This program is available at the following location:

• Ecampus

The College Student Services Administration program offers preparation in the organization, leadership and administration of programs, services, and facilities in postsecondary education, including college union/centers, recreational sports, student government and activities, residence life programs, student housing, financial aid, career services, and general student advising and academic support.

Major Code: 2200

Upon successful completion of the program, students will meet the following learning outcomes:

EdM

• Conduct research or produce some other form of creative work.
• Demonstrate mastery of subject material.
• Conduct scholarly or professional activities in an ethical manner.
• Analyze how education can both mediate and reproduce power, privilege, and systems of oppression.
• Explore the roles, responsibilities, and commitments of higher education toward the needs of local and global communities.
• Evaluate educational programs and learning environments for their capacity to cultivate respectful engagement with diversity.
• Critique the relationship between student affairs and the larger academic enterprise and their shared role in promoting social justice.
• Analyze the diverse cultural contexts of students’ lives and how these contexts shape student development and learning.
• Explore how contemporary social issues impact students’ lives and evaluate appropriate interventions.
• Demonstrate the characteristics of a scholar-practitioner who utilizes research to inform their professional role.

MS

• Conduct research or produce some other form of creative work.
• Demonstrate mastery of subject material.
• Conduct scholarly or professional activities in an ethical manner.
• Analyze how education can both mediate and reproduce power, privilege, and systems of oppression.
• Explore the roles, responsibilities, and commitments of higher education toward the needs of local and global communities.
• Evaluate educational programs and learning environments for their capacity to cultivate respectful engagement with diversity.
• Critique the relationship between student affairs and the larger academic enterprise and their shared role in promoting social justice.
• Analyze the diverse cultural contexts of students’ lives and how these contexts shape student development and learning.
• Explore how contemporary social issues impact students’ lives and evaluate appropriate interventions.
• Demonstrate the characteristics of a scholar-practitioner who utilizes research to inform their professional role.

Graduation Requirements

• Successful completion of at least 54 credits of graduate-level coursework, the majority of which are required in the major field of study (CSSA). Additionally, a minor or area of specialization is chosen and completed by the individual student; and
• Successful completion and presentation of a capstone project (EdM degree) or a thesis capstone (MS degree) during the final year.

Additional information is available online.

Master of Education (EdM)

The EdM is earned through successful completion of all required program course work and successful completion and defense of a capstone portfolio. The capstone portfolio is a cumulative, comprehensive, and reflective form of student assessment. Completing a portfolio requires that the student address each program competency in a comprehensive, meaningful, and creative way. The portfolio “product” can be shared in any number of formats, including, but not limited to, writings, pictures, audio or video clips, and electronic media (websites, PowerPoint documents, etc.). Final portfolios are distributed to and evaluated in writing by a committee just prior to the last term of course work. A public, formal committee meeting with oral presentation and defense serves as the second method of evaluation.

Master of Science (MS)

The MS is earned through successful completion of all required program course work and successful completion and defense of thesis. In addition to required course work and the thesis, students pursuing the MS degree must also demonstrate adequate evidence of competence and learning in each of the five CSSA competency areas. Demonstration of this evidence may take the form of an extended/detailed competency plan with select work samples or other methods approved by the major professor. This demonstration need not be a portfolio, but it should clearly show evidence of competency mastery. Thesis research should be reflected in the demonstration.

For thesis work, CSSA and university policies require students to convene

1. a proposal meeting to present their research plan (generally spring of the first year for full-time students or fall/winter of the second year for part-time students) and
2. a final defense for presentation and evaluation of the research and competency demonstration (final term of course work).

Students who wish to pursue the MS should decide this early in their graduate program, ideally during the first term, since such research requires careful and lengthy planning. Major professors should be made aware of this decision.

Major Code: 2200