ABSTRACT
Professional standards serve as a basis for professionals to self-monitor their practice and continue to enhance themselves. Personal and professional behavior can impact the effectiveness of student affairs professionals. As a helping professional, the student affairs professional should act in accordance with the professional standards and ethical principles. Professional grounding also includes proactively preparing yourself to address ethical dilemmas, which requires an acquisition of knowledge about ethics and standards as well as self-reflection. Professional competencies are skills needed to enact professional practice. Komives identified maturity, which includes the fact that a professional can act on personal and professional values, as a desirable professional behavior and attitude. As a professional in student affairs, people need to understand that there are complexities that demand skills and knowledge, including ethical codes obligated to the field of practice. Furthermore, ethical behavior is critical to the well-being of the student affairs profession and student affairs professionals should possess a sound understanding of the ethics.
