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Personal Philosophy of Student Affairs

Oklahoma State University

Holly Loberg
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Personal Philosophy of Student Affairs

At one point or another, everyone will experience the beginning of a new journey. It can

be daunting as each journey can consist of multiple highs and multiple lows, along with a series

of twists and turns. These journeys can be greatly benefited by beginning with a solid personal

philosophy to follow. In this paper, I will discuss my own personal philosophy regarding the

beginning of my journey in student affairs. Throughout, the sections will relate to my own

purpose and goals, the area and institutional preferences I hold, my educational target and my

professional development and ethics.

Purpose and Goals

To begin the conversation toward my personal philosophy for student affairs, a set of

foundational values will be put in place. Personally, foundational values need to be in every

aspect of what I do in student affairs. In other words, my foundational values are truly the

foundation of all that I will do in this career field.

Throughout the foundational readings, three main values have stuck out to me that I

vastly agree with: educating the whole student, social justice, and environment. Each of these

values explains a portion of my belief system regarding student affairs. Though they have been

listed in an order and will be discussed in an order, each of these values are significant equally

and, thus, are not ordered in my personal philosophy.

First, I pull the main ideas behind educating the whole student from Dallas Long (2012).

Though the value of educating the whole student is presented in multiple documents, articles,

etc. I firmly believe in the same ideas presented by Long (2012). This value expresses that

college as a whole affects the students as a whole. In other words, “student learning does not

occur exclusively within the classroom” as students are learning and growing from all aspects of
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college (Long, 2012, p. 7). Therefore, it is a student affairs professional’s duty to allow for

growth of the student in all aspects of themselves throughout college.

The second value listed is social justice. Social justice relates to serving “as a model of

fairness and inclusion for all people” on a college campus through equitable treatment and

“remedying policies and procedures” as needed (Long, 2012, p. 9). This value is also presented

by Long (2012) and is something I whole-heartedly agree with. I strongly value the need for

every student to be treated fairly and justly along with fixing whatever is needed to allow this to

happen.

The third and final value in my personal philosophy is environment. The environments

that students are in are “rarely neutral” and can have a hefty impact on all that the student does

throughout their college career (National Association of Student Personnel Administrators,

1987). Therefore, if a student has a poor or distracting environment, they may not be as apt to

achieve all that they can in college. In other words, if a student affairs professional sees a student

struggling, we need to include conversation about their environment, not just about the student’s

study habits, for example.

Each of these values bares significance in my personal philosophy of student affairs. I

have experiences each of these in either my personal or professional experience. For example,

educating the whole student is something I do with my student staff through one-on-one

meetings. In these meetings, we not only talk about the position they hold, but also about their

personal lives, school, organizations, and more. Through these discussions, I am better able to

attempt to develop them in other, positive ways besides just their student staff positions.

Regarding the second value, I have not done much for social justice during my time at

Oklahoma State University as I am still fairly new, however, in my undergraduate career I acted
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as a gender-based violence advocate. In this position, I spoke up and out for those that had

experienced gender-based violence in multiple facets, even advocating for the removal of a

policy that required us to be mandatory, albeit anonymous, reporters.

Finally, an experience with the third value occurred with one of my student staff

members as he was struggling to focus on his position in the building. Together, we found out

that it was because he simply was not spending enough of his time in the building. Thus, he was

not putting himself in the environment to focus on his position.

Practice Area and Institutional Type Preference

My preferred area of student affairs currently involves working with Title IX. Title IX is

something that I worked with extensively in my undergraduate career and holds a large place in

my heart. As mentioned previously within my social justice value, I worked as a gender-based

violence advocate and have seen first-hand why Title IX truly exists nationally.

In my career, I hope to work toward accurate reporting of gender-based violence on

college campuses. To do this, I believe I will need to begin working at a small, public university

and continue my way up into a large, public university. Through working at a small, public

university, I will gain valuable insight and knowledge into how Title IX is truly dealt with on

college campuses, which I can thing bring to a large, public university to develop major change

across the nation.

Within this career field, each of my personal values are directly reflected. Regarding

educating the whole student, the entire purpose of Title IX is to allow students to not by

discriminated so that they can learn and flourish on a college campus. As mentioned previously,

Title IX is very much a social justice concern and relates well to my social justice value. Finally,
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environment is also directly valued in Title IX through allowing students to have a positive,

welcoming environment through non-discrimination.

Educational Target

I am especially interested in working with students that experience marginalization. In

other words, students that have been affected by discrimination in some form. This is quite a

large swatch of students and, thus, to narrow it down I truly want to work with students that are

marginalized due to Title IX related incidents, such as incidents of gender-based violence.

I find that this area of campus’ student bodies are more likely to both not talk about their

experiences with gender-based violence and more likely to not be heard correctly about their

experiences with gender-based violence. To clarify, I want to provide these students with an area

of both listening and empowerment to speak-out about what has happened if they feel

comfortable.

Professional Development and Ethics

I plan to continually develop my practice within Title IX as it is a constantly changing

and developing area within student affairs. To do this, a large focus will need to be placed on

watching the news and keeping up to date on the government. Overall, the government has final

say on what is done with Title IX and standards concerning it, so I will need to be aware of any

and all statements released regarding it.

Furthermore, there are many conventions, conferences, and articles written about Title IX

and gender-based violence that fall outside of the student affairs realm. Each of these will be

important for me to either attend or read because gender-based violence is not simply a student

affairs “issue,” it is something that affects people both inside and outside of college. As well, I

will need to pay attention or work with the women’s center on or near the campus I work at as
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they will continually be updating their policies and procedures on how to best handle gender-

based violence. It will be much easier to work in tandem then to be constantly reworking the

wheel on how to best serve those effected.

Finally, I believe that ethical principles will need to guide virtually everything that I do in

this given career field. For example, it would not be ethical for me to break confidentiality and

tell another person about a Title IX case I am investigating or have investigated. As well, it

would only be ethical for me to tell people prior to them speaking to me that I am a mandatory

reporter of virtually everything that occurs against policy or law on a college campus.

Conclusion

Overall, student affairs is a field that I am excited to begin my journey in. Though I know

it will never be an easy, smooth ride, it will be a journey that is rooted in my personal

philosophy. Due to this, I now know that the values of educating the whole student, social

justice, and the student’s environment are the ground on which I stand to begin my journey.
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References

Long, D. (2012). The foundations of student affairs: A guide to the profession. In L. J. Hinchliffe

& M. A. Wong (Eds.), in Environments for student growth and development: Librarians

and student affairs in collaboration, 1-39. Chicago: Association of College & Research

Libraries.

National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (1987). A perspective on student

affairs. Washington, DCL Author.