From the President's Desk

During the 2014 Town Hall meeting in Indianapolis, Cindi Love and I said we would do our best to respond to the questions we did not get to during the session. In this post, we are addressing some of the general questions. In subsequent blog posts, we will be responding to questions about convention, "credentialing", and recruitment and retention.

Question: How can we make ACPA more welcoming and less "cliquey"?

ACPA leaders are committed to an inclusive and welcoming environment within the association. Through social media connections and mentoring opportunities, including #ACPAgrow, we continue to build upon existing and seek new ways for ACPA members to make connections with individuals they may not have otherwise gotten to know. We have started doing more open calls for participation on task forces and convention planning teams in order to increase opportunities for involvement, diversify participation, and better tap into the broad expertise of our members. There are a variety of ways to get involved in the association, from reviewing programs to elected, appointed and volunteer leadership positions within Standing Committees, Commissions, State Divisions and International Divisions. To learn more, visit the Get Involved section on the ACPA website.

Question: How are we defining our identity as an association? How are we setting ourselves apart?

To achieve the greatest impact, ACPA needs to be sharply focused on its goals and key priorities. ACPA's past successes and its future are rooted in a strong set of enduring core values. ACPA is absolutely a leader in higher education when it comes to advancing research and scholarship about student learning and student success, but we can clearly do more to further the association's impact and reputation in this area. ACPA can and should be the higher education association where scholars and practitioners go to acquire the desired knowledge and skills to make them more effective social justice educators. Presidential task forces on campus sexual violence and digital technology in student affairs have been formed and are working diligently on scholarship and exemplary practice agendas that will serve our field well and position ACPA as an influential leader and innovator in higher education in these critically important areas. The Governing Board and the International Office have already undertaken efforts to position ACPA to have a larger influence on important public policy matters in higher education, including access, affordability, persistence, and accountability. Some examples of efforts are as follows:

Question: How is ACPA acknowledging/addressing the enrollment challenging facing institutions across the country (i.e. the dropping number of high school graduates)?

We recently held the #ACPArethink Presidential Symposium, which focused on important issues of access, affordability, and accountability in higher education. Education experts gathered at Saint Louis University to discuss these issues and examine the role of student affairs in contributing to effective solutions. Speakers and panelists included the former Undersecretary of Education for the United States Department of Education, Dr. Martha Kanter; Assistant Director of NSSE, Dr. Jillian Kinzie; President of The University of Texas at El Paso and past chair of the American Council on Education board, Dr. Diana Natalicio; and senior advisor in the Department of Education, Mary Wall. The sessions were streamed online and viewers were invited to participate in the conversation using hashtag #acparethink.

In all, 92 people attended the symposium "in person" and 186 tuned in to the live stream. Additionally, we had 147 contributors on Twitter and there were 1,676,028 timeline deliveries. As we did following the Indianapolis convention, we have started releasing videos from the Presidential Symposium online so that a wider audience can learn from the experience. Moving forward, ACPA will need to continue to aggressively support research, scholarship and public policy engagement that informs effective practices for achieving higher levels of education attainment and student success for an increasingly more diverse student population.

Question: How can we provide quality professional development opportunities that are more affordable to members, particularly our new professionals?

Affordability for professional development is a continued concern for ACPA. Accordingly, we continue to offer more online resources, including webinars, video streaming, and publications to provide inexpensive professional development for our members. IO staff, volunteer leaders, and the Credentialing Implementation Team are all working to improve the variety and affordability of opportunities for our members.

In the coming weeks, we will use this blog to continue to address questions from the Town Hall meeting as well as increasing awareness about upcoming initiatives within ACPA. I welcome your feedback and questions. Follow me on Twitter @DrKPorterfield or email me at president@acpa.nche.edu.

-Kent