Update from the Regional Director

Dear Region II members,

It’s that wild time of year when many of us are between breaks, students are staring finals week in the eye, and we expertly (or as best we can) handle upticks in crisis, stress, theft and more.  What could possibly add to our normal workloads this time of year?  Oh, who knows – except for a little thing called a presidential election.  For most of us, Donald Trump’s victory led to an unanticipated need to provide leadership on our campuses to students, faculty and staff struggling with the outcome, as well as a need to address hate crimes or bias-related incidents on our campuses and in surrounding communities.  We’ve had to decide whether we need to be allies, advocates, activists or even accomplices – and some of us have probably gotten the message that we should remain neutral and “support everyone.” 

We also got one more November surprise:  Our institutions worked long and hard to figure out how to comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act, and it probably wasn’t a smooth process on any of our campuses.  And now, at the time of this writing, we’ve heard that a federal judge has put the brakes on FLSA implementation. So we may continue as before.  Or we may choose not to!  It’s up to us, with a few days to decide.

Rest assured that your Region II board remains hard at work on the front lines of our profession, which in the words of NASPA President Kevin Kruger “has never been more important.”  Please feel free to review the November board report and see all the ways in which we are networking, creating community, developing new learning opportunities, and supporting each other.  And if you haven’t read it, please make sure to check out Kevin Kruger’s Inside Higher Ed piece here:  https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2016/11/09/aftermath-2016-national-election-student-affairs-essay

I know you’re busy caring for the people around you, but my wish for you is that you are taking some time and space to care for yourself.  Thanks for all you do for our students and your colleagues, and for Region II.

Kathy Woughter