Orienting Mid-Level Student Affairs Professionals

Mid-level managers comprise a large proportion of student affairs organizations. They are often the most overlooked when it comes to professional orientation and institutional introduction when entering new positions. Accordingly, information is presented from the professional literature that speaks to the characteristics and unique needs of this administrative cohort, with attention to orientation needs, including life and work transition, role complexity, leadership demands, and technical skills requirements. Finally, a process developed for a mid-size, private university’s student affairs division is offered as an example for preparing orientation for mid-level staff. Employees play a central role in creating and sustaining quality higher education institutions. In both academic and co-curricular departments, the skills and commitment of people who comprise the workforce are essential to an institution’s effectiveness. Despite this, a national study of staffing practices in student affairs found that they are often given cursory treatment (Winston & Creamer, 1997). Furthermore, Winston and Creamer noted that new employee orientation is among the staffing practices that are both an area of importance and a topic largely neglected in the literature. Since Winston and Creamer’s study, this issue has remained largely unaddressed in the professional literature (Carpenter, 2001). This article addresses orientation practices for a specific category of staff: mid-level student affairs professionals. Position orientation is important for every new hire. However, this particular level of staff is addressed for two primary reasons: (1) mid-level positions are purported to be particularly complex positions, suggesting unique needs for support (Ackerman, 2007; Ellis and Moon, 1991; Scott, 1978; and Young, 1990), and (2) there is an absence of orientation and other support mechanisms for mid-level positions (Winston & Creamer, 1997)