CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.0 INTRODUCTION
This chapter will contain and discuss a general introduction to
Student Affairs Management System; also, it will clarify the problem
statement, explain the objectives and the scope of the project.
Finally, the significance and the chapter summery of the Mobile
Student Affairs Management System will be described and
demonstrated at the end of this chapter and also how it is
necessary and effective for University of Somalia.
1.1 Background of the problem
Student affairs as a distinct profession within higher
education—with graduate programs, professional associations,
journals, and scholarship—is a relatively new phenomenon.
However, the roots of the student affairs profession reach all the
way back to the colonial era and the earliest years of American
higher colleges and universities to manage students closely, as
students were viewed in those times as emotionally immature and
requiring strict adult supervision. Colonial colleges were often
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poorly staffed, with faculty serving as live-in teachers who
supervised the students in the dormitories and dining halls as well
as in the classrooms. The faculty developed rules and regulations
that governed students’
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behavior, conduct, and dress, and they enforced college rules
and expectations even when students were not on the college
premises.
(NASPA.org. May 7, 2017)
By the mid-1800s, academic life at American colleges and
universities had changed radically. The faculty at this time was
significantly influenced by European—predominantly German—
universities. European universities viewed the faculty’s exclusive
responsibility to be the training of the intellect. ( Rhatigan, James J.
(2000))
Subsequently, American faculty began to earn doctorates in
large numbers, developed expertise in specific disciplines, and
maintained active research agendas. They began training graduate
students who shared the faculty’s interests and who participated in
the faculty’s research pursuits better than undergraduate students.
As the faculty became subject experts, they had little time for or
interest in tending to matters of undergraduate student discipline
and mentorship. At the same time, students gradually rebelled
under the strict discipline and were not satisfied with merely
classical programs of study. Instead, students developed an
interest in extracurricular activities to educate the whole student:
intellect, spirit, and body Literary societies, fraternal organizations,
campus publications, sports teams, and debate and student clubs
emerged as informal but integral aspects of college and university
life. (MyACPA.org. Retrieved May 7, 2017)
By the turn of the twentieth century, faculty involvement in
student discipline had significantly diminished. Elizabeth Nuss
states, “The paternalism associated with colonial colleges … had
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given way to almost complete indifference.” Students participated
in their own governance, creating student governments, drafting
honor codes, and adjudicating allegations of rule violations. In the
1920s, the first administrators were hired. Their principal area of
work was student personnel matters. The presidents of Harvard and
many land grant universities appointed the first “deans of men”
(later “deans of students”) to investigate student conduct and
enforce university rules. (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
Many of the traditional functions of the student affairs
profession emerged in the early part of the 1900s. Student health
services developed as physicians joined the faculty, either as
professors of medicine or as attending physicians. College staffs
were hired to monitor the students’ academic records and to advise
students on vocational guidance and job placement.
John Seiler Brubacher and Willis Rudy observed that “in the
years following World War I, the student personnel movement
gained national recognition and professional stature. It was
becoming self-conscious, confident, and widely influential.” The
national professional associations were founded around this time.
Deans of men, deans of women, and other staff who were focused
on student personnel issues had previously worked in relative
isolation, but now they corresponded and met to share ideas and
concerns related to their work. (Lucas, Christopher J. (March 2016))
The core values of the student affairs profession gained
widespread recognition and acceptance in higher education with
the publication of the Student Personnel Point of View, a landmark
report issued in 1937 by the American Council on Education. The
report emphasized the education of the whole student—intellect,
spirit, and personality—and insisted that attention must be paid to
the individual needs of each student. The report was revised in
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1949 and proposed a comprehensive suite of student services that
represented thirty-three functional areas. The guidelines proposed
in the Student Personnel Point of View provided the philosophical
and organizational foundations for the student affairs profession as
it stands today. (Ozaki, C. Casey; Hornak, Anne M. (Summer 2014))
The relationship between students and colleges and
universities changed significantly during the 1960s. The legal
concept of in loco parentis was greatly eroded by the courts. The
US Supreme Court’s decision in Dixon v. Alabama State Board of
Education in 1961 defined a person over the age of 18 years as a
legal adult. Subsequent court rulings granted students a right to
due process and viewed the relationship between students and
colleges and universities as largely contractual in nature—if
students paid their tuition and met the college or university’s
published academic requirements, they were entitled to a diploma.
Consequently, student discipline diminished as the student affairs
professional’s most crucial role; instead, the critical purpose turned
to educating the students on making appropriate choices and
decisions.
Simultaneously, student activism proliferated on campuses.
Crises erupted at many universities such as Kent State University
that resulted in student deaths, injuries, and property damage. As
pressures in the campus environments increased, student affairs
professionals were tasked with greater roles in conflict resolution,
communication, and social justice. (NASPA Journal, 2017)
In the 1960s and 1970s, the student affairs profession
established a theoretical base as the framework for its knowledge
and practice. Many theories that explained student development
emerged in the fields of education, psychology, and sociology.
Student affairs professionals and the professional associations
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embraced the advances in student development theories, and
graduate programs were founded that included student
development theories as the cornerstone of the curriculum. The
marriage of professional practice and theory received profound
attention in the student affairs field with the release of the
American College Personnel Association. (ACPA 2018)
The report argued that student affairs professionals could not
have a significant impact on students’ intellectual, psychosocial, or
emotional growth without first understanding the motivations,
abilities, and environments which drive, create, and define
students. Consequently, the report called for student affairs
professionals to collaborate with faculty, participate actively in the
learning process, and create curricular experiences that spur
student development inside the classroom as well as outside
(American Personnel and Guidance Association, 2011)
1.2 Problem statement
There are several limitations associated with the current
manual system, because it is a very difficult to get Information
instantly. The key problem involved with the current system is the
time consuming because of using the papers and pencils to register
the records and all the events that took place at University of
Somalia which is the main position for search the information is
very difficult and also the directors can’t review their student’s
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information at the University of Somalia campuses quickly, then the
researcher will solve the current issues faced by University of
Somalia, and the researcher will develop MOBILE UNISO STUDENT
AFFAIRS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM using ANDROID STUDIO.
1.3 Purpose of the project
The project will solve the limitations of the current system
that exists at the University of Somalia because of using a manual
system and later on the University of Somalia has decided to
convert their manual system into a system to use it in the future
effectively.
1.4 Project Objectives
The new proposed system is intended to enhance the current
system; the objectives of this project are:
To study and investigate the current and existing with is
manual.
To design Mobile Student Affairs Management System using
UML
To develop and test Mobile Student Affairs Management
System using Android studio
1.5 Project scope
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This project is designed to complete Eight months and it will
be applied across Somalia especially where our educational
organizations exist; it allows computers which installed any OS.
The application development of this project is used PHP as front
end with Dreamweaver and MYSQL database as back end.
The project will continue at most Eight months from December and
July 2018.
The project will register the student affairs and will generate
reports about students. And will be implemented at University of
Somalia, Mogadishu, Somalia.
1.6 Significance of the project
The main advantage of this application is anyone can use it
without having much knowledge about the device.
The application meets user’s immediate and long term
requirements by providing the related information of the student.
The developed “MOBILE STUDENT AFFAIRS MANAGEMENT
SYSTEM” is easy to use, affordable solution for every educational
organization and other institutions.
It has been made for University of Somalia, and it is also
beneficial for Simad University, Banadir University, Mogadishu
University, and other institutions around Mogadishu, Somalia.
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1.7 Chapter summary
The content of this project has been arranged to be read
chapter by chapters as Follows:
Chapter one focuses on introduction of the project followed
by brief explanation of background problem, statement of problem
and the purpose this project and objectives, scope and significance
of the project.
In Chapter Two Literature Review which introduce existed
system and explains concept or terminologies about Mobile Student
Affairs Management System and early related researches and also
that chapter will show the gap and direction.
Chapter three covers software development methodology like
operational frame work, preliminary system study, system
requirements, problem analysis identification, and requirement
gathering techniques; use case analysis, process modeling and
data modeling.
Chapter four focuses on software design like architectural
design, user interface design, data storage design, database
design, database normalization, transforming E-R- Diagrams into
relations, data dictionaries, designing physical tables, design Page
and reports, chapter summary.
Chapter five emphasizes system implementation and operation like
development phase, test system implementation, component test,
integration test, acceptance test, and development documentation,
user documentation, chapter summary.
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In chapter six focuses on conclusion and enhancement,
objective achievement, weakness and problems of the system,
strengths of the system, future work.
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