The Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) was founded in 1979 and was "established as a profession-wide collaborative body to develop and promulgate professional standards and to inform those responsible for providing higher education with information about how to use standards effectively" (CAS, 2009). The CAS standards provide a tool used to guide student services professionals in practice and express to students, faculty, and administrators the complex and vital role of student support services.
The 2009 edition of CAS Professional Standards for Higher Education is the seventh iteration of professional standards and contains 40 functional area standards. For more information about these standards of practice or to purchase your CAS Blue Book go to www.cas.edu.