines consideration of contemporary legal issues and standards with the exercise of professional expertise and experience. Written ...

Teachers are the heroes we too often forget to thank. And we need heroes more than ever. From across the country, from kindergarten to high school, from public, private, religious, or military schools, teachers tell us: What it takes to teach kids day in and day out What it takes to improve...

Creativity and Innovation Have Become Mandatory in Higher Education No matter a college or university’s size, student body, affiliation, or type, every campus is facing increasingly complex challenges: enrollment shortfalls, budget deficits, and faculty and staff who are asked to do so much more with less. Stakeholder demands for increased accountability, shifting student demographics, and governmental policy changes are reshaping the higher education landscape. Leaders across the academy must be willing to adapt to undertake these challenges head-on. Disruptive Transformation draws on ...

This book is a primer on the fundamental business-related aspects of student affairs that all practitioners need to know. Drawing on his 46-year career in higher education, the author presents critical skill sets to better equip student affairs practitioners-educators to analyze circumstances, alter environments, invest in structures and programs, and lead campus progress. Topics include financing and budgeting; organizational design; human resources; facilities management; technology; auxiliary operations; legal issues and risk management; crisis management; strategic planning; and ...

Engagement and Employability examines the central role student affairs plays in helping students gain and articulate career skills through cocurricular experiences. It focuses on the top skills employers seek when hiring recent college graduates. This comprehensive publication provides a discussion and numerous examples of how to identify, measure, and assess employability skills as an outcome of cocurricular experiences. Organized in two sections, the book charts a course for student affairs colleagues to support students in making the transition from campus to career marketplace. The ...

Supervised practice has become a hallmark of how the field of higher education and student affairs prepares future professionals. This book explores how to create the conditions necessary for supervised practice and the graduate academic curriculum to be a seamless learning experience. With a focus on the ACPA and NASPA professional competency areas as the bedrock for enhancing proficiency in the field, this book is designed to introduce the competency areas, as they relate to supervised practice, in graduate preparation programs. Chapters examine how to design experiences for students in ...

Crisis, Compassion, and Resiliency in Student Affairs focuses on the personal lived experiences of student affairs professionals who frequently encounter crisis situations and disasters on college and university campuses. The book explores how to apply triage practices—doing what matters most in the moment during a crisis event—to support the holistic well-being of students and staff through both institutional crises as well as daily critical incidents. This edited volume features wide-ranging perspectives from seasoned student affairs leaders who have encountered unthinkable tragedies ...

The world of higher education is changing, yet too many colleges and universities act as if it isn’t. Demands for higher education reform are affecting colleges and universities and impacting divisions of student affairs. A series of macro forces have aligned to challenge higher education and create a compelling need for change: increased demand for institutional accountability, changing student demographics, the rapidly evolving world of work, advances in technology, and new pressures on students to find meaning and purpose. In these turbulent times, chief student affairs officers are ...

Ensuring access and a sense of belonging for students with disabilities in higher education can be a complex process. Each student with a disability can have their own unique physical or mental health requirements, and every institution has its own unique organizational structure, culture, faculty, staff, and students. Crucial Collaborations: A Practical Framework to Ensure Access, Equity, and Inclusion for Students With Disabilities presents a cross-functional framework that administrators, faculty, access services providers, parents/guardians, and students themselves can use to review the...