School of Education

The HESA program has a long and proud history of preparing students to work in colleges and universities throughout the world. Formerly the College Student Personnel Administration program, we are indebted to the work of three faculty members, Dr. Kate Hevner Mueller, Dr. Robert Shaffer, and Dr. Elizabeth Adele Greenleaf. Each were full-time professors, chairpersons in the Department of Higher Education, served as student affairs administrators at Indiana University, and epitomized the scholar-practitioner.  In 1929, with the development of a school counselors' curriculum, interest in higher education issues began to grow.  In the 1940s, IU began offering degrees in counseling with a concentration in student affairs.  During this time Dr. Kate Hevner Mueller taught a class for interns in Residence Life.  Throughout the next decade, Dr. Mueller established a 2-year program for interns that led to a master’s degree in student affairs that rivaled similar programs at Syracuse and Columbia.  The first master's degree in student personnel was awarded in 1951, though the program was not officially created until 1953.  The first doctoral degree was awarded in 1959.  In 1962, the program was moved from the Department of Guidance to the Department of Higher Education.

In 1970, the Indiana University Student Personnel Association (IUSPA) was founded.  Joel Marlin, the acting president of IUSPA, described its purpose as serving as a means of supplementing the coursework in the Department of Student Personnel Administration through lectures, seminars, free university series and open forums and as a vehicle for students to express their views on various aspects of the field.  Its members intended for the association to provide opportunities for informal social gatherings and professional development.  In 1977, the IUSPA sponsored the first Midwest Meeting of Graduate Students in Student Personnel (MMOGSISP).  One hundred students, representing 12 universities, attended the first of what would become an annual Midwestern graduate student event in the field of student affairs.