Student Affairs and Services Mediates the Context for Students’ Living, Learning, and Development: Lessons from COVID-19

Abstract

This study presents findings from a survey implemented in May 2020 on responses to COVID-19 by Student Affairs and Services (SAS) practitioners around the world. Conducted by researchers from Germany, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States, the survey yielded 781 valid responses. Results show the involvement of SAS practitioners in COVID-19 institutional decision-making, actions taken during the pandemic, and the critical impact SAS had on different student groups and universities located in different contexts. The research demonstrates how SAS mediated the impacts of differently constituted public domains and sociocultural contexts on students and how SAS responded to diverse student needs. Based on the data, we outline a model for understanding SAS’s broader engagement with students in various contexts to enable conditions that promote student persistence and success.

Perspectives from across the globe

“…IASAS has been involved in other research projects to increase global scholarship, for instance, guest-editing an issue of the Journal of Student Affairs Africa (JSAA) (Schreiber et al, 2017) and Supporting Students Globally: Trends & Perspectives for Student Affairs and Services by Osfield et al (2016). Most recently, the IASAS membership was asked to be part of two research projects, one on COVID-19 and SAS (Bardill Perozzi et al, 2022; and the other on the SDGs (Schreiber et al, 2021).…”

“…(2016). Most recently, the IASAS membership was asked to be part of two research projects, one on COVID‐19 and SAS (Bardill Moscaritolo et al., 2022; Perozzi et al., 2022; Schreiber et al., 2020) and the other on the SDGs (Schreiber et al., 2021).…”

Professionalization in student affairs and services across the globe

“…The common themes emanating from that virtual symposium provided a spotlight on the myriad of challenges on our respective campuses and countries (Shea, 2020) SAS at its core exists to provide support and development for college students (Bardill Moscaritolo & Roberts, 2016). The confusing and confused role of SAS gets no simpler when viewed regionally across the globe, demonstrating stark paradigm differences with entirely segmented or separate bases of literature (Perozzi & O'Brien, 2010) guiding the work.…”