A Note From the Editor...
Special Edition on Student Success

Welcome to Volume 22 of the Georgia Journal of College Student Affairs. This edition of the Georgia Journal includes six articles on a variety of topics and two book reviews.

Four articles form the basis of the special focus of this edition, student success. First is an article by Dr. Darryl B. Holloman and Andrew Vigario, The Urban Challenge: Creating a Service Learning and Leadership Project at a Metropolitan University. The authors explore how Rutgers University-Newark created a leadership development program for the millennial student based upon a seven-point leadership model applied in a community engagement context.

In The Summer Reconsidered: Actively Transitioning Freshmen Into Collegiate Life, Sheree L. Gibson and Tobias L. Spears describe their efforts to develop a transition program for freshmen students who begin college during the summer instead of the fall term. Over the course of a year, a small team developed learning outcomes, goals, and activities for what became the Summer Experience Program.

Fiona Brantley wrote Supplemental Instruction—Working Together to Achieve Success. Supplemental instruction is offered for those courses which the institution sees as especially difficult, usually those classes with a high proportion of grades of D, F, W, or WF. Supplemental instruction works through special tutorial sessions where students help each other learn concepts, with sessions led by either professional tutors or specially trained students who have already succeeded in the class.

In Shaping Success Among Black Men in a Mid-Atlantic HBCU: A Study of Barriers and Benefits, Palmer and Dancy discuss the key role that social networking plays in the success of Black males at a historically Black institution.

Two articles focus more on our roles as professionals rather than how we work to foster student success. Altizer, Katz, and Watkins discuss the importance of our role in helping our institutions be prepared for campus emergencies in Are You Ready? Preparing the Student Affairs Professional for Disaster.

The final article is the speech that Stan Carpenter delivered at the closing of the 40th Annual Conference of the Georgia College Personnel Association on February 25-27 in Athens, Georgia. In it he provides his answer to the perpetual question asked by relatives, “What exactly do you do for a living?”

Volume 22 also contains two book reviews. DeLaughter reviews, 5 Minds for the Future. In 5 Minds, Gardner suggests that we will need to develop new ways of thinking and learning in order to be successful in the future. He calls these new ways his five minds. Three of the “minds” are cognitive in nature while two are more relational.

The second book review by Wilson concerns, Measuring Up: What Educational Testing Really Tells Us. In Measuring Up, Koretz helps the reader to understand the dangers of inappropriate use of test results and guides one through their use for the intended purposes.

We hope you enjoy Volume 22 of the Georgia Journal of College Student Affairs.

Tom G. Walter, Ph. D.
Editor
Gainesville State College