Higher Education Administration Course Descriptions

Course descriptions for all HEA courses appear below. To see what is being offered in the upcoming term, view our course schedule.

Core Courses

CEK 501:  Survey of Higher Education Administration
This course introduces students to the primary areas of responsibility for higher education.  Topics include college and university organizational structures, human resource issues, finance and budgeting, legal issues, parental involvement, mission/access/retention.  CEK 501 is an advisory prerequisite for all other core classes and track electives.

CEK 502:  Survey of College Student Development Theory
This course examines the major theoretical constructs that inform practitioners who work with college students.  Topics will include moral and ethical development, emotional maturation and identity formation, as well as the link between student persistence and involvement.  Students will gain an understanding of psychosocial/affective, cognitive, typological and person/ environment interaction theories.

CEK 503:  Leadership in Higher Education
This course studies leadership on college campuses, both from a theoretical perspective and in the actual practice of leadership.  Emphasis is given to leadership in the higher education setting, while drawing upon business, political, sociological, and psychological constructs and approaches.  Examples include exploration of persuasion, influence, power, and politics.  The course also will examine administration/management, governance, systems, and organizational theory. 

CEK 504:  Research and Assessment in Higher Education
This course introduces assessment and program evaluation in colleges and universities.  With increasingly difficult, diverse, and complex decision-making circumstances, it is essential that professionals examine assessment techniques and how these strategies may be best employed to benefit organizations and ultimately their stakeholders.  Higher education (like other organizations) must use evidence for planning and linking programs, evaluating and assessing program results, and improving programs based on evaluation data.  Assignments will emphasize how to perform effective, high quality assessment and program evaluations.

CEK 595:  Project Seminar
The goal of the Project Seminar is to teach students to understand and conduct graduate level research.  Research may be either original or applied.  Approval of topic by faculty required; methodology and resources will be reviewed throughout writing process. S/U grading applies. No "I"/ Incompletes.  May repeat if a "U"/Unsatisfactory grade earned.  No transfer credit or substitutions.  Prerequisite:  At least 12 credits completed in MA in HEA program.  Co- or pre-requisite:  CEK 504

Electives

CEK 520:  Advising and Counseling in Higher Education
This course is an introduction to advising and counseling in higher education.  Course topics include advising and student development theory; advising structures for effective learning, teaching, and mentoring; legal issues in advising; advising methods and best practices; key stakeholders in advising; and articulating a personal advising philosophy.  Advisory co- or pre-requisite:  CEK 502

CEK 521:  Diversity and Higher Education
This course examines diversity in institutions of higher education from both a theoretical and historical framework.  It will provide a foundation for examining policy and practice by the study of key concepts in human diversity, legislation and case studies.  Best practice assessment methods are explored within the context of multicultural pedagogy.

CEK 522: Crisis Management and Prevention in Higher Education
This course will explore the critical role that student safety and effective institutional management of student crises play in the academic and social success of students. Risk factors such as mental health issues, alcohol and other drug use, and violence will be examined, as well as protective factors such as sense of belonging/community, health and wellness, and self-efficacy. Course participants will become familiar with latest best practices in institutional strategies to creating a safe environment for learning.

CEK 523:  Student Affairs Administration in Colleges and Universities
An overview of the history of the Student Affairs field as well as a more in-depth examination of the changing context in which student affairs professionals practice.  This includes the philosophies, ethics, and theories that guide the practice of student affairs work.  Review of the development of the field, legal and ethical foundations of practice, learning, retention and development theories, changing campus environment (including diversity, economic considerations and access issues), organizational structure, strategic planning and finance, information technology, learning outcomes and assessment and human resources as they relate to student affairs.  Consideration of the practical application of such topics in specific student affairs units including housing/residence life, student activities, career services, counseling and student health centers and judicial affairs. 

CEK 524:  Enrollment Management
This course covers marketing the university, programs to attract applicants, the application process, generating and applying models for predicting enrollment, and assessing outcomes, including ratios such as applicant-to-accept, accept-to-enrollment, and enrollment-to-retention, and graduation rates.  Issues of selectivity, financial aid leveraging (merit and need-based scholarships and aid programs), and linkages between academic and student affairs are covered.  The prime focus is undergraduate enrollment, but the course also examines graduate and professional school enrollment.  Students learn roles of admissions officers and counselors, information technology and data processing professionals, and institutional research analysts.  Ways to attract and retain students, increase selectivity and enrollment, and improve students’ academic and social integration and success are highlighted throughout the course.

CEK 525: The Contemporary Undergraduate
An in-depth examination of lifestyle, attitudes, characteristics and demographics of the contemporary undergraduate college student in the United States. This course offers an overview of the theoretical and research literature on college students in the U.S. from a variety of perspectives, and considers the educational, social, and environmental needs of different student subgroups. Students will explore traditional and non-traditional college populations at two-and four-year institutions.

CEK 530:  Legal Issues in Higher Education
This course, designed for college and university administrators, presents an overview of key issues and problem areas in the fast developing law of higher education.  Topics include student and faculty rights and responsibilities, academic freedom, governance, affirmative action, campus security, collective bargaining and labor relations, to name just a few.  Students will review important court cases that establish a framework for decision-making and will also participate in problem-solving exercises.

CEK 531:  Finance Issues in Higher Education
This course is devoted to the examination of critical concepts in higher education finance by analyzing key theories, structures and challenges of college and university financing.  Funding sources, the role of federal and state governments, allocation of resources, balancing budgets and contingency plans will be discussed along with ethical considerations of major public policy issues in financing higher education such as affordability, access/choice, equity, productivity and accountability, and the public private benefits of higher education.

CEK 532:  Facilities Management in Higher Education
Today’s higher education administrator is faced with a cross-section of job responsibilities and functions which may include the management and maintenance of academic facilities.  This course focuses on the organizational structure of college and university facilities and the responsibilities of managers within the facilities unit.  The course examines the multi-disciplinary activities within the built environment and the impact they have on students, faculty, staff and the surrounding campus community.

CEK 540: Seminar on Critical Issues in Higher Education
In this advanced seminar students address critical questions pertaining to US higher education. The topics selected represent themes that continue to elude resolution, but nonetheless generate thoughtful and often heated discussion, argument and debate.  A list of subjects to be covered includes, but is not limited to, Collegiate Sports, Affirmative Action, the Rising Cost of College Tuition, Collective Bargaining & Tenure, Distance Education, MOOC’s and Non-Traditional Students, and Campus Safety. Each student produces a weekly written assignment and a sophisticated analysis of one topic as a final term project.

Our point of departure is the influential Spellings Commission Report (2006), A test of leadership: Charting the future of US higher education. Available at  www2.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/hiedfuture/index.html. Students are to print and bring this document to the first class session.

The course is scheduled on-campus and synchronously (in real time) online via web conferencing system. Online students must meet the following technical requirements: computer with wired internet connection, web camera, microphone, and telephone.

Prerequisite:  At least 12 credits completed in MA in HEA program.

CEK 586:  Practicum in Higher Education
This course will provide students with an opportunity to integrate theory and practice and become familiar with the role of professionals within the higher education field.  Students enrolled in the course will participate in a 150 hour internship in an approved higher education or student affairs department.  The focus of the course will be to reflect and discuss the field experience.
Instructor consent required.

CEI 585:  Principles of Adult Learning
Students will develop a critical understanding of issues and problems in the adult education field through a number of research/writing assignments and independent and group projects.  Topics include philosophical and historical foundations, administration and finance, effective teaching and advising, and creative developments in continuing education.