Jordan Toy

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NASPA/ACPA

Published on January 28th, 2011 by in HigherEd, Reflection

I’ll preface this post with this: I am a 1st year graduate student in SAHE and am therefore an infant in the world of Student Affairs compared to many of the individuals whom have dedicated years to the field.

Now to my point…
Today I, along with many others in Student Affairs, received an email from a group running a NASPA Yes! campaign. The email detailed the reasons why NASPA and ACPA should not consolidate to form one organization and provided a link to their new website, www.supportnaspa.com. 

I do not personally feel qualified or educated enough on the merger or the two organizations, both of which I am a member, to decide whether the two very historic organizations should be consolidated. We’ve had the debate in class, I’ve discussed it with peers and coworkers, and I certainly have my own opinions on the matter but, once again, I’m very new to the field. 

What I do know is this. As a graduate student who hopes to spend most of my career in the field, it frustrates me to see so much anger surrounding this subject. Debate needs to take place, but not at the expense of the close knit environment within higher education. I came into this field through the nurturing and guidance of student affairs professionals and it saddens me to see student affairs professionals so heated about this topic. 

In uncertain economic times, we should be uniting to form alliances to support higher education. In Indiana, higher education was cut by $150 million in 2009 and is facing more cuts in 2011. Whether it be through one consolidated organization or two separate organizations, we need to focus on what we’re here to do: meet the needs of students in higher education and advocate for the resources they need to become successful.
 
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  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/13081785041290542706 seancook

    Hi Jordan,I agree that the measure of any organization should be whether it helps its members be better professionals and provide more effective services to those they serve.In the past, I was a member of ACPA (on and off) and I considered joining NASPA. But the most relevant conferences and networking opportunities I had during my career were actually in ACUHO-I. (I was in Residence Life for most of my career.) As an outsider (especially now that I am a service provider and not a Full-Time staff member), I see the value in a combined organization, and believe that ultimately, the result will be one organization, or a new one that emerges after the dust settles after these two wear out their welcome with some in the profession, who just want some clarity about organizational directions. I suspect there are many, like me, who aren’t going to join either organization until this happens. For me it’s a matter of money on one part (especially since I would have to join as a corporate member, and joining both would be pretty expensive) and also about the availability of other networks and opportunities that provide networking and professional development for less up-front investment (or none at all) and experiences that are more directly relevant to my specialty (like ACUHO-I was to me before and NACE is now.It may be that large organizations with broad agendas (like supporting a profession that is really many, many sub-professions) aren’t as relevant to today’s professionals as opportunities to dive deep into specialties and niches that interest them more.Whatever the outcome, don’t let it discourage you. As a Student Affairs professional, you will have many, many more situations that demand your time and emotional energy. If you can’t decide which way to go after your grad student memberships expire, my advice would be this: don’t. Drop both and join a niche group (like ACUHO-I, NACA, NACE, NODA, AFA, etc.) that will help you dive deep into a specialty. They’ll settle it eventually.

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