Student affairs is… from a faculty member’s perspective

"Have you ever thought about going into student affairs?" The dean of students at Iowa State University, Dr. Kathy Mackay, posed this question to me about 20 years ago as I fretted inside her office unsure about my career path after graduation. My mind quickly drifted to the many "sit-ins" and protests I took part in outside the administration offices as an undergraduate student.

Did I really want students protesting outside my office? I asked myself. Maybe what student affairs needed was an agitator, a lover of justice, and a witness to inequalities. Maybe with my voice I could make campus climate better for the next generation. Maybe I can inspire other students to achieve their potential or ignite change for the greater good. Yep, I had officially contracted the student affairs bug. I was going to be a dean of students and work toward equity and justice.  

End of story. Well….

The work toward equity and justice still remains, but what I have learned over the years is that my journey in student affairs has been extremely meaningful, life changing, and unexpected than my destination. The exceptional work that we do in student affairs is a direct result of the support we receive from our professional communities and mentors.

My professional networks in student affairs - in NASPA - have become my family.  We provide unwavering support through personal and professional highs and lows. I often feel unafraid to take risks, to think big, to lead courageously with purpose, and to challenge the status quo because I have a community of scholar practitioners who continuously advocate for my success.

Even when I fail (and I have), they are there to help me to pick up the pieces and put them back together again. As I reflect on what student affairs has taught me, I offer the following insights to how student affairs has impacted my beliefs about the field.

Student affairs is more than learning about theories, best practices, and policies. It’s about understanding yourself and how you've come to know who you are. This field affords the opportunity to grapple with your intersecting identities in order to derive meaning and intellectualize how you know what you know. For me, it isn’t enough that I understand my Chicana identity but more about how I operationalize my ethnic identity with my cisgendered, light skin, or legal status privileges. It is my personal belief that when you “do” your own work around issues of privilege and oppression, you are able to effectively guide your own students through this process.

Student affairs is an opportunity to cultivate your networks and professional "families." I mentioned earlier how NASPA has become my professional family, but this came about from my involvement in the Latin@ knowledge Community (LKC). I remember when my good friend Jake Diaz finished his doctoral degree at the University of Vermont; he was the first brother scholar who I personally knew to complete this milestone. It ignited me and many other Latin@s from the LKC to pursue our doctorates and we utilized NASPA as a space to not only support one another but also share our testimonies or cultural knowledge to the next generation of scholar practitioners.

Student affairs is shifting (and not shifting) to address societal issues facing our nation. From the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, to the fact that a trans* person is killed every 29 hours. From banning undocumented students from college admission at five selective institutions in Georgia to watching the video capturing a bus full of Sigma Alpha Epsilon members in a racist chant. Regardless if these events did not occur in your community or on your campus, the impact continues to be felt across our college campuses and in our students’ minds as they navigate their academic lives. As a field we have an opportunity to be bold, to be fierce, and to be change agents in addressing these monumental issues.

And here lies my greatest concern as a faculty member….

How do we transform our student affairs curriculum to prepare the next generation of administrators and scholars to address these deep-rooted inequities and injustices in meaningful ways?

I continue to have that agitator spirit in me.

I am passionate about teaching students.

I am passionate about creating inclusive spaces for students to make meaning of their intersecting identities.

I am passionate about cultivating administrators and faculty, who will have the language, tools, and critical consciousness to question their college contexts.

Student affairs is about change. You must be willing to change and embrace the personal growth that is accompanied when you endure successes and challenges as you contend with how your voice and identity is congruent or incongruent with the institutional culture and mission.  

Many of us arrived into this field through the encouragement and mentorship of other student affairs practitioners, who perhaps witnessed our leadership skills and our abilities to inspire others to be change agents. Student affairs has become a large part of my identity, so reflecting upon the same question, have you ever thought about going into student affairs? I cannot phantom doing anything else but to teach, lead, research, and ignite change in my field. It is not only my purpose, but also my passion.