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NASPA 1999-2000 PRIORITIES AND GOALS

Much has been written recently about the disconnect between what higher education produces and what society needs and expect. There is also much disconnect within higher education. Faculty work alone, students study alone, and too few connections exist between student affairs and academic affairs. Yet our society needs us to produce graduates who can work collaboratively, solve complex problems, think critically across disciplines and behave ethically. If we are to be effective, we must understand what society needs from student affairs. We in student affairs are uniquely positioned to be leaders in the effort to work collaboratively, build community and reconnect our institutions with society's needs.

Within this context, how can NASPA support student affairs professionals to focus on the leadership, educator effectiveness, and management and organizational understanding necessary to build stronger higher education communities, which address society's needs and expectations? And how can we contribute to our institutions' effectiveness, create better learning environments, and give students the skills they need to thrive in our complex and uncertain world? NASPA's latest strategic plan considers many of these needs and helps to guide this statement of 1997-1998 priorities and goals as well.

WHERE WE HAVE BEEN

Our most recent history as an association has been characterized by strong executive leadership; an effective central staff; steady growth of membership; stable finances; a succession of strong boards of directors and recent presidents; quality professional development programs, resource information and publications; and generally high overall membership satisfaction

THE FUTURE

This does not mean that we should continue to do business the same ways that have worked well in the past. The landscape is changing rapidly. The future will require not just more from us, but very different organizational structures, functions, and sets of skills. It will also require our association to explore new ways to develop and support our professionals. Our members are calling on us to support them in developing new perspectives for their work. Most frequently heard are the need to:

  • Support Chief Student Affairs Officers in their roles as leaders and administrators
  • Help in the design of organizational and functional links with academic affairs
  • Help develop tools to assess the educational impact of our work
  • Explore alternative sources of funding
  • Provide stronger advocacy and communication on public policy issues
  • Produce better models of organization and management to help cope with the pace of organizational change
  • Assist with uses of new technologies which impact our work
  • Align the content of our publications more closely with the needs of our readers
  • Serve student affairs professionals from a wider array of institutional types
  • Help professionals in attracting, retaining, and graduating students
  • Be a resource for student affairs professionals in supporting the diverse needs of adults, non-traditional students, and life-long learners
  • Continue to maintain the strongest commitment to diversity and international exchange
  • Based on these concerns and the larger context and perspectives, I offer a number of priorities for the association during the coming year.

PRIORITIES

1. FOCUS OUR ACTIVITIES ON SUPPORTING OUR PROFESSIONALS AND DEVELOPING SKILLS IN LEADERSHIP, ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND ADMINISTRATION.

Objectives and Activities:

  • Support dissemination of the future skills and knowledge project and its emphasis on leadership and management
  • Focus our publications on these themes
  • Produce regional and national conference tracks on these themes
  • Support the work of the Chief Student Affairs Officers Task Force which is focusing on these issues
  • Produce an Invited Paper on student affairs and academic affairs collaboration and the organizational structures which support it
  • Ask the Enrollment Management Network to address strategies to attract, retain, and graduate students
  • Sponsor workshops on resource development, fund raising, commercial sponsorships and partnerships, and out-sourcing
  • Provide leadership in higher education restructuring through research, papers, workshops and conferences

2. CONTINUE THE EMPHASIS ON OUR ROLE AS EDUCATORS IN PROMOTING SUPPORTING, AND ASSESSING STUDENT LEARNING

Objectives and Activities:

  • Focus the work of the Research and Program Development Division on promoting research to assess student learning outcomes
  • Work with AAHE to provide professional development experiences and publications to support assessing student outcomes
  • Sponsor Roundtable discussions to strengthen links between theory and practice, and between faculty and practitioners
  • Ask the Adult Learner Network to make specific recommendations about how we can support life-long learning for adults, commuters, and non-traditional students
  • Support the CDC Cooperative Agreement which encourages HIV prevention education as part of campus culture

3. ESTABLISH STRONGER LINKS WITH OTHER ASSOCIATIONS

Objectives and Activities:

  • Work with members of the Washington Secretariat to support relevant public policy initiatives, especially focusing on the Re-authorization Act
  • Focus on specific links with AAHE (assessment project) NCSD (1998 national conference) ACPA (Principles of Good Practice) and NACUBO (benchmarking), and ASTD and/or AMA (Future Skills and Knowledge)
  • Ask the International Network to develop links with other associations to promote greater international involvement in NASPA

4. CONTINUE DEVELOPING THE STRATEGIC MEMBERSHIP INITIATIVE

Objectives and Activities:

  • Refine the strategy of cultivating new members, especially from such institutional types as small colleges, historically black institutions, and two-year and community colleges
  • Refine the description of NASPA features and benefits
  • Use technology for better communication, tracking and correspondence with prospective members
  • Develop a monograph on student learning in the two year and community colleges to correspond with the joint conference with NCSD in 1999
  • Provide more programs for graduate students and new professionals
  • Enhance the work of the Two Year and Community College Network
  • Support the work of the Small College Task Force and Network

5. MAXIMIZE THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY

Objectives and Activities:

  • Budget to maintain a state of the art central office technology infrastructure
  • Arrange for demonstrations of the latest technology at our conferences
  • Enhance communication within Networks through technology
  • Arrange for technology experts to be major speakers at our conferences

6. EMPHASIZE THE PUBLIC POLICY INITIATIVE

Objectives and Activities:

  • Revitalize our public policy committee
  • Sponsor roundtables at conferences to identify priority policy issues
  • Continue our strong support to continue affirmative action
  • Support policy development which will help low income students earn degrees
  • Support research which informs public policy development

7. CONTINUE TO INVEST IN THE NASPA INITIATIVE

Objectives and Activities:

  • Aggressively pursue more institutional members
  • Invest in membership activity, quality of our publications, and grant writing
  • Make the evaluation process of Networks more vigorous
  • Discuss the current array of networks and what an ideal network array should look like
  • Review the current Board structure and functions to assure alignment with Board initiatives
  • Support more focused programming by Networks
  • Develop structures to link similar projects and follow through with ongoing initiatives
  • Support quality professional development at the regional level
  • Evaluate the Board of Directors structure in relation to the Strategic Plan and major initiatives

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