Hello. I have just returned from the ACPA
Convention in Las Vegas where I assumed the ACPA Presidency at the Annual
Businesss Meeting, held on Wednesday, March 6, 2013. I was graciously introduced by my supervisor
at the University of Delaware, Dawn Thompson, who serves as our Dean of
Students and Associate Vice President. I
then offered my Presidential Address, which seems to be an appropriate first
blog post. It certainly represents my
hopes and dreams for our Associtaion, not just for the year, but for the next
decade. Please be in touch! You can
email me at acpaprez@gmail.com and follow me on twitter at @KathleenKerr and @acpaprez
-Kathleen
2013 ACPA Presidential Address:
Thank you Dawn. I am very appreciative of the
support Dawn, and our Vice President, Michael Gilbert have offered to me. I also must offer thanks to my incredibly talented colleagues in Residence Life at the
University of Delaware, especially my leadership team, that keeps things going
while I am traveling (actually, they keep things going even when I’m there),
Jim Tweedy, Michele Michelon Kane, Ivet Ziegelbauer Tweedy, and Joe Hazelton.
I've learned a lot this year, serving as ACPA
Vice President. I was determined to
learn the Association's history, study our current state of being, and ponder
what is next for us. Today, I will share
with you some of my insights about our past, our present, and our future.
Along the way though, I also learned that in
WI, you serve milk with every meal; in MN there is no cold weather, just bad
clothing choices; in NC, you’ll find an airport with the best rocking chairs;
and in NJ, the innovative spirit is alive and well. I learned that wifi on a plane is a godsend
and parenting by text message can be quite effective. I also learned that Hawiian sunsets can only
be matched by Hawiian sunrises, and it is worth the early hours and good for
the soul to make sure you are sitting on the edge of the ocean to see as many sunsets
and sunrises as you possibly can.
Wisdom.
I'll never forget when I was in my second
year of graduate school at Indiana University, I was talking to my father about
my impending job search. At the time, he
was the Dean of Students at Ocean County College in Toms River, NJ (yes, I am
one of the few people who has a parent who has understood for my entire career
what I do for a living). He offered me
three pieces of advice:
1st, never forget your foundational training
in counseling and use it in every setting possible;
2nd, remember there are more than two sides
to every story, more like 5 or 6 sides; and
3rd, pick your battles wisely and decide
first if it's a penny fight, a nickle fight, a dime fight, or if it's worth a
quarter. Advice shared with me by a man
who was mentored by Betty Greenleaf and Bob Shaffer (two student affairs
pioneers). Those words have served me well for almost a quarter of a century.
Wisdom.
When I was in grade school, my father took me
with him to hear a campus speaker, Isaac Asimov, a famous science fiction
writer. I was a big fan of that genre at
the time. Right before we left the house
for the talk, I burned my hand on the stove.
It was red and painful the entire evening, but after the talk, I still
wanted to go with my father to the front of the auditorium to meet the
author. Upon being introduced he very
graciously held out his hand to shake mine.
I clumsily responded by offering him my left hand, shyly apologizing and
explaining that I had burned my right one. Quickly he replied, "Go home
and place your burned hand on a metal pan.
Metal conducts electricity and your hand will feel better." Now I
have no idea if there is a lick of medical or scientific truth to that, but I
went home and tried it, in fact I slept with my hand on a pan all night, and it
did seem to make it feel better. Wisdom.
Isaac Asimov once said, "The saddest
aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society
gathers wisdom."
ACPA has created and disseminated much
knowledge since its inception. In fact, in 2014, ACPA will be 90 years
old. ACPA – College Student Educators International
grew out of interest by collegiate placement officers, then called appointment
secretaries, at a meeting held in 1923 with the National Association of Women
Deans, under the umbrella of the National Education Association. One year later,
in Chicago, in 1924, the National Association of Appointment Officers was
formed with nine members and May Cheney as President.
Membership grew rapidly, and in 1931 the
organization changed its name to the American College Personnel Association,
with two primary goals:
·
supporting the various functional areas
within student affairs; and
·
the career and professional development of
membership - emphasizing cooperation, research and service.
ACPA was instrumental in working with other
professional Associations to create the American Personnel and Guidance
Association (now the American Counseling Association), of which we were
division #1 from 1952-1991, when ACPA members voted to disaffiliate.
Many outstanding leaders have lead ACPA
through significant change – Association name changes, governance
restructuring, changes in staffing models, office location changes, and more.
Yet for 90 years, we have been an Association consistently grounded by and
committed to our core values:
· Education and
development of the total student
· Diversity,
multicultural competence and human dignity
· Inclusiveness in
and access to association-wide involvement and decision-making
· Free and open
exchange of ideas in a context of mutual respect
·
Advancement and
dissemination of knowledge relevant to college students and their learning
·
Continuous
professional development, and
· Outreach, advocacy
and leadership in higher education.
90 years. There is no way for me to briefly,
and accurately summarize all that ACPA has contributed to students, student
affairs, and higher education in that time.
Our first Journal was published in1943,
initially the Journal for Educational and Psychological Measurement; replaced
by the Personnel and Guidance Journal, which after two name changes,
in 1988 became, the Journal of College Student Development, now recognized as the
premier journal of the profession. We will celebrate the 55th
anniversary of JCSD in 2014.
Our Association’s practitioner magazine, About
Campus was first published in 1996, and has become
as renowned as the Journal.
Another significant publication for the
profession, the Student Learning Imperative was also published in 1996.
In 2002, ACPA was recognized and invited to
become a member of the Higher Education Secretariat, a consortium of over fifty
higher education organizations that meets monthly to share ideas and influence
Congressional action in Washington, D. C. We are leaders in the Higher education arena!
In 2003, we added the tagline “College
student educators international” – to reflect our commitment to a global understanding
and service to international membership; we have also seen tremendous growth of
state divisions and of course Commissions.
In 2004 Learning Reconsidered: A Campus-Wide Focus
on the Student Experience, was published.
In 2005, the Governance Task Force
recommended a new Governance structure, which was implemented in 2007.
The Assessment Skills and Knowledge (ASK)
Standards were published in 2007 and the Professional Competencies in 2010.
And we continue be a strong Association. The
2012 Membership survey indicates that 93% of our members are either very or
moderately satisfied with their ACPA membership. 96% are highly or moderately likely to
recommend membership in ACPA to other higher education colleagues. These are satisfaction numbers of which we
should certainly be proud!
And the survey also tells us that we are
meeting or exceeding most members’ expectations as we:
·
offer essential resources,
·
provide applicable research and scholarship,
·
provide a voice to the field of student
affairs in higher education,
·
offer high quality educational programs,
·
involve members, respond to their needs, and
·
support them in their job search.
Despite these accomplishments, we must not
allow ourselves to be complacent. 90 years old, for anyone and for any
organization, is something to celebrate.
It offers us a chance to stop and look back, to reflect on
accomplishments and contributions, but perhaps more importantly it calls for an
examination of what lies ahead.
As we turn 90, we must look forward. David
Starr Jordan, an educator, peace activist, and past President of my alma mater,
Indiana University, once said, "Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue
is doing it." So we need to ask ourselves some very important questions: What
will we accomplish before we turn 100? How
will be leaders in higher education in the 21st century? How are we determined
to distinguish ourselves? How will we make thoughtful and intentional choices to
move forward in ways that allow us to be both knowledgeable in our old age, and
virtuous? Wisdom.
Let me be clear. The responsibility to articulate a vision for
our future does not rest in my hands. As I was thinking about our future, I
spent a lot of time thinking about the ACPA 2013 to 2016 Strategic Plan,
approved by the Governing Board in September.
It resonates with the voices of our
members, with your voice. Authored
by the Governing Board and International Office staff, but only after we hosted dozens of meet ups, we collected
input via the membership survey, and we spoke with past ACPA Presidents. The
Strategic Plan was then vetted by our assembly and entity group leaders, and
modified once again. It reflects this Association’s current collective wisdom.
The six strategic priority areas reflected in
it will sound familiar to you:
· Career
Development
· Professional
Development
· Leadership in
Higher Education
· Social Justice
·
Research
& Scholarship, and
·
Association
Performance and Excellence
They are familiar because they are
foundational to who we have been, who we are, and who we will continue to
be. They are strategic because within
the plan we have articulated goals and strategies that are innovative, brave,
and exciting. These steps will expand
and enhance the strength of the Association, help us to better meet member
needs & better serve students on our campuses.
Some work is already underway.
This winter, the ACPA Innovation Advocate
selected Innovation Team members and together they have identified the first
recipients of ACPA Innovation Grants, intended to support projects that are
innovative, improve the effectiveness of ACPA, and support its strategic goals
and objectives.
At this convention, we have launched the ACPA
Involvement Team (ITeam) to increase member involvement in the Association.
We have launched a Policy Advocacy Task Force
to quarterly review salient issues in higher education and student affairs, and
identify strategies for ACPA policy advocacy and leadership.
Hopefully many of you have had or will have
the opportunity to participate in conversations here in Las Vegas about the
progress of the Credentialing Implementation Team. This group is preparing to launch
a pilot Registry that allows participants to monitor and reflect upon their
professional development and will decide next steps for this project in the
coming months.
The ACPA Sustainability Advisory Committee has
been revitalized and will promote and support sustainability education and
sustainable policies and practices throughout the entire Association.
Utilizing technology, we have expanded a
mentorship program in which relationships are formed via hashtag SA Grow and
focus on professional and career enhancement.
But there is much more that we must do.
·
We must find better ways to connect with our
international colleagues and be better prepared to serve the international
students on our own campuses.
·
In light of the increasing challenges many of
us face on our campuses around student mental health issues and certainly in
light of the national debate around gun control and mental health, we must
provide leadership and education to our members in this area and we will utilize
this year’s ACPA Think Tank to do so.
·
Before we are reacting to it, we must
consider the implications of what has become the omnipresent opportunity for online
learning.
·
We must reinvent our annual convention and
other professional development offerings so that they are educationally
inspiring, energizing, and distinct. We
will offer you that in Indianapolis in 2014. For those of you in the
Mid-Atlantic Region, I invite you to join us for an institute we are calling
“ACPA Vision Day 2013,” which will take place on the University of Delaware’s
campus in October, at which we will explore issues of leadership and innovation
in higher education in the 21st century.
·
We must create vital, accessible, and
affordable professional development opportunities connected to our professional
competencies for all levels of experience and articulate pathways for member
professional and career enhancement.
·
Faculty are a critical constituency within
the association both as professionals with substantial knowledge and skills to
contribute in the areas of research and scholarship and as mentors to the next
generation of student affairs professionals.
We must continue to find exciting ways to engage and support our faculty
colleagues.
·
We must partner with other Associations in
order to enhance the professional development options for our members and to
broaden our leadership platform.
We must do these things, and we will do these
things, not because these are my Presidential initiatives, they are not. We will do them because our 90 years have
brought us to a place where we understand their importance, and we understand
our obligation and ability to lead. And, amazingly, my father’s advice from 23
year’s ago applies to us as an Association as much as it did to me in graduate
school. We must move forward remembering our foundation; we must remember to
always consider multiple perspectives and we must choose our battles wisely. Our new strategic plan does this. Wisdom.
As George Bernard Shaw said, "We are
made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for
our future."
It is fitting that 90 is the granite
anniversary. Granite: solid, valuable,
beautiful. But we must not confuse our solid foundation, with rigidity,
staleness, or an inability to be nimble or innovative. In fact, having a solid foundation, knowing
our core values; that we are committed to research and scholarship,
professional development, social justice, equity, and inclusion; member
involvement; career development; and quality member services and experiences –
this allows us a sort of freedom. It allows us to reinvent ourselves on top of
that foundation. Reinvent our convention; reinvent our professional
development; reinvent our place in higher education.
The strategic plan is just this. It is a call
for innovation, built on top of a granite foundation. Its implementation with your support, will allow
us to distinguish ourselves as the premier comprehensive international association
with much to offer all college or university colleague who works with students
in and outside of the classroom. An association that leads the discourse and
action in higher and tertiary education related to the learning and development
of college students, our members, and their institutions.
There is a poem about the freedom that comes
with age, "Warning," by Jenny Joseph. It starts like this, "When I am an old
woman I shall wear purple. With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit
me. And I shall spend my pension on brandy
and summer gloves. And satin sandals..."
This poem is about the confidence that comes
from knowing who you are and your place in the world. Knowing what to care
about, what to attend to, and what to leave behind. It's about wisdom. 90 years
old. This is our opportunity to wear more purple. To innovate and to reinvent ourselves. We are granite, we are wise, we are ACPA.
Thank you.
