Bring on the growing pains

The book, as the representation of a significant body of thought, of research or of practice, still holds a place of honour in our society and in the field of student services. And so it was with great glee that many of us heralded the arrival of what is arguably the first ever book on the practice of student services in Canada. Achieving Student Success: Effective student services in Canadian higher education, edited by Donna Hardy-Cox and Carney Strange, was years in the making and an easy choice for my selection for the 2010 Open Book session at CACUSS 2010.

This just in: new Canadian(!) book on student services

I have just learned that the long-awaited book on student services in Canada, by Donna Hardy Cox and Carney Strange, is due out February 15, 2010 from McGill-Queen’s University Press.  Achieving Student Success: Effective Student Services in Canadian Higher Education is book-ended by chapters from Hardy Cox and Strange but also includes chapters on everything from enrolment management, to residence life, judicial affairs and student service management, written by CACUSS colleagues from across the country.

You can pre-order it now online at McGill-Queen’s University Press (paper or cloth). Hoping many of you will do so and read in time for CACUSS 2010 in Edmonton.

– D.F.

Sneak peak at Open Book VI

The annual CACUSS conference is only a week away and my fellow panelists and I are frantically reading away in preparation for sixth annual installment of the Open Book session. Our complete list of recommended (or not!) recent student affairs titles will be available at the session (Wednesday, June 17, 11 am) but in case you need a bit more enticing to come see us — or you want to read ahead and contribute your own thoughts — here are a few of the books we’re reading:

2 Books about student experiences and expectations

Promoting Reasonable Expectations

Aligning Student and Institutional Views of the College Experience

By Miller, T., Bender, B., Schuh, J., et al.

Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA 2005

– reviewed by David Newman, University of Alberta

In higher education, a growing focus on the quality of the student experience is clearly evident in our institutions. It has been built more strongly into our institutional vision statements in recent years and is often used for purposes of recruitment, alumni support, and community support. However, what happens when the promises contained in such vision statements cannot be realized? How can we determine what types of promises are meaningful to our students? How do institutions balance the potentially contradictory needs that exist between students, external communities, and the institutions themselves?