STUDENT AFFAIRS ROLE IN INVOLVEMENT 1

Student Affairs Role in Involvement On College Campuses

Katie Cochran
University of Memphis Spring 2015
College Environments
Dr. Donna Menke

*Authors Note: CERTIFICATE OF AUTHORSHIP: I certify that I am the author. I have cited
all sources from which I used data, ideas, or words, either quoted directly or paraphrased. I also
certify that this paper was prepared by me specifically for this course.
Signature: Kathryn Renee Cochran

Date: May, 2015.

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The time spent while in college is spent in the classroom, studying, learning time
management, and most of the time this is the time that most students attempt to find themselves
and what they want to do in life. In order to ensure that a college campus has a healthy
environment for the students and will become a place full of involvement, and involvement
leading to retention at the university, the student affairs professionals job is to assist them in this
journey by motivating the student to participate, help them to become involved in all aspects of
the campus community, and ensure that the students maintain consistent involvement. When the
student affairs workers successfully complete all three of these things, student involvement and
retention occur on college campuses.
With the turnover rate of a university being every four to six years, its vital that with
each new student that enters a university setting, student affairs offices create environments that
lead to equal amounts of involvement opportunities. With these involvement opportunities comes
higher retention rates, higher rates of attendance to events, and higher levels of interest in the
institutions goals. How do student affairs workers ensure that all students, incoming or returning,
maintain a high level of involvement that leads to retention and timely graduation rates?
In order to effectively study the causes of involvement and retention, it is vital to first
understand a students reason for leaving an institution. Research shows that academic failures are
only 20 to 30% of reasons for students departing their institution without a degree. Instead, 7080% of the students dropping out of their respective institutions offer reasons that range from
levels of adjustment, changes of goals, lack of commitment, finances, lack of integration and
membership into the community, incongruence and isolation (Tinto, 1987). Pascarella and
Terezini stated in their research that the more intensely students are engaged and involved in
their education, the more likely they are to do well, be satisfied with their education, and stay in

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school (Pascarella & Terezini, 1991). What this research is proving to be key is that when a
students morale is low, or when they dont feel a sense of attachment to their institution, they will
fail to see beyond their current situation and will resort to what seems as the easiest option:
dropping out and leaving it behind. In 2013, research performed by the department of education
called the drop out rate a national crisis. The research, combined from all universities statistics
throughout the country, showed that nearly half of the students entering college, 46%, fail to
graduate within six years (Burke, 2013). Not only are they not graduating in a timely manner,
most of these students are failing to return once leaving.
Research shows that men and women drop out for the same reasons, but that men will
drop out due to the debt that college incurs before a woman will use that as an excuse (Dwyer,
Hodson & McLoud, 2013). This research shows that student affairs offices must implement in
the students minds a sense of belonging and encouragement that goes beyond all boundaries that
college may create. Allow the students to understand that, debt or no debt, this is a pivotal point
in their life and that the workers in the student affairs portion of the university will be there to
guide them through it. What this does is give the students a sense of reason for the trials and
tribulations that college will present, but also allow them an opportunity to understand that there
are workers of the university that will do nothing other than prepare them for the future while
ensuring that their time in the university is a success.
As research continues to show reasons for dropping out being due to key factors that lead
to involvement, the question of how much of an impact student affairs professionals has on
students careers begins to arise. After all, if the 70-80% of students that feel a lack of
commitment and an increasing feeling of isolation, where could a department in student affairs
have stepped in to create an atmosphere of acceptance for the student? Its vital that the mission

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statement of the university that is carried out by the student affairs offices often are recited and
reflected to create an atmosphere of open acceptance to all members of the community,
integration on all levels of the university and equal opportunity to feel that they have input and
that their input is admired and necessary for the growth of the institution. A majority of the
success that a student affairs professional can create from this communication is giving their
students a forum that they feel included, respected, understood, wanted and needed. After all, the
average college student is 25 years old and still searching for their identity and their meaning and
calling in life. Allowing them to have an outlet could not only improve their standing with the
institution, it could also improve their identity-of-self as well as their opportunities to spread the
word of their institution. Upon these changes and impacts being made, I believe it that colleges
and student affairs offices personally will begin to see a growth and a change in the atmosphere
around their campus.
As previously stated research shows, one of the largest factors of students not being
retained in their university setting was due to a lack of inclusion on the campus directed towards
them. Thus, it is imperative that while students are on the campus, the student affairs office is
reaching out to the students in any way possible to ensure that they understand their impact on
the campus community and all that they can contribute to it.
Research shows the role of a student affairs worker can alter a students experience on a
college campus, as proven in the article The Role of Student Affairs Practitioners In
Improving Campus Racial Climate: A Case Study. As proven at the University of
Michigan, when the students sought out a multicultural center for multicultural students, when
the student affairs office obliged even slightly, hope was restored in the racial climate on campus.
As small as it may seem, the student affairs workers involved allowed the students to see that the

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university was working for them and not against them (Karkouti, 2015). As the multicultural
center was opened, Karkouti states that surveyed students stated that they felt more included,
understood and satisfied with the response from the student affairs office to set aside the money
and to begin the discussion on a multicultural center.
A lot of a students involvement comes from within, but its important to note that it is the
student affairs professional job to give students a place that fosters the inclusive attitude if they
wish to see an inclusive campus. One of the biggest impacts that a campus can have when
creating an inclusive setting it to simply examine the layout of their campus, the design on
campus buildings and the decoration of campus buildings. As described on page 24 of the book
Educating by Design, there are small, key components to designing a campus that creates a
sense of understanding from the administration to the students. One of these is included in the
campus design aspect of tracing (Strange & Banning, 2001). When tracing takes place on a
campus, its the follow up from administrators to the students. What the administration is
essentially saying in the pavement of a new sidewalk due to worn down grass is that they see that
students have located a more effective way to get between buildings, and that they are cognizant
of what the students want, thus they are instituting a new method of moving around the campus.
Does tracing increase retention, though? Do pathways between buildings create an impact on
students as they spend time on a campus? Essentially, its small efforts put forth by the university
that allows students to feel a sense of being understood and listened to. When a university invests
in their students in cases such as these, it instills in the students a sense of ownership and pride,
leading the students to higher levels of devotion, thus leading the way to higher retention rates
and more positive outcomes for students on college campuses (Strange & Banning, 2001). Many
cases of research have proven that when a student feels a connection, their chances of dropping

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out decrease considerably. Though paving a sidewalk is not done by the professionals in the
student affairs offices, implementing these procedures of watching the students and learning their
needs from their actions, as well as providing an opportunity to listen to the students, should be
implemented and enforced by the student affairs professionals on the campus. After all, if the
student affairs workers arent listening and giving to the students, who will? Student affairs
workers must maintain a constant state of seeking knowledge and empowerment with and
through our students.
As student affairs offices lead the way in student involvement and retaining students and
now that the reason for students leaving a campus is understood, research must now go in depth
into researching and understanding how a student affairs professional can impact the students on
a campus and encourage 1) involvement and 2) retention. Where do student affairs workers play
a role in these two factors?
As I explore a student affairs professionals role in the involvement on a college campus,
its important to stress that student affairs workers must reach the students upon arrival on a
campus. Hence the abundance of welcome week activities, orientations and new and returning
student convocations. As soon as a student steps foot on a campus even just as a prospective
student, its vital that they automatically feel included and as if they are one small piece to a
larger picture. One school that does an excellent job of this is Kansas State University. Kansas
State immediately begins enforcing the idea in students minds that they are a part of a family and
that they can make their college experience whatever they want it to be in their time on campus.
As a new student on their campus, you are officially a wildcat for life, leading students to
initially creating a sense of understanding and belonging on a campus of 23,000 students (Kansas
State, 2015). According to Kansas States enrollment numbers, just over ten years ago, the

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university had under 20,000 students on their campus. In 2001, the numbers reached 20,000 and
have been above that amount since the Fall of 2001.
How does a student affairs officer create a sense of belonging to one specific person on a
campus full of students, faculty and staff everywhere? After all, if it isnt us looking at ourselves
on the pictures in the hall, do we even truly notice the picture? One of the most effective methods
of this is to continue the art of traditions on a campus. Traditions have the potential to teach
students about the history of their institution, provide a means of building community, instill
common values that span generations of students, and generate pride and enthusiasm and are also
allowing students to connect to the institutions heritage and share a set of ideals (Van Jura,
2010). Traditions allow current students on a campus the possibility to span across decades and
generations in an effort to allow them to see the history and what was done in their effort to
understand the universities role in history and histories role in the university.
Another aspect of influence that a student affairs worker can have on the student
population of a campus is to embrace the diversity amongst the students and to allow
programming and student activites to focus on the diversity that makes up the campus in a way
that doesnt make it seem as if everyone is different, but instead in a way that brings the campus
together. One form of performing this activity is to allow programming on campus that reaches
all audiences on the campus. Some of the reasons for student affairs workers to implement
diverse programming and to acknowledge diversity on a campus is because noticing and using
diversity on a college campus promotes creative thinking, enhances self awareness, prepares
students to work in a diverse society, expands worldliness and enhances social development
(Hyman & Jacobs, 2009). One of the forms of introducing diversity on college campuses
currently is the addition of chief diversity officers, chief equality officers, multiculturalism

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offices, and programming that is directed toward educating the student population on areas of
diversity. One university that has led the way in diversity initiatives is the University of
California, Berkeley. Berkeley has introduced a diversity office that focuses only on ensuring
that no matter what makes students different from each other have an outlet and a safe place.
Initiatives such as this create open dialogue, programming that fosters the dialogues and
enrichment of students minds as they cross the campus on a daily basis.
Mary Jane Fischer examined the role of a college and the diversity of the students on the
campus in her article Settling into Campus Life: Differences by Race/Ethnicity in
College Involvement and Outcomes. What Fischer found was that negative perceptions
of a campus racial or ethnic environment undermind minority satisfacation with college and
increase the likelihood of leaving (Fischer, 2007). She presented research that showed that
minority college students would rather drop out than to fail, proving that their particular group
cant succeed at college. The prejudice and discrimination from society, they fear, leads them to
having lower self confidence, allowing themselves less time to make and fix mistakes, leading to
higher drop out rates. Student affairs workers must recognize these symptoms in their students
and reenforce in their mind that giving up isnt an option in the student affairs office; but also
that student affairs isnt just telling them not to give up, but displaying that giving up is never
an option through the continued work with the students that must be maintained.
Student affairs workers must also maintain mindfulness about the differences between
millennial students and other generations. In the book Diverse millennial Students in
College: Implications for Faculty and Student Affairs, Gwendolyn Jordan Dungy
states that millennials dont look at racial differences in themselves as much as other generations,
instead they look at age as a major form of difference between themselves and someone else

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(Dungy, 2011). This implies that the form of diversity programming and initiatives that once
were sweeping our nations colleges may be outdated and should be thought of in a different
manner. The field of student affairs must not only focus on the differences between their
students, but instead program and teach their students about what they have in common with the
students around them; even when they cant see those similarities.
Once student affairs professionals perform the duties mentioned above and create
communities that foster development and inclusion and that all students on campus feel welcome
to all events and that all students want to become involved, it is then the duty of a student affairs
professional to ensure that these students maintain their involvement on their campus. After all,
with the turn over rate of universities typically being every 4-6 years, it is essentially the current
students that send the message of the campus to those they interact it, thus controlling campus
climate and impacting the image in the minds of the incoming students. As student affairs
officers work with students and create programming that reaches all boundaries of the university,
it is important that they then continue reaching those students with the options of programs
offered on campus. This is why they must engage students early on in their career, and then
engage them often. By engaging a student often, even once they are juniors or seniors and on the
path to graduation, they are ensuring the university that the students personal relationship with
the university and the community with that university is strong and sustaining. They continue
engaging their current students by offering active involvement in planning and development,
despite how far along the student may be in their progress of obtaining their degree. As the
general field of student affairs researches the best possible scenarios and methodologies to
engage incoming students, they must not lose sight of the student that has been on the campus

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and has played a role in the student life and the community life that is currently held on the
campus.
One way we ensure that students obtain leadership positions at the beginning of their time
in the university is to create pathways for leadership seminars and leadership courses. If we teach
them how to be strong, positive leaders on campus; they will be much more likely to strive to
obtain the positions in their organizations. We create these by instituting leadership initiatives
that foster the leadership qualities in the students that we lead. The University of Chicago hosts a
student leadership institute every summer (University of Chicago, 2015). The motto for the
student leadership institute is building ethical and engaged leaders. Fostering leadership
qualities in the students creates bonds that can not be broken between the campus community
and the students. Though we can not force all students to take leadership positions and to
encourage their classmates to obtain positions, if we can obtain a good portion of every freshman
class and guide them to become the next campus leaders, were consistently shaping the next 3
years leaders, as well as investing in their life so that one day they can invest in our campus
community.
Another way to ensure future involvement for new students on a campus is to implement
policies and procedures for incoming, newly involved students to take their involvement to
higher levels. Student affairs officers do this by giving them responsibilities in clubs and
organizations, giving them executive positions in organizations that they are a part of and
allowing them to become a decision maker on the campus. With power and responsibility comes
pride, and with that pride they allow their students to get a deeper look into the inner workings of
clubs, organizations and the university as a whole.

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According to Astins developmental theory, persuading students to live on campus is also

vital to encouraging them to become involved and to provide leadership opportunities. Living on
a campus gives students an outlet to show who they really are, a chance to give them
opportunities to surround themselves with the college campus and the ability to fully develop
themselves while at a pivotal moment in their life (Astin, 1973). If student affairs offices foster
relationships and opportunities for students that encourage them to live and learn on campus, the
students development while on the campus will create tendencies for wanting to lead and become
involved, creating opportunities for those students to spread their passion to incoming students,
thus leading to higher levels of involvement that started with one student affairs worker reaching
out to a student and persuading them to live on campus. Sometimes, students that may have
never been involved will find a portion of campus to become involved with due to their
attachment to the campus from living on the campus.
As student affairs professionals motivate students to become involved, ensure that
students are able to become involved in all aspects of a campus community and ensure that
students maintain consistent involvement; colleges across America will begin to see higher rates
of involvement as well as higher rates of retention just to begin with. As time goes on and
university pride begins to spread from the current students into the alumni boards, we will then
see higher rates of fundraising among alumni and more city and state-wide pride for the
universities in their respective regions. It is imperative that student affairs professionals display
this pride and confidence in their day to day interactions with students across the campus as an
effort to see this pride displayed in their lives. As they interact with their students and open the
doors for involvement and growth, they must also remember that their job is to foster the

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involvement and the growth that will inevitably take place on a campus if they commit to their
jobs in the sense that they should.
The philosophy that has begun to gain attention on college campuses from campus
leaders has been the Fish! philosophy. Fish! has four principles: Play, Make their day, be there,
choose your attitude (Paradee, 2007). While a few of those are self explanatory, I have found one
of those to truly be the principle that all student affairs professionals should have when
continuing the effort to involve incoming students, maintain involvement from upper class
students, and ensuring that all portions of the campus are being observed and respected. That
principle is Be there. We must repeatedly simply be there for the students, from the
moment that they walk onto campus until the day they graduate. After all, student affairs is the
one department that can truly make a difference, and make a difference we must.
As we continue to research the field of involvement and retention, student affairs offices
must maintain dedication and communication with the students of the campus, allowing them to
flourish on all levels of the campus in their involvement and commitment to the campus. As we
allow students to reach their maximum capacity of involvement, we will see maximum capacity
campus events, residence and dining halls, classrooms and more. All of this starts in the heart of
the university- the Office of Student Affairs.

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Howard-Hamilton, M. F., Marbley, A. F., & Bonner, F. A. (2011). Diverse Millennial Students in
College : Implications for Faculty and Student Affairs. Sterling, Va: Stylus Pub.
Karkouti, I.M. (2015). The Role of Student Affairs Practitioners In Improving Campus Racial
Climate: A Case Study. College Student Journal, 49(1), 31-41.
Strange, C., & Banning, J. (2001). Physical Environments: The Role of Design and Space. In
Educating by Design (1st ed., Vol. 1, pp. 1-251). San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass.
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Fischer, M. J. (2007). Settling into Campus Life: Differences by Race/Ethnicity in College

Involvement and Outcomes. The Journal of Higher Education, (2). 125.
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