Megan Marshall

Student Affairs Philosophy – Megan Marshall

I am a low-income, first-generation college graduate! I am not defined solely by my

experiences but rather by the kind of person I have chosen to be after them and through

them. I am where I am today because of all the mentors that gave me safe spaces to

discover who I wanted to be and supported me when I made decisions for myself. As a

practitioner, I aim to be a collage of all the great mentors I have had – I am holistic,

compassionate, and nonjudgmental. What makes the college experience great is the

freedom to learn, and not just purely through academics, but the freedom to change,

become, or stay who you are. I hope to be a person that leaves students with no question

that they are cared for and supported. I plan to create spaces where students can feel

support and where they can be brave.

The basis for this philosophy is my own experience within a university. Despite

wanting to be at a university and get an advanced degree I felt pressure immediately upon

moving into my first residence hall, a pressure that tempted me to withdraw from a

university before I even started classes. I was terrified and I realized only once I got there

how much support I had in K-12. While not all students had this, I grew up with

encouragement and support, and a network of people who could cheer me on when I

succeeded and quell me when I did not. At a residential university, away from home, I

realized I needed to build those networks from the ground up. Conveniently, student

affairs exist. The university had an entire field of people who cared about students in

transition. I had supervisors throughout my time in higher education who read my papers,

helped me research graduate schools, and who celebrated with me when I got into those

schools. I would not be the person I am today, without these people. I would not be the
Megan Marshall

leader I am without these people. The way I lead and the way I supervise is strongly values

based (Dugan, 2017) and my leadership style, and student affairs philosophy is informed by

the values that I hold. I believe that all people should have the option to pursue an education if

they so choose, and therefore I am equity and justice focused in my philosophy.

Higher education is sometimes thought of as the great equalizer. What I think

separates student affairs and academic affairs is this concept. While academic affairs might

treat all students the same, look at the same graduation plan and degree audit, and expect

all students to meet the same requirements, student affairs consider the student as a whole.

Student affairs should be equity and justice focused. Not all students require the same

things to be successful, and as a field, we must acknowledge systemic barriers that prevent

students from meeting their goals, and we must find ways around them, and more so, ways

to remove them. For a while, equality was the goal of the social justice foreword, but

recently the acknowledgement that what is more important than equality is equity.

Something I hope to do as a leader is to uphold the spirit of justice. To think critically

about justice is to constantly challenge systems of injustice. In upholding justice, I must

take ownership of my own identities and pay attention to my privilege through them.

Something a leader who strives to be justice focused can do is share power (Schuh et al.,

2017). As a white woman I have privilege attached to my race, and I want to use my

privilege to make spaces for groups without my privilege. I was once told that in rooms of

privilege and power, the people in those rooms have an obligation to look around the room

and see who is missing, and to change that. Sharing power can do this, just because I may be

asked to speak on a subject, does not mean I am always the best person to do so.
Megan Marshall

While equality aims to offer the same opportunities, and experiences to everyone,

equity means that everyone receives what they need to be successful (Takeuchi et at., 2018).

The diversity in experiences among college student to me, means that we cannot go into

every interaction with a student expecting the same things. Not only do practitioners need

to be equity, and social justice focused but it is also important for the practitioner to

acknowledge their own privileges and biases and take ownership of how they show up in

certain spaces as a result (Watt, 2007). Student affairs practitioners may also expose

students to these conversations and allow them to acknowledge their own needs as well as

identities. These conversations could be difficult, and a student affairs practitioner who is

facilitating these conversations should be aware of the multiple ways in which a student

could react to information presented during those conversations. The concepts of fear and

entitlement are considered by scholars to be reactions to the possibility of change and new

information (Watt 2007). This goes to support the belief that we learn best when

uncomfortable. That feeling and that response is often a sign that we are reacting to the

contradiction of a belief we previously had. I hope to cultivate environments where student

can be both safe, and brave. A safe space is where they feel they can share their opinions. The

difference in brave space means that’s a student is able to challenge ideals, as these

conversations are more difficult to have (Murphey et al., 2021)

The privilege of student affairs is it being student-centered and therefore privy to

the changing ways of student life.

The students that enter institutions of higher education are different than the

students who began at colonial colleges, and the network of colleges, universities, and

university systems has expanded to make room for new fields of study, and new students.
Megan Marshall

As the students who attend an institution of higher education change, it is the responsibility

of student affairs to be able to change with them and to meet the expanding needs of these

zstudentsstudents. I believe that this can be done by simply listening to the students and

taking notice of what in the world is important to them at the time, ortime or taking note of

what has changed for them and actively searching for solutions to managing these changes.

Going beyond making comments about the changes that are happening and talking to the

students about what they feel the best way to support them is. Something that I utilize in

my supervision style is the question “what does support look like for you?” By asking this,

I am asking the individual person what their needs are, and not assuming everyone wants to be

supported in the same way.

Students have lives outside of their education and being able to acknowledge thatat

outside factors affect how a student behaves in a classroom is integral in support. Support

looks different for everyone. Not all students might benefit from the involved kind of

support I received. Some students might just want someone to answer their questions or

provide them with information to pursue resources that could address their later concerns.

Whatever reasonable support looks like for the student; I believe student affairs has an

obligation to attempt to provide it.

Megan Marshall

References

Dugan, J. P. (2017). Leadership theory: Cultivating critical perspectives. Jossey-Bass.

Murphy, M. K., Soyer, M., & Martinez-Cola, M. (2021). Fostering “brave spaces” for exploring

perceptions of marginalized groups through reflexive writing. Communication Teacher,

35(1), 7–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/17404622.2020.1777316

Takeuchi, D. T., Dearing, T. C., Bartholomew, M. W., & McRoy, R. G. (2018). Equality and

Equity: Expanding Opportunities to Remedy Disadvantage. Generations, 42(2), 13–19.

Torres, V., Schuh, J. H., & Jones, S. R. (Eds.). (2016). Student services: A handbook for the

profession. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.

Watt, S. K. (2007). Difficult dialogues, privilege, and social justice: uses of the privileged

identity exploration (PIE) model in student affairs practice. The College Student Affairs

Journal, 26(2). https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ899385