The researcher then asked some clarifying questions to help understand the formal
structural or systems relationship between academic affairs and student affairs,
specifically as regards institutional governance. When asked whether student affairs staff
members taught any classes, Lambert observed, “my understanding is over the course of
time they have really moved away from that kind of model with regards to it . . . there’s a
couple of us that have doctorates and, uh, but at this time don’t teach here at the college.”
The researcher then asked about participation in faculty meetings, often a primary
communication and governance mechanism at small colleges. Edmonds described the
involvement of student affairs in faculty governance, “[Mark], as the chief student affairs
officer, has full of participation in faculty meetings but that’s as far as it goes.” Lambert
noted that there did exist a student life committee, “there’s a, the student life committee is
run out of the dean’s office, the associate dean, and there’s two or three faculty members,
yeah I think there are three faculty members and three students that serve on that.”