Western Illinois University

In the College Student Personnel program, student learning and development is paramount both for the graduate students and for the students that they serve as a student affairs practitioners. This growth is facilitated in the program through student, faculty, and student affairs professional partnerships in the classroom and in practical experiences in the field of student affairs as a full-time professional or through assistantships, practicums, and summer internships, and guided by the values of theory-to-practice, ethical action, self-authorship, social justice, and transformative learning.

CSP program has a theory-to-practice orientation that includes coursework in student development theory, leadership development, groups dynamics, philosophy and history of higher education, organization and administration of student affairs, multicultural competency, counseling theory and techniques, and research methods. This approach in rooted in the standards and best practices established by the national student affairs organizations (American College Personnel Association-ACPA, National Association of Student Personnel Administrators-NASPA, and Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education-CAS). All of this preparation is aimed at helping you develop and grow as a leader and a reflective practitioner doing socially responsible work as student affairs professional in a variety of student settings, including residence life, student activities, fraternity/sorority life, admissions and student recruitment, academic advising, orientation, multicultural student programs, student retention, gender programs, career development, and experiential education.