Creating Successful Partnerships Between Academic and Student Affairs

Although partnerships between academic affairs and student affairs are widely recognized as important for student learning and institutional effectiveness, the higher education community tends to discuss and applaud such collaborations without actually implementing them. This issue of New Directions for Student Services presents case studies of academic and student affairs partnerships that have been successfully put into practice at a variety of institutions, in areas such as service learning, the core curriculum, and residential learning communities. The authors offer academic and student affairs professionals practical strategies for forming collaborations that enhance learning and promote student success. The concluding chapter presents a set of guiding principles to use in assessing the effectiveness of partnerships and the climate for collaboration at individual institutions.This is the 87th issue of the quarterly journal New Directions for Student Services. For more information on the series, please see the New Directions for Student Services page.

JOHN H. SCHUH is professor of higher education at Iowa State University. ELIZABETH J. WHITT is associate professor in student development in postsecondary education at the University of Iowa.