The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 45, No. 2 - 77

Entry-Level Professionals' Proficiency with Helping Skills

RESULTS

. . . it is recommended that

Analysis of NASPA Website

students be placed at specific

The NASPA (2019) graduate program directory contains 380 records. Each record within
the directory includes institutional information, program description, curriculum description, program requirements, learning
outcomes, faculty information, student information, and admissions requirements. The
initial review resulted in the removal of 90
records for programs that only offered terminal degrees (PhD/EdD). The terminal degrees
were removed, since the focus of this study
was on entry-level housing practitioners, and
doctoral programs were far less likely to constitute the educational preparation of these professionals. The remaining 290 records were
carefully reviewed to determine if counseling
courses were a degree requirement.
The NASPA directory provides the option to
select from several areas of focus, including (1)
administration, (2) counseling, (3) international education, (4) leadership, (5) policy, and (6)
student learning and development. The initial
selection of counseling as the focus yielded
23 programs. Of the remaining 267 records,
it could be determined that an additional 57
programs required counseling courses, 201
programs did not require counseling courses,
and the requirements of the nine remaining
programs could not be determined.
The 80 programs with counseling course
requirements varied in the number of core
counseling classes required, ranging from
one course up to twelve courses. In terms of
a course focused specifically on helping skills/
counseling techniques, 55 of the programs had
this type of requirement. Theories of Counsel-

internship sites where there are
opportunities to develop their
helping skills, i.e., in the areas of
student conduct, residence life,
new student orientation, and
health education.

ing and Multicultural Counseling were most
frequently listed as required courses. Finally,
from the 201 programs that did not have counseling courses as a requirement, 25 programs
indicated that counseling courses were available as an elective.
There were differences in the names of the
courses offered in counseling, and more than
126 unique class names were found on the
various program websites. The most common
class names were Counseling Theories/Theories of Counseling, Multicultural Counseling,
Group Counseling, and Career Counseling.
The most common topics can be found in
Table 1. Finally, many programs had very specific focuses for their courses that connect
to the student populations or concerns with
which they work. These included courses on
addictions, student athletes, laws and ethics of
counseling, family counseling, health issues in
counseling, consultation in counseling, measurement and assessment in counseling, and
substance abuse.
While it is impossible to determine the
focuses of the specific courses without comV O L U M E 4 5 , NO. 2 * 2 0 1 9

The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 45, No. 2

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