College Student Personnel Administration (CSPA)

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[1] Graduate Courses in College Student Personnel Administration (CSPA)

6V70 INTERNSHIP (Variable credit: 1 to 3 credit hours; total of 3 credit hours.) In this course, students will gain exposure to a comprehensive, pre-professional experience of supervised professional-level work in a student affairs department. In addition, students will participate in periodic seminars to process, discuss, and share internship experiences and integrate the experiences with student-development theory.

6V95 THESIS: STUDENT AFFAIRS (Variable credit: 1-3 credit hours.) The thesis affords the student an opportunity to draw upon and consolidate knowledge obtained from classroom lectures, research projects, teaching, and other experiences. It is viewed as the beginning of the student’s scholarly work, not its culmination. Thesis research provides the student with hands-on, directed experience in the primary research methods of the discipline of Student Affairs and prepares the student for research and scholarship that will be expected after receipt of the master’s degree. Prerequisite(s): Completion of 21 credit hours.

6310 HISTORY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Institutions have customs, traditions, values, and practices–many of which are from historical trends that affect students, faculty, staff, and trustees. Historical analysis helps us to understand the inception and strength of institutional norms, the encounters between actors, and opportunities and constraints encountered by institutions. This course will offer an overview of American Higher Education and attempt to help explain the genesis of modern practices and problems.

6311 LEADERSHIP AND SUPERVISION This course will provide foundational grounding in leadership theory and research. Specific attention will be paid to the evolution of leadership theory, interdisciplinary conceptualizations of the topic, administrative applications of theory, and making sound decisions when solving organizational problems. Application of course content to students’ roles as professionals in higher education will serve as an ongoing theme.

6318 FINANCING HIGHER EDUCATION This course offers a broad overview of university governance and higher education funding intended to improve the student’s understanding of how budgeting affects decisions. Student Personnel Administrators, regardless of the level of bureaucracy, must deal with a variety of budgetary and revenue information when making daily decisions. Understanding the sources of income and expenditures at play within the institution is important to being an effective leader. This course will introduce types of funds used to finance higher education as well as types of budgeting practices. This course will provide students with a general understanding of the process of identifying both traditional and grant funding sources, as well as matching needs with resources, from the public, private, and non-profit sectors.

6320 LAW OF HIGHER EDUCATION The purpose of this course is to provide students with an overview of the subject areas of law most relevant to higher education administration and student affairs. This course seeks to introduce students to methods of legal analysis and decision-making. It is designed to expose the student to the vast range of administrative issues at the college and university level that have potential legal implications.

6325 ASSESSMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION This course provides an overview of assessment and evaluation in colleges and universities. The course will examine the design and appropriate implementation of assessment evaluation methods as they relate to addressing institutional effectiveness.

6335 GRANT WRITING This course addresses the development of grants and contracts and presents an overview of identifying funding sources. One key to development is the availability of resources, human and non-human. Grant writing can provide those resources by matching local resources with resources available from the public, private, and non-profit sectors of society. This course will provide the student with a general understanding of the process, as well as detailed information about grants in the community development field.

6340 CAREER ADVISING IN STUDENT AFFAIRS/HIGHER EDUCATION This course will provide an overview of the career counseling process over the life span, from early childhood through older adulthood, with a special emphasis on career advising in the higher education environment. Course content includes the study of career development theories and models, career assessment inventories, career interventions, career information systems, and educational resources. Additional topics include the interrelationship among work, family, and other life roles; the connection of career to mental health; and diversity in career development.

6360 DIVERSITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION The purpose of this course is to help students develop a life-long learning perspective regarding issues of diversity in higher education. The course seeks to assist higher education practitioners in developing intercultural competence through self-assessment, interaction, and skill development.

6365 PRACTICUM This course provides student with an on-site professional learning experience in a specific college or university office. The course combines weekly work responsibilities under the supervision of a site supervisor with assigned readings and scheduled discussion meetings with other practicum students and the professor.

6391 PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES IN STUDENT AFFAIRS The primary goal of this course is to provide a comprehensive introduction to the field of college student personnel and its role in American higher education. A related goal is to develop a broad foundation of knowledge to which subsequent study, practitioner skills, and research strategies may be added.

6392 STUDENT DEVELOPMENT THEORY The goal of this course is to provide students with an examination of the characteristics of today’s American college students, major development theories applicable to the higher education environment, and research on the wide variety of students attending higher education today. The areas of psychosocial and cognitive-structural development will be emphasized through multiple perspectives, including but not limited to moral development, intellectual development, gender identity development, multicultural identity development, spiritual development, and sexual identity development.