November 1 - 3, 2011
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Moving Forward Survey Results

This survey was sent to all members of NASPA Region IV-West in May, 2011. There were approximately 194 respondents.

1. The NASPA National Board had proposed a list of potential areas for change and innovation to help support you - our members - and the profession: Please select your top three preferences for our focus:

Other Responses:

• Best practices to better serve students
• Expanded access to scholarly resources for student affairs graduate students
• Technology competency of student affairs professionals
• I think the regional groups should disband
• It appears that it would be timely for NASPA to be critically introspective and consider our strengths and how we serve our constituents
• Consolidate with ACPA - shame on you elitists for not doing that. I will tell all my students and staff to never join NASPA
• Better stewards in state and government issues
• Best practices library
• More partnership with ACPA
• Continuing to develop strategic partnerships with other higher education organizations
• Expanded involvement opportunities for graduate students to increase membership from young professionals
• Training/Support for aspiring CSAOs
• 1) Leadership; 2) Professional Development (Dress); 3) Civic Engagement - these are vital areas
• Increase mentoring or other opportunities for new or mid-level student affairs officers
• Not so much structure on KC email listservs so we can communicate with each other with much more ease
• Realigning the regions so that rurally isolated colleges can be connected to a region where the nearest conference is less than 1000 miles away!
• Legal and regulatory landscape
  

2. The following areas have been expressed by members as opportunities to strengthen our organization. Which should NASPA consider? (select all that apply)

Other Responses:

• How to effectively advocate for ourselves in our own institutions
• Offer workshops focused on very specific topics like grant writing
• More public policy, please
• Possible connection to AACC and its affiliate NCSD
• Give graduate students more opportunities for professional development
• Providing more opportunities for legal/policy updates or training
• Leave NASPA the way it is
• Greater outreach to grad students including professional development scholarships
• Collaborations are great
• Continuing to develop strategic partnerships with other higher education organizations
• Unifying with ACPA
• Strengthen KCs
• 1) Leadership; 2) Civic Engagement
• Review the regions. They may be great for the people who are involved in them now, but they leave a lot of people feeling isolated!!!
  
  

3. What specific ideas do you have to strengthen NASPA?

• Become more down to earth. It has come a long way, but there is still the feeling among some that NASPA (national, not regional) is so much better than other professional associations. This does not accomplish anything positive for NASPA. We are all in this together
• My ideas are addressed above
• Unite with ACPA and create a new organization
• Graduate student members should not be excluded from the voting process. Many graduate students also want to get involved, but the national conferences are not conducive to that. Smaller, regional, or specialized conferences can help graduate students make connections and learn about specific areas that they wish to work/study in
• I think that graduate students should be a part of the mix; I also think that we need to make academic journals and resources better and more accessible to our members
• I voted in favor of consolidation for two reasons, and I feel confident that NASPA can make small changes to endorse these two. First, I connected with the Communities of Practice idea, specifically the endorsement of functional areas as common connections for us as professionals. As a housing professional, I liked the idea of connecting to the existing housing professional organization (ACUHO-I) and using NASPA's resources and ACUHO-I's to strengthen our profession. Using the Placement Exchange as a successful model. Secondly, I think that a thorough look at the voting structure is necessary. Involving graduate students, and other members, in the selection of our regional leadership seems a viable practice to ensure the connection of these members to our organization. Significant votes impacting bylaws or governance, such as the recent consolidation vote, could be limited to professional members. However, it seems prudent that our young professionals would be involved in selecting the leadership of our region.
• Better and stronger regions, better state and federal government relations, more research with and involvement in KC's knowledge areas
• LinkedIn group for networking
• Build from the grad students forward more centralized national conferences
• Everyone in student affairs is stretched to the max. We need to be focusing on helping develop skills and tools that will help student affairs employees balance additional job responsibilities (for jobs that were cut) or proving their worth when resources are being cut. We shouldn't have been rubbing elbows with ACPA for two years while we watched student affairs divisions be completely eliminated at some institutions. We all know what we do is important and sometimes more important than the actual education students receive, but we are (apparently) expendable. I can't remember the last time I talked to someone in student affairs that was not frustrated with the additional job responsibilities, higher expectations with less employee resources, less money, and less time. We need to be focusing on these areas and promoting our individual worth.
• More collaboration with ACPA
• I would like to provide graduate students with the vote
• NASPA really needs to make sure they quickly begin trying to brand themselves as an organization that cares about the profession as a whole, rather than just about NASPA. I think the recent vote could alienate people into believing that NASPA is only interested about NASPA, rather than the profession.
• Strengthening the connection between National KC leadership to the Regional KC Reps.
• Focus on our practice and the skills and tools we need to service our students. The association is a means, not an end.
• Address student behavior issues with clarity. For example, the issue of academic dishonesty requires involvement across the institution. NASPA members should understand their role in eliminating this problem. Looking the other way is not an acceptable response. NASPA should take on this and other crucial issues of student behavior.
• Setting up sub-groups based on the different departments/professions. i.e. Housing Group, Student Activities Group, etc.
• Create an outreach program to professionals that come to student affairs through non-traditional means, such as military, religion, non-profit, business, and social service agencies (type of non-profit). This is important because many professionals on our campus in student affairs do not have a sense of the philosophical foundations or practices of student affairs, causing a lack of cohesive approaches to student and campus success.
• Deeper professional development opportunities - options for full day workshops at regional conferences that would be more meaningful than the hour-long sessions
• Merge with ACPA
• Disability identity
• Have more opportunities for graduate students to present
• Offering low cost professional development opportunities
• Quit trying to be all to all; stick to your knitting and do what you do well!
• Leadership should do some serious self-reflection and social justice work with Jamie Washington.
• Creating an intentional new members orientation that could be used at conferences to get new members connected to the organization and people within the organization
• Continued focus on partnerships - whether that's with other major professional organizations (ACPA, NACA, etc.), within KCs, within regions, and especially between members. We come to NASPA to connect.
• Collaborative conferences with NACA
• I believe we ought to make sure that any future proposal to advance a conversation regarding consolidation requires the support of voting delegates before it gets too far down the road. Once we have that in place, I believe we ought to allow graduate students to vote in our elections.
• In order to strengthen the community as a whole, more needs to be done to increase outreach and possible services for students. This includes programming; most students cannot afford to attend conferences that are so far away. Discounted rates or scholarships to assist with these opportunities are helpful.
• More opportunities for Women of Color who are staff members. Most of the information is typically for faculty and/or students.
• Creation of a journal that has the same rigor and presence as the Journal of College Student Development
• Look for increased opportunities to partner with ACPA and other functional professional organizations; co-sponsorship of conferences and professional development opportunities. Place greater emphasis on regional activities and also encourage regions to more actively partner with state ACPA organizations.
• Continue to build the connections between universities and community colleges across the country
• I'd like to see us explore how to push the technology competency piece forward for all student affairs professionals, but not just as a KC - this is something we need to explore in every area.
• Identify ways to collaborate with ACPA and other student affairs organizations so the profession speaks with one voice on behalf of student affairs and students. I am a NASPA and ACPA member that is disappointed with the outcome of the vote in NASPA and evaluating whether to remain a NASPA member. However, I have had very positive experiences as a IV-West regional member.
• Expanding international presence
• Graduate student members should be able to vote
• Many see NASPA as a strong organization for the seasoned professional. Focus more on training and student development
• Listening to all voices in voting and governance including graduate and undergrad members. Provide more reasonably priced workshops, webinars, etc. to members
• Leave it alone
• I believe the regional conferences should have conversations in the next year regarding how we move forward in collaboration to bring to life the results of this survey.
• Collaborations with similar organizations and organizations that promote access, opportunity, and equity in higher education, National College Access Network, Council for Opportunity in Education/TRiO
• More work at the regional level and using technology (like webinars) to assist those who don't have access to national travel!
• Create an outstanding journal, support NUFP fellows more broadly and create opportunities for research in KCs
• National assistance for Regionals to aid creative research on Student Affairs - maybe matching grants
• Keep costs down for national conferences as well as regionals - offer financial assistance for new professionals
• Extend Voting Privileges to Graduate Students. Deemphasize the role of the conference theme in selecting papers for presentation at the regional conference - select for quality first.
• Allow graduate students to vote, get a group of new/young professionals together with faculty to discuss needs, etc. I believe this was the critical missing piece in consolidation.
• We should seek to solicit membership from current ACPA members. While the consolidation vote failed, we ought to go after their members through discounting of membership fees, conference fees, etc. as a means of becoming the single national organization.
• Make it more accessible by keeping costs for conferences and publications low.
• National Conference is too big to feel you made meaningful connections with people. Don't know any solution but definitely a problem
• The national conference is a mess and needs to be revamped
• We have been charged with preparing the whole student, which includes empowering our students to become tomorrow's leaders and informed and engaged global citizens. We have little in the way of training or program development to teach our student affairs professionals about the various aspects of leadership and professionalism, as well as little in the way of workshops, presentations, etc., in training our student affairs professionals to develop programs that engage our students as globally citizens, including civic education and issues that will shape our world by 2025 - 7 Revolutions. If more student affairs professionals had access to workshops to prepare them to work with students in these areas it would be great.
• It would be nice if as a new graduate student member of NASPA, I felt more connected to this huge organization. Right now, I usually feel lost and overwhelmed and not sure how to get involved.
• More attention to role of career services in student affairs when planning conferences and session topics.
• What did the SWOT tell you? Put our efforts there. I don't really look to NASPA for much more than being the leading SA voice.
• Redo the regions so that they are like the ones proposed for the "new association." I'm tired of no connection to my region because I work at a college in North Dakota and the conferences are always a thousand miles away. I also have to say that in general, be more open to the ideas of younger folks, grad students, rurally isolated folks and other folks who are disenfranchised.
• Add more resources specifically for grad students. I attended a regional conference and I would hesitate to attend another one because the ed sessions I attended were not what they were described as, and I felt out of place as a grad student because there were no programs for me. I did not attend the national conference but graduate students who did said it was very boring for them and did not recommend it.
• Reach out to the membership of ACPA to find ways that NASPA might meet their needs for one professional association for the Student Affairs professions since, clearly, a higher percentage of their membership who voted, voted for consolidation as compared to the NASPA members who voted.
• Do NOT change the voting structure. Do not expand voting rights to graduate students or undergraduates.
• Beginning with strengthening the graduate student involvement at the regional level - this could happen by having a representative from each student affairs program report to a council or the grad rep for the region on the needs and happenings of that specific program.
• Mentorship program for minorities, historical education to those in the new profession.
• It is important that all of our members feel valued. Some of my colleagues who have served in roles in NASPA and continued the education in doctoral programs did not have a voice in this past vote. They felt less valued and moved to a place of not caring about NASPA because the organization didn't care for them.
• Less emphasis on the National gathering, more on regional and specific areas (Res Life, etc.) gatherings
• Allowing graduate students to vote. Having more joint meetings with other associations
  
  
  
  

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