Self-Authorship & the New Student Affairs Professional

Student Development Theory Case Study

Welcome back to the Maplewood College the Living Case Study. If you missed the first two installment of the Maplewood College living case study, which provided some details on Maplewood and its campus personalities be sure to get caught up before diving into our very first case study! This is going to be a chance for you to brush up on your student development theory - and consider the new professionals on our campuses and how we provide them challenge and support

Campus Personalities Central to the Case

• Meredith Mendez (She, Her, Hers) is the Dean of Campus Life. She arrived at Maplewood in 2018 from the flagship university in a neighboring state. She came to Maplewood specifically to both serve as the senior student affairs officer to work on a small campus that has prioritized BIPOC and First-Generation students and was enthusiastic about reimagining student affairs on campus. She is a single mother with a child in Middle School having lost her partner to a long illness in 2016. She has found herself fond of the Maplewood students and the institutional mission, however, she inherited an underperforming staff, and spent the first two academic years attempting to turn the team around. And then, the Pandemic hit.