ABSTRACT

Most student affairs preparation programs seek to teach the theories and perspectives that help new professionals make sense of the world of student affairs on college campuses. One of the lessons of experience is that there are almost always more options for responding to questions or crises than might be obvious at first glance. Personal theories are valuable sources of information and decision-making because, regardless of people's ability to clearly articulate their origins, they are usually based on a complex, internalized set of factors that represent people's best current thinking and response to an issue. Student Affairs is a multidisciplinary professional field. Formal theories and research that are taught in graduate preparation programs are drawn from both student affairs and other disciplinary fields including, but not limited to, human development, organizational behavior, person/environment studies, law, higher education, multicultural studies, etc.