The Student Affairs Now host community comes together to discuss crisis response, supporting students, creating communities of love and healing, and helping the helpers. In this deeply personal conversation, Heather Shea shares her experiences as a staff member in the aftermath of the tragedy at Michigan State University. Hosts offer Heather support and discuss ways to support students, lead campus response, and support our colleagues and friends. We hope you will never need this episode. If you do, we hope it is helpful.

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In anticipation of the release of the 11th version, several members of the Council for the Advancement of Standards or CAS leadership join host Dr. Heather Shea to provide an introduction to this valuable resource in the field. Panelists share their perspectives on CAS through a broad overview as well as specific ways that the CAS standards might be useful in graduate preparation, student affairs assessment, and program development.

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We are thrilled to welcome our newest host joining the Student Affairs NOW team, Dr. Mamta Accapadi! On today’s episode, Drs. Heather Shea and Keith Edwards chat with Mamta about her excitement for joining the team and the conversation and guests she is looking forward to hosting. The conversation touches on groundedness, consciousness blooms, healing, and timelessness.

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Today’s episode directly challenges the media-created assumption that parents are “problems” to be managed by the institution and instead posits a model of parent and family engagement and connection. Particularly relevant as institutions seek to connect with parents and families of first generation college students during points of transition and orientation, seeking engagement and partnerships with parents is one core strategy for fostering student success. Today’s episode features a panel of administrators and scholars with deep appreciation for the contributions of first-generation students and their parents and families. The episode also includes several recommendations for campuses with established (or new) parent and family programs.

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This episode features a panel of scholars and practitioners as well as the executive director of the College Autism Network discussing how colleges and universities can better meet the needs of autistic and neurodivergent students on college campuses.

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Who are today’s college students, what do they need, and how can institutions rise to meet these needs? Today’s new episode brings together four panelists who contributed to a new book Multiple Perspectives on College Students: Needs, Challenges, and Opportunities.

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While diversity leaders exist at all administrative ranks and levels across both academic and student affairs. Today’s episode focuses on the senior diversity officer role. Often a senior administrator or vice president or chancellor, the senior diversity officer often wears a number of significant hats.

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As we launch the fall semester, student activists will once again—as they have for decades—resume their work to address climate on campus as related to racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and other forms of oppression. In this episode, co-authors of the book, Identity-Based Student Activism: Power and Oppression on College Campuses, discuss ways that campus administrators can reflect upon our work with student activists and consider new ways to improve relationships, resulting in more hospitable campus climates for all students across identities.

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Today’s new episode is all about promoting voting and democracy on college and university campuses. Many states have recently held primaries and midterm elections are right around the corner in the U.S.. This episode’s panelists are engaged—both inside higher education institutions as well as beyond—in exploring voting initiatives and increasing democratic engagement among college students. Joining host Heather Shea are Renee Brown, Adam Gismondi, Stephanie King, and Suchitra Webster.

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With the June 24, 2022 Supreme Court of the United States decision overturning Roe v. Wade, campuses across the U.S. are scrambling to address students’ reproductive health needs and deal with underlying issues contributing to lack of access to care. As laws permitting or limiting abortion care are now decided at the state, campus policies, access to abortion care, student activism, and other forms of student engagement around reproductive health may vary drastically from one higher education institution to another. In this episode, Dr. Heather Shea talks with Dr. Teresa DePiñeres and Dr. Carrie N. Baker about essential knowledge and skills for addressing reproductive health on college and university campuses.

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