LAUSR

Through its organization and content, this book may serve as a course text as well as a valuable resource for student affairs professionals whose skills in assessment and research are essential in meeting institutional accountability demands. This professional imperative to learn and incorporate research approaches and knowledge into practice with the ultimate outcome of strengthening both is the guiding purpose of the book. It is carefully embedded into the book, beginning with Kristen Renn and Larry Roper’s foreword where they challenge the “false binary in student affairs that sets research (or theory) versus practice” (p. xi, emphasis in original) and echoed in specific features throughout, such as “Perspectives from the Field” and “Words Researchers Use.” These short sections supply periodic reminders of the practical relevance of research to student affairs and vice versa, and provide some breathing space in what could otherwise be perceived as a dense text.