In order for colleges to have a beneficial impact on the intellectual and personality development of students, academic and student affairs divisions must work collaboratively; academic advising should be the touchstone for their integrated efforts.

A stratified random sample of college student affairs divisions was surveyed to assess the depth and breadth of student paraprofessional use. More than 72% of the responding institutions reported having one or more student paraprofessional programs.

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The utilization of undergraduate students as peer helpers within institutions of higher education can be traced to the early history of American colleges and universities. As Materniak points out in Chapter Two, student tutors have been assisting their peers since the colonial period. Powell and others (1969) cite the use of students in residence halls as resident assistants, proctors, hall counselors, and advisors since the turn of the century. Although these early efforts were primarily informal and unsystematic, they established a precedent quite early that students have the potential to be a strong influence on the growth and development of their peers.This chapter has several purposes. Primarily, it examines the emerging maturity of the student paraprofessional movement within divisions of student affairs. The intention is to provide a state-of-the-art view of undergraduates assisting their peers in the context of preventive, developmental programming. Within this context, several themes are introduced supporting the concept that student paraprofessionals must be regarded as important staff members. Research finds that between 72 percent (Ender and Winston, 1984) and 78 percent (Salovey, 1983) ofall student affairs divisions in higher education provide student-staffed programs. Program settings now offering interventions through paraprofessional staffing are described in this chapter, and the rationales for their use are outlined. The research literature S . Ender. R. Winston (Edr.). Llring Stvdcnlr 01 Pnmprofcrrinno/ Stof New Directions fur Srudenr Scwictr, n6. 27. San Francisco: Jorrcy-Bars, Scptembcr 1984.3 4 detailing the effectiveness of paraprofessionals is discussed, and rationales for the success of student-staffed paraprofessional programs are examined.To support the argument that student-staffed paraprofessional programs are maturing, several themes are explored. A working definition of the student paraprofessional is introduced, and the primary services that a paraprofessional can perform are discussed. Standards for paraprofessional programming are proposed, and a model for implementing student paraprofessional staffed programs is presented, Particular attention is focused on the issues involved in implementing a paraprofessional program-recruitment, selection, training, compensation, supervision, and evaluation-and the ways in which programs implement these program components are detailed. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the legal and ethical issues raised by the use of student paraprofessionals and with some general comments about the future of this programming technique. Studies Concerning the Utilization of Student ParaprofessionalsAs student paraprofessional programmiilg continued to grow, several studies focusing on the extensiveness of this staffing technique were conducted. The first was by Powell (1959), who reported that 67 percent of the survey respondents used upperclassmen in counseling-type roles. The majority of survey respondents reported using student counselors for n...

Student affairs contributes daily to student learning, academic success, and the learning environment.