Philosophy, Theory, and Foundations in Education

Within the field of student affairs, a field primarily concerned with applied practice, where is the space for philosophical contemplation? In this argument, I connect student affairs practice with philosophy of orientation(s) through hermeneutic phenomenology. As a department that is ubiquitous within higher education, what does student orientation signify? By, toward, around, and from what are students oriented? Through a hermeneutic phenomenology of the orientation in student orientation, I aim to uncover the orientation in new student orientation, which
is not about caring for new students themselves, but instead, the orientation is the institution itself and the degree to which a new student is able to successfully embody the spaces of their institution.