The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 37, No. 2 - 29

Professional Development Needs

affairs professionals in all student affairs areas, as well as the most preferred delivery methods for addressing those needs with a practical goal of developing appropriate ongoing educational opportunities. Due to the high number of new professionals working in the area of residential life who participated in this research, the focus evolved to center on the needs and preferences of new professionals in residential life.

American/Black, 2% as Asian American/ Asian/Pacific Islander, 3% as Hispanic/Latino, 2% as Native American, and 2% as other.

Survey Instrument
Based upon a review of the literature, the researchers developed a 30-item instrument to identify issues that new student affairs professionals (full-time practitioners in student affairs with 0-5 years of experience) face in their jobs. Thirty items were selected for inclusion in a web survey where respondents were asked to rate their own level of need for each item on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being a very high need. As it was believed that different delivery methods would be preferred for different topics, respondents were asked to rank their first, second, and third most preferred delivery method, from 15 listed, for each professional development need.

Ultimately, after learning what is expected of them in their position, new student affairs professionals need and want to learn what it means to be a professional staff member within the larger context of student affairs .

Procedures
Using the ACPA member database, 1,103 individuals, who self-identified as entry-level professionals, were selected to participate in the online survey created using SurveyMonkey. All but one of these members had an e-mail address listed. A total of 1,005 e-mails reached participants, representing a 91% coverage rate, while 98 were returned due to invalid e-mail addresses. Usable responses were received from 257 individuals. Thus, 25% of those who were reached responded to the survey. Of those respondents, 126 reported working in residential life. For each professional development need, respondents were asked to rank the top three delivery methods for how they would prefer to enhance their skills in that area. To determine an overall ranking of the preferred methods for each issue area, a sum was created for
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METHOD
For the original study we created and administered a web-based survey to members of ACPACollege Student Educators International who identified as being in the field less than 5 years. For this particular analysis, we focused on the respondents of that original survey who reported working in residential life.

Participants
There were 257 new professionals who responded to the survey, and 126 worked in residential life. Sixty-six percent of the residential life respondents were women, and 34% were men. In regard to race/ethnicity, 84% identified as White, 2% as Multiracial, 8% as African

The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 37, No. 2

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 37, No. 2