The Outrageous Idea of Christian Student Affairs: How Christian Chief Student Affairs Officers Envision Their Practice

Abstract

Despite a growing body of literature depicting specific aspects of a Christian approach to student affairs, a discipline-wide theological vision for Christian student life professionals does not exist. This paper reports on the first stage of a larger research project that attempts to meet this need by investigating how the Christian intellectual tradition animates the practice of student affairs professionals at Christian colleges and universities. We used Benne’s (2001) typology to identify 192 “Orthodox” and “Critical Mass” institutions of higher education in the Christian Protestant tradition. We then sent a mixed-methods survey to their chief student affairs officers (CSAOs) and received 69 responses, capturing their initial reflections on what makes their institution’s student life practice(s) distinctively Christian. Our findings reveal that some of the participants’ responses included language and practices common to non-Christian student affairs, but most referred to words, theological concepts, and practices selectively borrowed from the Christian tradition. The latter distinctively shaped the aims and methods of Christian student affairs.