ing a roommate conflict or leading a workshop on social justice. In a sense, the Degree Profile represents an invitation to
student affairs—an invitation to step forward and remind the
institution of the value that student affairs work adds to student learning, aside from the support provided for success. It
is the hope of the Lumina Foundation that the Degree Profile,
while prompting a discussion about the meaning and content
of degrees, also provides the context for acknowledging the
value of the whole student experience and the significance of
what student affairs brings to that experience.
Responding to Changes in Degree Aspirations
Implicit in all of these discussions is that the purpose of going
to college has changed, whether we are ready to acknowledge
it or not. While students once were educated and trained
for a field where they might ply their skills and knowledge
over decades, the evolving economy and job market suggest
that new graduates will pursue several careers during their
lifetimes. Completing a degree should not only represent the
accumulation of a particular set of skills, but also a readiness
to return for more study to move into a new field in 10 or 20
years. As a result, conversations with students about life goals,
career aspirations, and academic studies must take new angles.
As one of my former student affairs colleagues is fond of saying, students are only committing to a particular discipline for
the next couple of years—the amount of time it takes for them
to complete their credential or degree. Once they finish, they
may move into something entirely different as they enter the
workforce or seek additional credentials.
In response to this shift, student affairs professionals must
probe the aspirations of students a bit more deeply than they
have in the past, reminding students of this changing reality
and the importance of the diversity of their studies. When
students ask, ‘Why must I take this class?’ the answer should
be a conversation about the skills and abilities required in
our culture and workforce, perhaps grounded in the Degree
Profile. Students must be reminded that higher education
should prepare them for all types of challenges and transitions,
not just the ones they will encounter immediately after completing their degrees. Students will return at some point, ready
to take up new academic challenges to improve their standing
at work, on the social ladder, or in competition for positions
in new fields. The point for students is not “see you again
soon.” Rather, they must be ready and qualified to return and
continue their education should their circumstances change.
SSAOs have been doing the good work of helping students
succeed and increasing degree attainment long before Goal
2025 became part of the national conversation. Keep doing
what you have been doing. However, as the college-going
population evolves, as retraining becomes more crucial to
supporting 21st-century students, as academics and student
support continue to forge useful partnerships, and as student
learning becomes the new definition of quality in higher education, student affairs must join the effort to graduate more
students with high-quality credentials. We have much to learn
from the profession, and students need student affairs support
to get where they, and the nation, want to go. LE
Grants Focus on Student Affairs
Role in Reaching Goals
Through two Lumina Foundation grants, NASPA is furthering the role of student affairs in reaching Lumina’s Goal 2025 and President Obama’s goal for 2020. NASPA is working to produce a reliable survey
instrument to measure how institutions spend funds
for student services. Research conducted by Douglas A.
Webber and Ronald G. Ehrenberg found an increase in student service expenditures had the strongest influence on
the persistence of low-income and academically marginal
students. NASPA is working to produce a reliable survey
instrument that will measure how institutions expend
funds for student services, as well as describe how institutions report their student services financial data on the
Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS)
Finance Survey, currently the only nationally available data
on institutional expenditures.
NASPA is also partnering with the West Virginia Higher
Education Policy Commission and the West Virginia
Community and Technical College System to help faculty
and staff better meet the needs of adult learners. Under the
direction of NASPA, an in-state training infrastructure is
being developed as a central component of West Virginia's
DegreeNow program. Built on NASPA's highly successful
Student Services Institute model, the training is designed
to strengthen faculty and staff’s ability to work with adult
learners with some college experience to return to higher
education and successfully earn degrees or credentials.
A cadre of faculty and staff are trained to, in turn, train
their colleagues across the state with a particular emphasis
on adult-focused student services. As a result, faculty and
staff gain an understanding of the connection between
what happens in every area of student services, as well as
how the relationship between student services and classroom learning promotes student success. The first “
train-the-trainer” sessions were conducted by independent
consultant Maggie Culp and NASPA Executive Director
Gwendolyn Jordan Dungy in June.
