Summary and Proposed Study
This literature review reveals that, on the topic of the relationship between
academic and student affairs, there exist quantitative and qualitative studies that explore
student learning/development outcomes and models for partnership. There are some,
although notably fewer, empirical studies that explore issues related to role identification.
One voice that is lacking is that of the faculty and their perception of student affairs
professionals, particularly at small colleges. Reger and Hyman (1989) included data on
how student affairs professionals think faculty members perceive them but no empirical
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study of faculty perceptions was identified. Hardwick (2001) explored faculty
perceptions in his doctoral dissertation at the University of Minnesota through a
quantitative study. This study, therefore, seeks to explore the impact of perception of
faculty at a small college on collaborative initiatives in a qualitative fashion, exploring
the perceptions of faculty at a single site, using complementary qualitative analyses to
establish a context for those perceptions, and seeking to identify key themes