The Commission for Academic Affairs 

Our mission: 

The Commission for Academic Affairs provides outreach, advocacy, and professional development opportunities to individuals in higher education who work in or with academic affairs related areas.  Our members connect academic and student development practices to holistically educate students. In addition to working closely with professionals and students in the field, we interact with faculty from all disciplines to promote comprehensive student development.

Our goals:

  • To promote best practices in student development throughout the academic affairs setting
  • To provide a niche for the interests of academic affairs professionals
  • To foster collaborative relationships between academic affairs and student affairs professionals by linking academic practices with student development
  • To identify emerging issues within academic affairs and provide members with easy access to information regarding current issues and trends
  • To initiate networking opportunities, encourage research, and develop scholarship pertinent to the field.

Information about this Commission:

  • Our Commission evolved out of the National Association of Academic Administrators (AcAfAd). The group merged in 1968.
  • The Commission has approximately 200 members.  Currently there are tweleve Directorate members.  We are looking for new and active members who want to get involved!
  • Commission members represent a broad spectrum of professional activities and responsibilities. A number of members work in academic affairs areas such as academic policy administration, program coordination, academic integrity, research supervision, programming for at-risk students, and teaching.   Other members work in student affairs functional areas and have significant interaction with academic affairs colleagues.  Regardless of their assignment, Commission members are interested in bringing together expertise from both areas to help in furthering student development
  • Some of our commission members have a student affairs functional area as their primary professional role and interest, and we are a secondary area of interest, important to supporting their primary work area.
  • We are looking for new ways to involve members who cannot attend the annual convention but would like to be involved with the Commission. Share your ideas. Visit our Get Involved page.

Contact one of our co-chairs, Ana Castillo-Nye (amn322@drexel.edu) or Christina Wright Fields (christina.fields@marist.edu), to learn more about ACPA's Commission for Academic Affairs.