Contested Issues in Troubled Times

"Contested Issues in Troubled Times offers fresh perspectives on the role of student affairs educators and practitioners in engaging in the difficult but crucial work of promoting inclusive environments on college campuses. Importantly, it does so in a way that does not hide—and indeed celebrates—the diversity of viewpoints shared among colleagues. This book will undoubtedly serve as a valuable springboard for rich discussions in the classroom and in the student affairs profession."

Linda J. Sax, Professor of Higher Education and Organizational Change, Graduate School of Education & Information Studies

University of California Los Angeles

"Just as the first, the second edition of Contested Issues will become a go-to book for student affairs graduate courses and professional development opportunities on campus. Magolda, Baxter-Magolda, and Carducci have assembled a timely book that engages the most difficult and important issues facing student affairs professionals today—and likely into the future. The array of authors—representing faculty members and professional staff at all stages of careers—lends to the usefulness of this volume through the presentation of diverse and challenging perspectives."

Robert D. Reason, Professor, Student Affairs and Higher Education

Iowa State University

"In this update to the original Contested Issues, a new generation of scholars challenges the usefulness and authenticity of many of the habits that we have lazily and superficially adopted. They rightly question best practices and position the profession of student affairs to focus on changing systems and structures to increase equity for marginalized students.”

Anna Ortiz, Professor of Educational Leadership

Long Beach State University

“A cross between professional development resource and inspirational essays, Contested Issues in Troubled Times artfully draws readers into a series of carefully crafted conversations about contentious issues in higher education, invites personal reflection and then encourages courageous action. The book promises to help student affairs educators channel their potential to put professional philosophy, commitments, research, and competencies to work to become agents for cultivating and sustaining inclusive learning environments."

Jillian Kinzie, Assistant Director, Center for Postsecondary Research

Indiana University Bloomington

"Just as the first, the second edition of Contested Issues will become a go-to book for student affairs graduate courses and professional development opportunities on campus. Magolda, Baxter Magolda, and Carducci have assembled a timely book that engages the most difficult and important issues facing student affairs professionals today—and likely into the future. The array of authors—representing faculty members and professional staff at all stages of careers—lends to the usefulness of this volume through the presentation of diverse and challenging perspectives."

Robert D. Reason, Professor of Higher Education and Student Affairs

Iowa State University

"Contested Issues in Troubled Times invites readers to engage some of the most perplexing issues confronting college and university educators in the 21st century. As the essayists wrestle with provocative questions that defy simplistic solutions, they model productive dialogue and offer a rich constellation of perspectives for the reader to consider. Contested Issues urges those of us invested in the student affairs profession to think beyond traditional field assumptions and strategies as we construct novel and nuanced practices that will help us move from troubled times toward a promising future."

Alyssa Rockenbach, Professor of Higher Education

North Carolina State University

"Magolda, Baxter-Magolda, and Carducci have curated an impressive volume, assembling an impressive collection of leading voices to grapple with how student affairs scholars and practitioners can and should promote growth, learning, and development for all students as they navigate environments marked by various forms of oppression and marginalization. In addition to tackling everything from how to support students managing trauma to student affairs’ larger role as an agent of social justice, this text is a primer on how to engage in complex, sometimes contentious, discourse around difficult issues. So much can be learned from how the authors affirm, challenge, and push each other and our field to have the hard conversations necessary to move colleges and universities forward. We don’t always agree and there isn’t always a clear-cut 'right' or 'wrong,' but the authors of this text show us how authentic, thoughtful, critical engagement can lead to action and progress towards real solutions to persistent challenges facing the academy."

Kimberly A. Griffin, Associate Professor

University of Maryland; Editor, Journal of Diversity in Higher Education

"In an era where overt oppression, righteous indignation, and name-calling are on the rise, an important skill for student affairs educators to practice is engaging about difficult issues productively. The contributors of this book model this kind of dialogue in thoughtful ways. Stemming from their previous innovative Contested Issues in Student Affairs volume, this companion book by Peter Magolda, Marcia Baxter Magolda, and Rozana Carducci adds a unique perspective on the important goal of building coalitions across differences."

Stephen John Quaye, Past President

ACPA: College Student Educators International, Associate Professor, Miami University

From the Foreword:

"Contested Issues in Troubled Times: Student Affairs Dialogues on Equity, Civility, and Safety is a resource that has the capacity to bridge the gap between who we say we are as student affairs educators, who we actually are, and who we hope to become. The contributors effectively grapple with issues plaguing our campuses and influencing our roles as professionals. The ques­tions to which contributors respond not only raise awareness of critical and contested issues but also prompt readers to do the difficult work of consider­ing how the field both fuels and works to disrupt them."

Lori D. Patton, Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies

Iowa State University

"Contested Issues is structured in four parts. The first provides an introduction to the book’s purpose and an overview of key issues in higher education and student affairs administration. The second addresses challenges and opportunities related to the creation of inclusive campus learning environments. The third explores how to engage in socially just, intentional student affairs practice. Finally, in its fourth section, Contested Issues comes close to answering the question it posed at the outset, suggesting both that the creation of 'an equitable climate conducive to learning' is possible and that the responsibility for doing so belongs to individual higher education and student affairs administrators acting in a variety of big and small ways every day. In short, the book describes how colleges and universities ought to be more so than it offers the precise steps for how to get to that point.

The scope and scale of the contemporary issues covered across the volume’s 24 paired contributions is daunting. The chapters make clear both the challenges associated with the current socio-political reality and also that it has merely brought to the foreground long-simmering issues associated with equity, inclusion, and social justice in higher education institutions. That is, the challenges described in Contested Issues are not new, they merely appear so to some because the current socio-political environment has swept away the thin veil of civility and laid bare the fact that college and university campuses have long disregarded their role in perpetuating systems of power, privilege, and oppression.

Taken as a whole, Contested Issues makes the case that higher education and student affairs administrators must change the way they approach their work to navigate the troubled times in which colleges and universities find themselves. It does not make the case that the problems they must confront are new nor that the solutions to them are simple. It does not provide the answers but rather the questions that will lead to this change. In so doing, Contested Issues is a powerfully useful tool for anyone who seeks to understand colleges and universities in a thoughtful, reflexive way and appreciate more fully the systems of power, privilege, and oppression that are fundamentally intertwined with higher education."

Teachers College Record