Twenty-Seventh President
The eighteenth man elected to the presidency of ACPA was Bernard R. Black. The announcement of his election as president-elect was made at the annual ACPA Luncheon on Monday, April 12, 1965 at the Minneapolis convention. He was, at the time, Assistant Dean of University College at Ohio University where he had been Chairman of the Human Relations Department since 1956. Dr. Black was 52 years of age when he took office. He was married and the father of a son and twin daughters.
Black was born and reared in New York City, where he graduate in 1932 Eastern District (high school) located in Brooklyn. He traveled to Minneapolis, entered the University of Minnesota (UM) as an undergraduate in January 1933, and completed the B.S. degree (1937, Social Sciences). During the next two years he worked as a Research Assistant in the Sociology Department and in 1939 received the M.A. degree (Sociology and Educational Psychology). During the next six years. Black was a social science teacher and director of the band at Faulkton (South Dakota) High School (1939-41) and Morton (Illinois) High School (1941-45). During 1946-49 he was Dean of Students and Professor of Sociology at the College of Emporia, Kansas.
In the summer of 1949 he enrolled at Teachers College, Columbia University where he was awarded the Ed.D. Degree (1954, Guidance-Student Personnel Administration). Esther Lloyd-Jones was his major adviser. The title of his dissertation was "Proposals for the Development of an In-Service Training Program for Faculty Counselors at Ohio University."
At Ohio University from 1949 through 1965, Black was Assistant Dean of University College, Professor of Human Relations, and chaired the Human Relations Department beginning in 1956. In 1966 he was named Professor of Education and Coordinator of the College Student Personnel Training Program at the University of Miami (Coral Gables, Florida). After a 41 year career in a variety of educational positions, Black retired in April 1978, Professor Emeritus.
Bernard Black is a Life Member of ACPA who began his affiliation with the organization in 1952. During 1956-57, he served on the 31-member ACPA Grass Roots Development Committee and attended the pre-convention workshop at Detroit. After participating on the Program Committee during 1957-58, Black chaired the Program Committee during 1958-59. He also attended the ACPA Executive Council meeting as the committee chair in April at the convention in St. Louis that same year.
In the 1959 election, Black and 16 other delegates-at-large were selected as representatives at the APGA Assembly for the next annual convention. In the ACPA Publications Committee report of the Cleveland convention, it was announced that Black was first preference of the eleven-member committee to be named as Associate Editor of the Journal. He also became a member of the editorial board of this publication and served for five years.
At the Philadelphia convention in April 1960, Black's election as a member-at-large to the ACPA Executive Council for a two-year term was announced. He participated in a program on the Training of Student Personnel Workers; he also attended the Thursday morning ACPA Executive Council meeting.
Bernard Black attended the three Executive Council meetings, the Luncheon, and the two Business sessions at Denver in March 1961. On Tuesday morning, Black presented an ACPA program entitled “College Student Personnel Workers.” At the ACPA Executive Council meeting on Thursday President Craig appointed Dr. Black as liaison person with the Financial Aids and Orientation organization.
At the Chicago convention in April, 1962 he attended the ACPA Executive Council meeting on Saturday night. At the Sunday morning Executive Council meeting he presented his liaison report on the Orientation Directors’ conference. On Monday, he attended the annual luncheon and the Business session which followed. Black presented a program on Tuesday morning on the "Case Study Approach to Increasing Perception of the College Student Personnel Worker." It was this convention that Bernard R. Black accepted an appointment by ACPA President Hardee to the APGA Committee on Professional Preparation and Standards. As a member of this committee he served as ACPA representative to a subcommittee of Inter-Association Coordinating Committee (IACC) which later became COSPA.
In the election of 1963 Black was voted a member-at-large to the ACPA Executive Council for a second time. He attended the three day pre-convention workshop at Boston in 1963 and participated in other scheduled convention activities. At the Executive Council meeting on Thursday morning, Black's motion that the ACPA Executive Council express sincere appreciation to Melvene D. Hardee for her outstanding leadership and direction as president was seconded and passed. Black also participated in an ACPA convention program panel session called the Professional Education of the Student Personnel worker in Higher Education Workshop Reports.
In the 1964 ACPA election, Bernard Black was elected ACPA treasurer for a two-year term. At the San Francisco convention that same year, he attended the two day pre-convention Executive Council meetings, the annual Luncheon and Business sessions, and the Executive Council meeting for the 1964-65 officers. He participated in a Counselor Preparation and Role program on Monday night. On Wednesday night, Black was among four presenters who spoke on the general topic Professional Education of the Student Personnel Worker.
In April 1965, when the ACPA national convention was held in Minneapolis, Black as treasurer attended two days of pre-convention Executive Council meetings. At the annual Luncheon on Monday afternoon, Black was presented as ACPA president-elect. At the ACPA Executive Council meeting on Thursday, he represented CPA as president-elect. ACPA membership in May 1965 was 4,683.
Black chaired the ACPA Budget Committee during 1965-66. At the Washington, DC ACPA convention in April 1966, Executive Council meetings were conducted during the two days before the convention. President-elect Black chaired the annual Luncheon program on Monday and assisted President Berdie at the Business session that afternoon following the Luncheon. At the ACPA Luncheon, Black gave special recognition to APGA President-elect Williamson (ACPA president, 1941 -45), and expressed the best wishes of ACPA to Esther Lloyd-Jones at the time of her retirement. During the Business session which followed. Black presented a statement with the endorsement of the ACPA Executive Council pledging their cooperation with and support of E.G. Williamson. Near the close of the annual Business session, President Berdie officially terminated his presidential year by presenting Bernard R. Black as the incoming ACPA president. Black presided at the Executive Council meeting on Thursday morning; ACPA membership on May 31, 1966 was 5,707.
In 1967 Black presided at the mid-year ACPA Executive Council meetings late in November in Chicago. ACPA membership totaled 6,322 on March 1, 1967.
ACPA's fortieth annual convention was held in connection with the other Divisions of APGA at Dallas in March 1967. Fifty-four ACPA content programs were held from Monday through Thursday, March 20-23. Black presided at two days of ACPA Executive Council meetings on Saturday and Sunday. During his presidency, Black presented a past-president citation to Ralph F. Berdie. Before approximately 750 people Black delivered his presidential address entitled "College Students' Development—Opportunities and Interferences." Following the luncheon, he chaired the annual Business session.
During his presidency, Black developed nine Presidential Reports which were distributed to APGA officers and selected ACPA members. In May 1967, he received a Commendation for Service in recognition and appreciation of unselfish and creative leadership exercised in behalf of ACPA.
In June 1968, Black listed five hopes for ACPA as follows:
1. To include all college student personnel workers,
2. To develop knowledge and standards (through research) to upgrade college student personnel workers,
3. To relate and be able to communicate with counselors in the secondary schools,
4. To be more effective in dealing with college students, and
5. To develop state and regional divisions of ACPA.
Since his presidency, Dr. Black has continued to work for the ACPA in various capacities and has attended the annual conventions as an observer and participant. In 1974 he was elected to the Directorship of Commission XII, Professional Education of Student Personnel Workers in Higher Education. Shortly afterwards, he was elected Chairperson of the Commission for Convention Programs in 1975.
When Black was teaching, administering, and counseling at Ohio University, he had the opportunity to have seminars with executives, managers, and employees in a great variety of organizations such as: Pennsylvania Railroad, Ohio Bell Telephone, Royal McBee, Western Electric, Kaiser Aluminum, Ohio Credit Institute, Independent Business Men (Parkers-burg, West Virginia), Kyger Greek Power Co., Ohio AFL-CIO Conference, Research Management Program-Batelle Memorial Institute (Columbus, Ohio), and the Annual Fire School, Ohio State University.
When Black was teaching and developing the graduate program in College Student Personnel at the University of Miami, HEW asked him to have seminars and serve as a consultant to the office of Student Personnel and to the President and his cabinet at the University of Okinawa in 1969 for a period of three months. After his retirement, Black was hired as Director of Staff Development and Training at the Eagle Bank in Miami in 1985.
What might all of the above experiences mean to ACPA and its members? Black admits that he has little or no knowledge concerning the technical and specialized aspects of these different establishments. However, he concluded that there are similarities in preparing administrators and supervisors in their development, whether it involved business, higher education, or labor organizations. Each organization has to achieve its purpose or goals, satisfy the needs of its customers as well as the needs of its employees.
These kinds of skills involve communication, sensitivity to others, modification practices through support rather than threat, seeing the "whole" picture and the importance of "stop, look, and listen," as well as being aware of your own feelings, beliefs and attitudes about others.
When Black reflected on his own training and professional development, he saw both the ever-changing dynamics of institutions of various sorts and the significance of the preparation of college student personnel administrators to manifest the above mentioned skills and understandings. He believed college student personnel programs and practices do make a difference on campus as administrators apply their skills and comprehension of interpersonal relations, human behavior, and administrative "know how."
After retirement Bernard Black and his wife resided in Miami. He died suddenly February 15, 1991 at the age of 77. An “In Memorial” resolution written by Laurie F. Fitzgerald March 18, 1991, appeared in ACPA Developments that year.