Perceptions of New Student Affairs Professionals and Their Supervisors Regarding the Application of Competencies Learned in Preparation Programs

• Published in: Journal of college student development 2009, Vol.50 (1), p.104-119
• Main Authors: Cuyjet, Michael J, Longwell-Grice, Robert, Molina, Eduardo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic Standards; Agreements; Attitudes; College students; Comparative Analysis; Competence; Educational Quality; Entry Workers; Graduate Study; Human relations; Job Training; Learning; Masters Degrees; Professional Education; Student attitudes; Student Development; Student Diversity; Student Personnel Services; Student Personnel Workers; Studies; Success; Supervisors; Surveys
• ISSN: 0897-5264; 1543-3382; 1543-3382
• DOI: 10.1353/csd.0.0054

The issue of whether or not college student personnel (CSP) programs have been successful in preparing students to work in student affairs has been an issue for nearly 50 years. This issue has been compounded by the fact that there still remains fierce debate as to what knowledge college student personnel graduates need in order to be successful in the profession. Because student affairs professionals practice in a variety of institutions and perform increasingly complex functions, the field may need to accept that there is not a single way to prepare professionals, nor a definitive set of professional education standards. Still, although student affairs practitioners will continue to learn many skills early in their professional lives through professional development opportunities, employers will undoubtedly expect their employees to come to the job equipped with a certain number of skills learned as part of their professional preparation in graduate school. In an effort to address these issues, The Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) set forth standards and guidelines for college student personnel preparation master's degree programs. In theory, if all college student personnel programs are following CAS standards, entry-level students graduating from these programs will gain competencies in certain areas, and the supervisors of these entry-level professionals should feel that the students have indeed gained these competencies. The purpose of this study, then, was to determine how entry-level student affairs professionals who had earned a master's degree in college student personnel felt about the training they had received in their graduate programs. The study also sought to determine how the supervisors of these entry-level student affairs professionals felt about their supervisees' mastery of these competencies and the application to their positions and how the supervisors' perceptions compared to those of the new professionals. (Contains 2 tables.)