Gohn Transforms Student Papers Into Work About Helping Others Succeed
UA administrators, faculty members, graduates contribute chapters to book
Lyle Gohn spent 40 years as a college administrator and professor, the last 25 at the University of Arkansas. He finished his tenure last spring but recently completed a project that incorporated the work of his students over the previous eight years of teaching. It’s a book designed to help other student affairs professionals gain a better understanding of the numerous student subpopulations, including changes and issues, demographics, developmental theories, student retention and benefits of college degrees.
Gohn came to the university in 1982 as an associate professor and vice chancellor for student affairs, an emeritus position he holds after retiring last May. He moved to a full-time position as associate professor of higher education leadership in 1998 in the College of Education and Health Professions.
About a year ago, Gohn began to sift through papers written by students in a class he taught for years about college student subpopulations. His idea was to find the best of these papers and ask their authors to revise, update and rewrite them into chapters. The result was a book written by 25 student affairs professionals, higher education graduate students and alums as well as university faculty members.
The authors – 22 of whom studied or worked at the University of Arkansas now or in the past – examined 15 major student subpopulations including student-athletes, students from different minority groups, students in Greek letter organizations, gay students, working students and students with disabilities.The book emphasizes that student affairs professionals such as residence hall directors, student activity directors, admissions officers and academic, career and athletic advisors must understand the backgrounds that shape these students and the specific needs of these groups and that many students will move from one subpopulation to another during their college careers.
Gohn and Ginger Albin, a doctoral academy fellow in the UA higher education leadership program, authored three of the chapters addressing the changes that have occurred in student generations, the stereotyping of subpopulations, the dramatic changes in demographics, predictions that will likely occur based on the research and a number of major questions confronting higher education in relation to college students.
Gohn and Albin edited the other 15 chapters of the book published in electronic format only by the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators. Understanding College Student Subpopulations is available free from the association, which published it as an e-book that can be found online at http://naspa-webmail.naspa.org:3301/ftp/Understanding_College_Student_Subpopulations.pdf. Gohn is a past president of the association.
Student development theory is valuable to higher education professionals because it helps direct examination and interpretation of student experiences so that universities can better meet students’ needs, according to the book’s introduction. Student development theories help describe what students experience in college and help explain why students choose to engage in certain behavior.
The book continues beyond theory, prompting people who work at colleges and universities to evaluate their work with the goal of creating a campus environment that allows students to feel comfortable in their skin. They should ask themselves questions such as: “How do we as student affairs professionals and administrators engage ourselves in the lives of individual students and particularly those students who are too often forgotten or lost and ultimately become a statistic?”
In addition to providing a resource for professionals, Gohn believes the book accomplishes another purpose.
“I am bragging on my students, but most young professionals don’t have the opportunity to publish so early in their careers,” he said. “They rewrote their papers five or six times and expanded them extensively. Texts like these are usually written by established faculty members, and I am proud of the fact that so many UA graduates were able to see that this was possible.”
Read more about the book's authors.
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Contact:
Heidi Stambuck, director of communications
College of Education and Health Professions
(479) 575-3138, stambuck@uark.edu