Contested Issues in Student Affairs: Diverse Perspectives and Respectful Dialogue (review)

This edited book presents perspectives on 24 contested issues that are defined as "contemporary, critical, and contentious questions" (p. xv). The editors posed 24 questions, and each is addressed in a chapter that consists of two essays. One essayist addressed the question and then a second essayist responded to the first. More specifically, the first essayist framed the contested issue by defining terms and providing a historical context, while making perspectives explicit. The second essayist responded to the first by noting agreement, disagreement, and additions. The 24 contentious issues are organized within four broad topics. There are 4 chapters in the section on philosophical foundations of student affairs work in higher education, 7 chapters in challenges to promoting learning and development, 8 chapters in achieving inclusive and equitable learning environments, and 5 chapters in organizing student affairs practice for learning and social justice. I had read about half the book when I realized that this book needed to be required reading for my graduate student affairs students. I also think it is an important stimulant for reflection for student affairs educators across the higher education organizational hierarchy. What is particularly poignant is how the second essayists expand on and even disagree with notions explored by the first essayists. For example, in the section "Achieving Inclusive and Equitable Learning Environments," responding to Renn's essay, "Identity Centers: An Idea Whose Time Has Come . . . and Gone?" where she reported on the criticism that identity centers prevent majority students from meeting each other, Patton in "Promoting Critical Conversations About Identity Centers" wrote, "This criticism troubles me for two reasons" (p. 255). Similarly, in the section on "Philosophical Foundations of Student Affairs in Higher Education" when responding to Blimling's essay that declared theory and practice not to be separate functions but rather an integrated function of judgment, Broido noted, "I agree with most of Blimling's arguments, [but] I depart from Blimling's position in two regards" (p. 54). Also, in the "Organizing Student Affairs Practice for Learning and Social Justice" section writing about the tension between differing personal beliefs and organizational expectations, Carducci responded to Magolda and Baxter Magolda by stating, "Their mulitilayered dialogue about differences framework does not adequately address the professional or personal risks assumed by individuals who decide to publicize tensions between personal beliefs and organization norms" (p. 466). This way of navigating a contested issue communicates that there is not just one right answer, but rather that through respectful dialogue others can add onto ideas in ways that synergistically further understanding. It is not often that we witness our profession challenging, broadening, and clarifying questions in such an honest fashion.

The contested issues are not standalone topics segregated from the others, but rather some of the contested issues discussed in one essay intersect with other contested issues; the editors did not hamper the connections of contested issues to others across chapters. For example, in the section on "Achieving Inclusive and Equitable Learning Environment" McCarthy focused on the words special and accommodations in exposing the contested issue of "Special Considerations for a University Problem: Campus Accommodations" (p. 299). Quaye too undertook the power of language, but in a broader lens rather than solely in regard to disabilities and wrote, "Language does not exist in a vacuum but exits instead in social relations that add meaning and significance to language" (p. 281). Spano also included how students with disabilities have influenced the contested issue of the "responsibilities and limits . . . in addressing burgeoning student mental health issues" (p. 316). Hence, some contested issues appropriately merge and flow into others.

Many of the essays across all four of the sections share the common thread of the critical role of student affairs professionals as educators who increase learning opportunities for students. That is stressed in Davis's and Boes's essays highlighting the negative impact on learning by consumerism along with Welkener's and Gross's essays...