The Kitchen Table

It’s a time a year when many gather with their family to celebrate the season.  I look forward to spending time with my partner and children and our extended family.  It’s also a time of year when I spend time with the family I choose.  My ACPA family.

One of the best parts of ACPA are the relationships that we develop with colleagues around the country.  Over the years I have been fortunate to grow friendships with a key group of trusted friends.  We get together at some point each fall, around someone’s kitchen table for the weekend, to talk about the profession and our goals for each other in the coming year.  We talk about how we can support each other in achieving our goals. 

We also eat well, enjoy some wine, stay up late and talk, and get very little sleep. 

It’s rejuvenating, inspiring, empowering and surprisingly relaxing. 

This year we talked about how we want to grow personally, professionally and how to effectively balance the two.  The theme this year was clearly transitions….and I am making one.  I am moving from the family at The University of Arizona that has raised me for the last 15 years since my professional beginnings as a hall director, to my new family at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo where I will begin as their Vice President for Student Affairs in February. 

I am going to be quiet for the next six weeks or so.  I’m packing boxes, finding schools for my boys, getting acquainted with new colleagues in California and setting up a new household.  ACPA will continue to move forward towards advancing our leadership in the profession and preparing for our groundbreaking convention in Las Vegas this March.

I couldn’t get to the Vice President’s role without the support of many of my family members, especially my ACPA family and those around the kitchen table.

I cherish them, and hope that you use this season to cherish your family – those given and those you choose.

 Dr. Keith Humphrey

ACPA President, 2012-2013

University First Responders

I’ve spent a lot of time on the phone this week.

I talked a bunch to my mom and brother, who live in Southwestern Connecticut, just outside New York City.  My mom told me about the house across the street from our family house, now crushed under the weight of a massive hundred year oak tree that fell in the storm.  Luckily, everyone made it out. 

Mom asked me what I would do if something like this happened to my university.

“This isn’t something that gets taught in graduate programs, mom,” I told her.  “Student affairs folks just do in times like these.”

Then I told her that I have also talked to many student affairs colleagues at colleges and universities in the region affected by Hurricane Sandy.  They talked about campus evacuations; closed universities with thousands of students still in the residence halls, and trying to physically and emotionally support students without electricity.

“So, you are like university first responders,” she said. 

Exactly.

As your ACPA President, I am grateful for the countless hours that all of our university first responders have done this past week on the east coast.  I know your work is not complete, but want you to know it is valued and we are proud of you.  I am not sure that ACPA can do anything to help with this disaster, except to let you know you are doing good work.

For those of us who don’t live in the affected region, many of us have students who likely call that area home.  And when they go back to visit over Thanksgiving or the winter holidays, they will see a region that is drastically different from the one they left when they came to campus this fall.  And many of them will need support to process what they experienced when they return to campus.

On my campus, the university first responders will be ready.  I know they will on your campus.

Thank you for all you do.

Dr. Keith Humphrey

ACPA President, 2012-2013

What Student Affairs Can Learn from Madonna

There are few things in my life that I always clear my calendar for:  a meeting with my boss, fun stuff with my kids and, of course, Madonna whenever she goes on tour.  I got to see her tour about two weeks ago (from the fifth row!!!), but that is the topic for another blog J.

Like Madonna, I have been on tour this fall.  Not singing and dancing, but meeting great student affairs professionals from around the country in places like Virginia, California, and New York.

Inspired by all that Madge has to offer the world, I shared with them a specially prepared talk titled “What Student Affairs Can Learn From Madonna.”  And there is a lot we can learn from the principles that have made her career so successful over the past three decades.

Madonna knows her audience.  How well do we know our students?  I mean really know our students.  Do our programs and services reflect them or the students that we enrolled ten or more years ago?

How often do we let old styles go?  Madonna has gone from French provincial, to country, to religious icon, to disco queen and on and on.  When was the last time we closed a department or service that wasn’t working?  Instead, we just add on to existing programs and services that bloat our administration.

Madonna is in improbable places like the Super Bowl halftime show.  She surprises people, sometimes with a kiss of Brittany Spears at the MTV awards.  And she has unlikely collaborators, like the latest efforts with Nikki Minaj and M.I.A.  What are the improbable places that student affairs work can be found on your campus?  When was the last time your work surprised people?  Who are your unlikely collaborators?

Finally, Madonna is a super businesswoman.  It is time for student affairs professionals to recognize that we are part of an industry and that we need to match our student development acumen with equally strong business skills if we are going to survive.

So, go inside for your finest inspiration.  Your dreams will open the door.

Dr. Keith Humphrey

ACPA President, 2012-2013