College Student Affairs

The College Student Affairs Program is a collaborative program between the Counselor Education and Higher Education programs at Penn State designed to educate and train professionals for careers in a college or university setting. Student affairs is a professional field in higher education that promotes student learning and development. In cooperation with faculty and administrators, student affairs professionals provide specific educational services and programs to facilitate student achievement of educational, personal, and career goals and to insure that colleges and universities are growth-enhancing environments for students.

The CSA program at Penn State has three overarching objectives:

• Provide a theoretical background—grounded in a social justice perspective—related to college students, the higher education context, and the student affairs profession;
• Provide guided and supervised experiences that allow students to intentionally apply theoretical knowledge to professional situations;
• Provide academic training and experiences that prepare students for further education and for professional lives as scholar-practitioners.

To assist students with achieving these objectives, the CSA faculty has identified six Learning Outcomes which serve as the foundation for the curriculum. It is expected that students will work with their advisor to purposefully plan curricular and co-curricular experiences that will allow them to achieve the Learning Outcomes.

The Master's of Education (M.Ed.) degree can be completed in four semesters of full-time study although students may choose to enroll in additional summer session coursework to lighten their academic load and/or complete internship experiences.