Fostering Student Success in the Campus Community (review)

In Fostering Student Success in the Campus Community, chapter authors Margaret C. King and Rusty N. Fox ask, “If we value the concept of putting students first, why is the practice not more widespread in our daily interactions with students?” (p. 392). This book is a collection of the latest research and scholarship from distinguished mid- and senior-career researchers and administrators regarding how academic and student affairs administrators and faculty may create a campus community that puts students first on a daily basis and thereby foster an environment ripe for student success.

The authors’ use of “campus community” is intentional as they offer strategic recommendations for putting this scholarship into practice. Many chapters speak to student affairs professionals while others are useful for academic or student affairs vice presidents and administrators—at all levels—who are interested in the latest research and perspectives about how to transform a campus to be student centered.

Fostering Student Success in the Campus Community is organized in four sections. The first, “Communicating Expectations,” focuses on exploring student and university expectations and fostering expectations that are mutually beneficial for students and the university. Vasti Torres sets an inclusive tone for the book in Chapter 1 by discussing the changing demographics of students. This important chapter seems somewhat isolated as not many of the other authors build on this information in describing various support services and needs for diverse student populations, instead offering their own statistical information.

Subsequent chapters in this section focus on assessing and aligning expectations and making institutional transformations given the changing face of higher education. Each chapter concludes with concrete action strategies or recommendations for how to actualize the desired campus community.

Part 2 focuses on “Connecting Services” across the college or university. Specifically, this section explores various student services and how to hone or deepen the quality of such services as academic advising, enrollment management, career counseling, and the use of learning technologies. Don Hossler’s chapter on enrollment management is particularly useful in that he discusses the current landscape and ethical controversies of enrollment management in a way that is useful for both academic and student affairs officers.

Wesley R. Habley and Jennifer L. Bloom’s chapter on academic advising demonstrates the need for advisement to be an ongoing process, not merely an episodic event, to facilitate the holistic development of students’ goals.

Part 3, “Fostering Student Development,” does not reiterate student development theories that may be found elsewhere. Instead, these chapters offer details about how readers may create an administrative climate that fosters student development. For example, in Chapter 13, Dave Porter, Joe Bagnoli, Janice Burdette Blythe, Donald Hudson, and Deanna Sergel describe various organizational models for academic and student service departments that encourage a progressive rather than a traditional organizational approach. Their focus is not simply on espousing organizational theories that foster student success but about providing action strategies based on this progressive model. Three case studies provide examples for readers interested in implementing organizational change.

The final section, “Achieving Success,” illustrates the next steps administrators can take to foster a student-centered climate on campus. Chapters are devoted to retention, first-year students, students at two-year colleges, and academic advising in a manner consistent with the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education. In the chapter on retention, Wesley Habley and John H. Schuh urge an expanded paradigm of student success—a theory of retention in which the focus is on student-defined goals (e.g., taking a few classes for educational purposes, transferring to another institution) rather than on the current rubrics which focus on such narrowly defined measures of success as first to second year retention, degree completion rates, and time to degree.

At one point, chapter authors Louise M. Lonabocker and J. James Wager talk about the importance of one-stop shopping for students in both brick and mortar and services. Likewise, the success of...