User:Mmariner14/Evaluate an Article

Evaluate an article

This is where you will complete your article evaluation. Please use the template below to evaluate your selected article.

·      Name of article: Student Affairs

·      Briefly describe why you have chosen this article to evaluate.

o  I chose this article because our course degree is focusing on Student Affairs and this article gives a great summary of what this area is, the different functional areas within a higher education institution, and seems to showcase what a good Wikipedia article looks like.

Lead

Guiding questions

"Student affairs, student support, or student services is the department or division of services and support for student success at institutions of higher education to enhance student growth and development in the United States and abroad. People who work in this field are known as student affairs practitioners or student affairs professionals. These student affairs practitioners work to provide services and support for students and drive student learning outside of the classroom at institutions of higher education.

The size and organization of a student affairs division or department may vary based on the size, type, and location of an institution. The title of the head of student affairs also varies widely; traditionally in the United States, this position has been known as the "dean of students", as distinguished from the academic dean or the deans of individual schools within a university. In some institutions today, student affairs departments are led by a vice president or vice chancellor who then reports directly to the president/chancellor of the institution. In other cases the head of student affairs may report to the provost or academic dean."

·     Does the Lead include an introductory sentence that concisely and clearly describes the article's topic?

o  Yes. The introductory paragraph provides adequate information about what the field of student affairs is, a working definition, and sets the stage for what the rest of the article will be talking about.

·     Does the Lead include a brief description of the article's major sections?

o  The lead paragraph does not mention a description of the articles major sections, however there is a table of contents within the article that lists the different parts sections.

·     Does the Lead include information that is not present in the article?

o  No it does not. The Lead effectively gives a starting point for what the rest of the article will be addressing.

·     Is the Lead concise or is it overly detailed?

o  The lead is concise and provides appropriate content.

Lead evaluation - Good

Content

Guiding questions

History of student affairs

Although institutions of higher education have had to deal with student affairs in some way for as long as they have existed, student affairs as a distinct professional field emerged first in the Anglo-American context in the late 19th century. There it developed from the originally distinct positions of "dean of women" and "dean of men". The field developed much later in continental Europe, where development first began in the 1950s but was greatly spurred when the Bologna Process in the 1990s created a surge in international students with greater needs for student support. Similarly in many other countries where student affairs is still a largely inchoate profession, such as Uruguay, professional activity in the field has emerged in relation to the needs of international students.

South Africa[edit]

Student affairs did not become a unitary profession in South Africa until the end of apartheid in 1994. As in other countries of sub-Saharan Africa, South African universities have broadly followed an American model of student affairs administration. Difficulties in the implementation of student affairs principles from developed countries has been characterized as due to South Africa's status as a developing country.

United Kingdom[edit]

Student affairs draws its origins on the Oxbridge model and the Anglo-American concept that schools stand in loco parentis, creating a greater legal obligation for the university to govern student life. However, professional student affairs administration in the United Kingdom is of relatively recent date: student affairs departments became a feature of all United Kingdom universities in 1992, having previously been widespread only in the new universities.

United States[edit]

Idealized depiction of student life from a 1960 Shimer College handbook

The profession of student affairs "grew from the campus up, not from theory down". Early higher education in the United States was based on the Oxbridge model of education; thus, most early institutions were residential and the tutors lived in the halls with the students. These men were the precursor to student affairs professionals in the United States. Typically, they served as dean of discipline and in loco parentis (in place of the parent). These early student affairs practitioners' focus was on control of the student as opposed to modern philosophy which focuses on the development of the student as a whole, but has always connected those interested in the welfare of students with students needing assistance.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as the number of and-grant institutions increased, enrollment expanded, student populations began to include women, the idea of vocationalism began to influence academics and the institution's president began to be viewed as "the chief moral front". With these changes it became apparent that additional staff members were needed to allow the president to respond to the issues of finance and faculty recruitment.[

These first student affairs professionals were the dean of women, dean of men and personnel workers. Many of the early deans came from "teaching roles in the liberal arts". The first dean of men was LeBaron Russell Briggs at Harvard University in 1890, with the first dean of women being Adelia Johnston in 1869 at the Oberlin College as lady principal and later named Dean of Women in 1894. Alice Freeman Palmer in 1892 at the University of Chicago was the first to hold the title of Dean of Women.

The dean of men's position typically included discipline, but could vary depending on the institution's overall philosophy. The position description might have read, "that officer in the administration who undertakes to assist the men students [to] achieve the utmost of which they are individually capable, through personal effort on their behalf, and through mobilizing in their behalf all the forces within the University which can be made to serve this end". The one thing that remained consistent was the responsibility to deal with men and help them develop to their potential.

Deans of Women were trail blazers as women in positions of authority. Not only were women at colleges and universities a new development, but women as staff members even more new. The institutional leadership was dominated by men, but still they persevered including the founding of what is now the American Association of University Women (AAUW) in 1903.

In December 1918 Robert Rienow, the dean of men at the University of Iowa, wrote a letter to Thomas Arkle Clark, dean of men at the University of Illinois, suggesting a meeting that is now recognized as the founding of the organization now known as NASPA - Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education.

In 1924, May L. Cheney, who organized a teacher placement office at the University of California, Berkeley, helped form the National Association of Appointment Secretaries (NAAS). That year, NAAS met for the first time and came as guests of the National Association of Deans of Women (NADW) to a convention sponsored by the Department Superintendence of the National Education Association. In 1929, forty-six NAAS members registered for the Sixth Annual Convention. NAAS became the National Association of Personnel and Placement Officers (NAPPO). The name American College Personnel Association (ACPA) was adopted in 1931. Association communication consisted of one mailed newsletter, the Personnel-O-Gram (P-O-G). In 1937, the Student Personnel Point of View statement was developed by leaders of the American Council on Education (ACE) and ACPA.

The Student Personnel Points of View, written in 1937 and 1949, further developed the area of student affairs.

In the 1960s the student development movement, the study of the student as a whole - physical, mental and emotional, was introduced.

In the 1970s the landscape of student affairs began to change when the voting age was lowered and 18-year-olds were granted adult status in the eyes of the law.

In the United States as early as 1992, student affairs began to see a change in the reporting structure. Chief student affairs officers began to shift to the provost, the chief academic officer.

·      Is the article's content relevant to the topic?

o  Yes. The above paragraph is only a small portion of the full article. The rest of the article also goes into Student Affairs in Community Colleges, the different functional areas within the field, a breakdown of student affairs professionals, professional organizations, and criticisms of the field.

·      Is the content up-to-date?

o  Yes. The latest update to the page was December 30th, 2019.

·      Is there content that is missing or content that does not belong?

o  I did notice that the Canadian context of student affairs was not mentioned in the article. The field of student affairs in Canada is still growing and this can be an area of contribution that could be added to this article in the future.

Content evaluation - Great

Tone and Balance

Guiding questions

·      Is the article neutral?

o  Yes. The article does a great job at providing a non-partisan review of the field of student affairs. There does not appear to be any biased language throughout the article, which I think is a product of the article providing a very high level overview of the topic, and not going too in-depth in any one area.

·      Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?

o  For the most part no. In the criticism section, there are areas in which I believe citations would be warranted as some of the language has a biased underpinning to it if the facts are not substantiated by a citation. However, based on my reading, there does not appear to be heavy bias in this article. The language suggests that this is a third-party article, written for the sole purpose of providing information.

·      Does the article attempt to persuade the reader in favor of one position or away from another?

o  As mentioned above, I do not believe that this article attempts to persuade a reader in favour of one position or another.

Tone and balance evaluation - Good

Sources and References

Guiding questions

1.     NASPA Career in student affairs. Archived from the original on 21 March 2012. Retrieved 22 March 2012.

2.     ^ Deardorff, Darla K.; de Wit, Hans; Heyl, John D. (2012). The SAGE Handbook of International Higher Education. p. 237. ISBN 9781412999212.

3.     ^ Schreiber 2014, p. 13.

4.     ^ Deardorff 2012, p. 237-238.

5.     ^ Ludeman 2009, p. 297.

6.     ^

7.     ^ Schreiber, Birgit (2014). "Key challenges facing Student Affairs: An international perspective". In Speckman; et al. (eds.). Perspectives on Student Affairs in South Africa. ISBN 1920677445.

·      Are all facts in the article backed up by a reliable secondary source of information?

o  There are a couple areas in which I believe a citation could be employed to strengthen the point being made. I also think that in these instances, these citations could aid in avoiding the misunderstanding that the point is bias from the author or trying to persuade the reader.

·      Are the sources thorough - i.e. Do they reflect the available literature on the topic?

o  There are a substantial amount of sources referenced that by a preliminary look, appear to reflect the available literature. Additionally, some of the citations are from sources that are well respected (ie. NASPA) in the field which provides strength and validation to the article.

·      Are the sources current?

o  the sources tend to range in date from early 1900's to mid 2000's. I would like to see some more current resources being used, as the student affairs field has recently started to garner more attention within academia (especially in Canada). This field is also quickly evolving and so current research may also show updates on some of the information noted.

·      Check a few links. Do they work?

o  Yes, the links that I clicked are still active.

Sources and references evaluation - Good

Organization

Guiding questions

·      Is the article well-written - i.e. Is it concise, clear, and easy to read?

·      Does the article have any grammatical or spelling errors?

o  Not that I picked up while I was reading. Well proof-read.

·      Is the article well-organized - i.e. broken down into sections that reflect the major points of the topic?

o  Yes. The article makes logical sense in its flow, and is well structured for easy of the reader

Organization evaluation - Good

Images and Media

Guiding questions

·      Does the article include images that enhance understanding of the topic?

o  There is one image towards the beginning of the article but this image did not aid in the understanding of the topic, nor enhance the article. This image was not needed.

·      Are images well-captioned?

o  The caption to the image was decent.

·      Do all images adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations?

·      Are the images laid out in a visually appealing way?

Images and media evaluation - Poor

Checking the talk page

Guiding questions

·      What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?

o  The talk page for this article currently is trying to seek out contributors to expand the areas within the article. Talks about adding more links to professional organizations was talked about, but ran into an issue with balancing turning the wikipage into a "directory of links" which is not approved by Wikipedia. Additionally there is debate around whether the Criticisms sections needs to be present, as many contributors feel that it is unsourced and irrelevant information.

·      How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?

o  The article is rated as C-Class and is part of WikiProject Universities

·      How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?

Talk page evaluation - Good

Overall impressions

Guiding questions

Insert paragraph

·      What is the article's overall status?

·      What are the article's strengths?

·      How can the article be improved?

·      How would you assess the article's completeness - i.e. Is the article well-developed? Is it underdeveloped or poorly developed?

Overall evaluation

Optional activity

·      Choose at least 1 question relevant to the article you're evaluating and leave your evaluation on the article's Talk page. Be sure to sign your feedback

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