Handbook for Student Affairs in Community Colleges

In addressing the unique issues related to the delivery of student services in the community college setting, this book fills a longstanding need to provide practitioners with a contextual framework for their work. Starting by providing the historical context to the development of student affairs in community colleges, this handbook describes the organization of key functions and current practice, and looks at the specific constraints, opportunities, changes and future challenges that practitioners face.

Community colleges are grappling with: the realities of shrinking resources; an increasingly diverse and disparate student body, with many attending part-time; demands for greater accountability; a generational change in leadership; and pressures to expand their missions as well as adopt educational technology – all of which have an impact on the role of student affairs.

Among the topics covered are: Partnering with Academic Affairs; Financing Student Affairs; Legal and Policy Issues; Strategic Planning and Assessment; Accreditation and Accountability; Technology for Communication and Engagement; Academic Support Services; Student Life and Student Engagement Programs and Services; Enrollment Management; and Services for Special Populations.

This handbook is intended for student affairs administrators and professionals at all stages of their careers, as well as for students in graduate preparation programs.

Ashley Tull serves as the Director of Assessment and Strategic Initiatives for the Division of Student Affairs at SMU. He most recently served as Assistant Vice President for Student Life Studies at Tarleton State University and has held previous administration and teaching roles at the University of Texas at Arlington, University of Arkansas–Fayetteville, Florida State University, Georgia Highlands College, and Middle Georgia State College. Tull earned a bachelor of science with honors in social and rehabilitation services and a master’s of education in college student personnel services from the University of Southern Mississippi. He received a graduate certificate in human resource development and a doctorate of education in higher education administration from Florida State University, where he was a Hardee Scholar. Tull has edited two previous books; Becoming Socialized in Student Affairs: A Guide for New Professionals and Their Supervisors, with Joan Hirt and Sue Saunders; and New Realities in the Management of Student Affairs: Emerging Specialist Roles and Structures for Changing Times, with Linda Kuk. Tull serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of College Student Development, Community College Review, Journal of Community College Research and Practice, College Student Affairs Journal, and the Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice. His research has been published in the College Student Affairs Journal, NASPA Journal , the Journal of College and Character, Research in the Schools and the Journal of College Student Development.

Linda Kuk currently serves as the Program Chair for the Higher Education Leadership Program in the School of Education at Colorado State University and is an Associate Professor of Education. Within her work she continues to prepare leaders for roles in Higher Education Institutions. Prior to her return to the faculty in 2006, she served as the Vice President of Student Affairs at Colorado State University, her alma mater.

During her administrative career in Student Affairs she served as a Vice President for Student Affairs for nearly 23 years at Colorado State University, the Rochester Institute of Technology and SUNY, Cortland. She also served as Dean of Students at Marquette University in Milwaukee Wisconsin, and held various positions within student affairs divisions at Iowa State University and the University of Connecticut. She has served as an organizational consultant for a number of Colleges and Universities within the United States and in China.

She has published three books, Positioning Student Affairs for Sustainable Change, (2010), New Realities: Emerging Specialist Roles and Structures in Student Affairs Organizations, (2012) and The Handbook for Student Affairs in Community Colleges, (2014). She has published over 30 articles in referred journals, as well as numerous book chapters and presentations. Her research interests include: issues related to organizational behavior, change and leadership in student affairs and higher education, student engagement and retention, and student affairs professional development. In her limited spare time she is a painter, dabbling in a variety of media and also likes to bike and golf.

Paulette Dalpes is the deputy to the vice chancellor for student affairs at the City University of New York (CUNY), which serves more than 270,000 degree-seeking students at 24 institutions in New York City―including 7 community colleges. Dr. Dalpes has over 15 years of experience working at community colleges including in the role of the Chief Student Affairs Officer at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, New York. In this capacity, she was instrumental in advancing the development of offices critical to student success including Counseling, Student Life, Athletics, Access Ability Services, Veteran’s Affairs and Student Conduct. Dr. Dalpes also worked at Holyoke Community College in Holyoke, Massachusetts, as the director of academic support. Dalpes currently serves on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) as the director of the Community College Division. She has also served as faculty for several senior leadership institutes in NASPA. Her 27-year career in student affairs includes facilitating federally funded TRiO grant programs, training and development on issues of diversity and inclusion, and work in residential life at large universities. Dalpes attended Colorado State University as a first-generation college student, earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s in college student personnel administration. She earned her doctorate in education at the University of Massachusetts. She has an abiding respect for and commitment to community colleges and the mission of educational access especially for students who are low-income and first-generation to college.

Florence B. Brawer was research director of the Center for the Study of Community Colleges from its inception in 1974. A former research educator at UCLA, psychometrist, and counselor, she received her BA degree (1944) from the University of Michigan in psychology and her MA (1962) and EdD (1967) degrees in educational psychology from UCLA. She wrote New Perspectives on Personality Development in College Students (Jossey-Bass, 1973) and coedited Developments in the Rorschach Technique, volume 3 (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1970). Together with Arthur M. Cohen she wrote many articles, chapters, and books on community college students, faculty, and curriculum, including Confronting Identity: The Community College Instructor (Prentice-Hall, 1972), The Two-Year College Instructor Today (Praeger, 1977), The Collegiate Function of Community Colleges (Jossey-Bass, 1987), and six editions of The American Community College (Jossey-Bass, 1982–2014). She and Cohen initiated the Jossey-Bass quarterly series New Directions for Community Colleges in 1973 and she served as associate editor, working with community college practitioners and researchers across the nation.