Professional Competencies
Professionals in the field of higher education have many forms of guidance to look to in order to grow into successful practitioners. Foundational documents such as The Student Personnel Point of View (American Council on Education, 1949), The Principles of Good Practice for Student Affairs (ACPA & NASPA, 1996), and The Student Learning Imperative (ACPA, 1994) help Student Affairs professionals to understand their charge in the lives of the students that they serve. However, without a system for assessing what those guidelines are indicating, and how to accomplish success within them, there is a potential loss for critical understanding and putting these theories into practice. The Professional Competency Areas for Student Affairs Educators (ACPA & NASPA, 2015) was created for just such a purpose – to define what essential competencies are needed to be a successful Student Affairs practitioner, and to give a rubric for assessing where said practitioner lands within each.
Outlined within there are ten essential competencies that have been identified by ACPA and NASPA (ACPA & NASPA, 2015) that are critically important to the role of the Student Affairs professional. These ten areas are:
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Personal and Ethical Foundations (PEF)
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Values, Philosophy, and History (VPH)
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Assessment, Evaluation, and Research (AER)
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Law, Policy, and Governance (LPG)
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Organizational and Human Resources (OHR)
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Leadership (LEAD)
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Social Justice and Inclusion (SJI)
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Student Learning and Development (SLD)
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Technology (TECH)
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Advising and Supporting (A/S)
Each of these competencies were created based on the needs and goals of the profession as outlined by 19 foundational documents from ACPA, NASPA, and CAS, and were proposed with the “consideration of applications of the competencies to practice, professional development, and the preparation of new professionals through graduate study.” (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 4). Together, they represent the “essential knowledge, skills, and dispositions expected of all student affairs educators, regardless of functional area or specialization within the field” (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 7). In order to assess how these are applied, discrete outcomes for each competency area were also put forth and are categorized by three levels of proficiency: foundational, intermediate, and advanced (ACPA & NASPA, 2015).
Although Student Affairs professionals regardless of status or years in the field will come into positions with various levels of proficiency in any given competency, striving for the advanced level in each should be a priority for all. Additionally, while each of these competency areas are distinct in their main theme, they, not unlike aspects of identity, overlap and intersect. Therefore, as each of these reach higher levels of proficiency, they interact to reflect a “higher order synthesis and complexity” (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 9).
All of this is to say that the application of focusing on these competencies is to better serve students through their understanding and attainment. Building these into performance evaluations, or within job descriptions, into graduate coursework, or educational frameworks is going to ensure that professionals, and therefore policy and practice, is going to align Student Affairs professionals with student needs on both the individual and the global scale.
01
PERSONAL & ETHICAL
FOUNDATIONS (PEF)
The first professional competency area is Personal and Ethical Foundations, or PEF, defined as, “the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to develop and maintain integrity in one’s life and work” (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 16). A word like integrity evokes the idea that a professional person, competent in this area, will remain impartial and unbiased based on their lives outside of the office, but will do so with a sense of moral rightness and fairness. Personal integrity is similar, but instead a person remains honest and true to what their own code of ethics entail. No person is able to exist in a silo, so in order to have these personal and professional worlds meet to formulate an advanced foundational ethical level, we have to be constantly assessing what our inner dialogue is saying as we go through our every day. To develop as people, we must make the conscious and conscientious choice to critique and dissect our reactions to not only conflict and adversity, but also to success.
02
VALUES, PHILOSOPHY,
& HISTORY (VPH)
The next professional competency that ACPA and NASPA describe as being essential to the role of a Student Affairs professional is that of Values, Philosophy, and History (VPH). This competency is directly related to the Student Affairs profession in its very definition, which is the “knowledge, skills, and dispositions that connect the history, philosophy, and values of the student affairs profession to one’s current professional practice” (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 18). What this means to me is that in order to be a competent Student Affairs professional, you have to understand the foundation of where the profession came from, and additionally, you must always strive to embody those tenants set forth in the foundational documents of the profession.
03
ASSESSMENT, EVALUATION,
& RESEARCH (AER)
From my experience working in the higher education landscape, I can say that Assessment, Evaluation, and Research is critical, and recently these concepts have proven very difficult to conceptualize and implement for many colleges and universities. From strife with accreditation, to asking for programmatic budget increases, I feel as though AER is an incredibly important theory to understand, and more importantly, to put into practice. In order to provide proof of success, or failure, it is imperative that higher education professionals know how to collect and interpret data from their programs, policies, and procedures. ACPA & NASPA define this competency area as having the ability to “design, conduct, critique, and use various AER methodologies and the results obtained from them, to utilize AER processes and their results to inform practice, and to shape the political and ethical climate surrounding AER processes and uses in higher education” (2016, p. 20).
04
LAW, POLICY,
& GOVERNANCE (LPG)
The professional competency of Law, Policy, and Governance stands out to me as one of the most critical competencies for higher level administrators to possess. The LPG competency area is defined as understanding the various contexts and applications of legal constructs, compliance/policy issues, and of governance structures within higher education (ACPA & NASPA, 2015). What this looks like functionally is an ability to not only know what the policies are at an institutional level, but also at the state and federal level, and also not only what these policies are, but also why they are in place.
05
ORGANIZATIONAL &
HUMAN RESOURCES (OHR)
Although I consider myself to be a mid-level professional in the field of Higher Education, as my experience relates to this next category of Organizational and Human Resources (OHR), I feel that I am at a strictly foundational level. This category of the professional competencies is defined by the concept of knowing how to apply strategies and techniques that will effectively manage financial resources, facilities, technologies, crises, risks, and resources, in addition to conflict resolution, supervision, motivation, and other factors involving the management of people (ACPA & NASPA, 2015). While I feel that I have been exposed to many of these topics, it has never been within my purview to manage any such resource with authority.
06
LEADERSHIP (LEAD)
It seems that leadership is almost a tangible quality in a person, and yet, it also seems like such an elusive quality to possess. Many managers and supervisors technically hold leadership roles, but it takes a certain disposition to be considered a true leader. Leadership as a professional competency is defined by the ACPA & NASPA’s as “both the individual role of a leader and the leadership process of individuals working together to envision, plan, and affect change in organizations and respond to broadbased constituencies and issues.” (2015, p. 25), but it is within the breakdown of this competency’s rubric where the true meaning of this definition can be understood.
07
SOCIAL JUSTICE &
INCLUSION (SJI)
Social justice and inclusion is probably the single most influential topic that defines my personal philosophy as it comes to my work in higher education. As such, I feel as though I could write a weighty tomb encompassing the many experiences, workshops, dialogues, and courses that I have been privy to throughout my career that contribute to my competency in this area. As an area of professional competency, Social Justice, and Inclusion (SJI) is defined “as both a process and a goal that includes the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to create learning environments that foster equitable participation of all groups and seeks to address issues of oppression, privilege, and power” (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 30).
08
STUDENT LEARNING &
DEVELOPMENT (SLD)
One thing that my years of job experience have provided me is confidence in knowing that I am good at the work that I do. While I may not be at the advanced levels of each of these professional competencies, I am confident that I am well on my way. The next competency of Student Learning and Development (SLD), however, is one that I came into graduate school having no formal experience with or knowledge of beforehand. When I was going through the process of researching graduate programs in Higher Ed, I made it a point to be sure that I would be able to have hands-on experiences, but also that I would get a thorough foundation in theory as well. Many programs are heavy on one or the other, but few have a healthy mix of both. Buffalo State got my final vote because their program has just that – a balance of both theory and practice and a strong focus on theory to practice, more specifically.
09
TECHNOLOGY (TECH)
The newest competency to be added by ACPA & NASPA is that of Technology. It was agreed by all parties involved that while it had been previously integrated into other competencies, and is a vein that runs through many, it was important to section it off into its own competency with its own rubric for development and growth. “Student learning and success spans environments that are both physical and virtual; thus, student affairs educators must proactively engage students within these settings.” (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p.5). The idea behind this new addition is “inclusive of innovation” and recognizes that work in higher education and Student Affairs is “dynamic and must use a variety of tools to engage students in learning” (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p.5). The competency area is defined as focusing on the “use of digital tools, resources, and technologies for the advancement of student learning, development, and success as well as the improved performance of student affairs professionals” (ACPA & NASPA, 2016, p.32).
10
ADVISING &
SUPPORTING (A/S)
The last, and to me, most pervasive competency for the field of higher education, is Advising and Support. This is the competency that undergirds all other competencies and guides the work that we as higher education professionals do at our most basic and foundational cores. Defined, this competency “addresses knowledge, skills, and dispositions related to providing advising and support to individuals and groups through direction, feedback, critique, referral, and guidance” by “developing advising and supporting strategies that take into account self-knowledge and the needs of others” in order to “play critical roles in advancing the holistic wellness of ourselves, our students, and our colleagues” (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 36). Simply put, this is how we connect with, and guide those around us. Alongside the competency for Social Justice and Inclusion, I feel this is where I am at my strongest level of competency.
References:
American College Personnel Association (ACPA). (1994). Student learning imperative:
Implications for student affairs. Alexandria, VA: Author
American College Personnel Association (ACPA) & National Association of Student
Personnel Administrators (NASPA). (1996). Principles of good practice for student affairs. Washington, D.C.: Authors.
American College Personnel Association and National Association of Student
Personnel Administrators. (2015, August). Professional competency areas for student affairs educators. Retrieved from
http://www.naspa.org/images/uploads/main/Professional_Competencies.pdf
American College Personnel Association and National Association of Student
Personnel Administrators. (2016, August). ACPA/NASPA Professional Competency Rubrics. Retrieved from
https://www.naspa.org/images/uploads/main/ACPA_NASPA_Professional_Competency_Rubrics_Full.pdf
American Council on Education. (1949). The student personnel point of view.
Washington, D.C.: Author.