Summer 2010
Dear Fellow Student Development Professionals and Friends of NCSD:
As I begin my term as President of the National Council on Student Development, I am drawn to reflect upon why I joined this organization and then decided to become actively involved. As we all know, there are many professional organizations to support student affairs professionals. There are associations for the many functional areas within student affairs and there are two broad umbrella organizations besides NCSD. I had a long history of active involvement with one of those broad organizations, but I became disillusioned and was looking for something else. This is when I came across NCSD. I was intrigued by NCSD because of its focus on the practice of student affairs within community colleges.; I sent an email to the President and the Executive Director indicating that I was interested in becoming involved. A few months later, I was invited to participate in a think tank experience.; This was a gathering of both experienced and “up and coming” leaders of NCSD to re-visit the historic “Traverse City Statement” about the future of our profession. It resulted in the publication of “Toward the Future Vitality of Student Development Services: Redefining the Legacy in 2004.” The following October, I attended the NCSD Annual Conference in Indianapolis. I was really impressed. My recent experience at national conferences had been looking through huge program books with 25 concurrent sessions at each time slot but none of them meeting my needs. At NCSD, I discovered that presenters were not just describing their latest new program. Instead, they were competing to meet strict standards in order to win the Terry O’Banion Shared Journey Exemplary Practice Award. This was a conference searching for the “Best of the Best” so that I could really find out what is happening on the cutting edge of student affairs practice in community colleges. I was hooked!
As you can see, I am excited about NCSD and what it has to offer to our profession. There is no doubt that these are difficult economic times and we have to be especially careful how we spend our precious few dollars for professional development. This year, NCSD intends to help you make wise decisions and yet have the resources to be on the cutting edge of our profession. The theme for our Annual Conference this year is, “Enhancing Student Success in an Era of Partnership and Accountability.” It will be held October 24-26, 2010 at the Peabody Little Rock in Little Rock, Arkansas. There are three theme tracks.
- Student Success:
In 1998, Marguerite M. Culp and Steven R. Helfgot challenged the student development professional in the community college to focus attention on student success. They will return to us at this conference to update us on the progress we have made and help to set the course for future work in this area.
- Partnerships:
Twelve years ago, ACPA, NASPA, and AAHE suggested that we and our academic affairs colleagues leave our silos and establish partnerships in order to work together to fulfill our common mission. Edward L. Franklin, a Past-President of NCSD and the current Executive Director of the Arkansas Association of Two-Year Colleges, will bring focus to the theme of Partnerships in his keynote address.
- Assessment:
The United States Department of Education and the six regional accrediting agencies are all calling us to accountability as are most state legislatures. This theme track will help us to meet these important needs.
NCSD as an organization that is also developing important partnerships. One is with the National Campaign for the Prevention of Teen and Unplanned Pregnancies. Through this partnership we are developing and testing a curriculum to help us to educate our students about these issues which can have a tremendous impact on student success. NCSD has also developed a partnership with the Academy for Educational Development and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation to develop the Welcoming Community Colleges Initiative. This initiative is focused on the academic and labor market success of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community college students. NCSD is also in beginning discussions with the Association for Student Conduct Administration (formerly ASJA). NCSD sees each of these partnerships expanding over the coming years to include featured conference presentations, teleconferences, and other forms of professional development such as regional drive-in workshops, online learning, and utilization of various social networking technology.
This is an exciting time to be a part of the National Council on Student Development. There are many opportunities to play a meaningful role in our future. Please let me know how you would like to be involved.
Sincerely,
Tom G. Walter, Ph. D.
NCSD President
