Collaboration between student affairs and institutional researchers to improve institutional effectiveness

"The purpose of this volume is to inform institutional researchers about the nature of research in student affairs and encourage collaboration among them to enhance our research efforts and provide more thorough information on institutional effectiveness to institutional decision makers. Chapters in this volume focus on defining the field of student affairs research, reviewing the major groups of theories that guide student affairs research, debating the merits of qualitative versus quantitative methods, identifying creative methods for disseminating results, exploring examples of the best practices in student affairs research, and presenting a discussion between a student affairs researcher and an institutional researcher as to how they approach research in their office. The concluding chapter examines the question of whether institutional research, student affairs research, and assessment offices would be more efficient and effective if merged into an office of institutional effectiveness."--Jacket.