NASPA Liaison Report to CCAPS

By this time I hope that some of you have made plans to attend the annual NASPA conference March 12 -16, 2011 in Philadelphia. This gathering of student affairs professionals tends to be directed a bit more to Senior Student Affairs Officers (SSAOs) than does ACPA, but my experience has been that the content of the sessions is similar. Unfortunately, however, NASPA does not make arrangements for mental health providers (or other health care providers) to accumulate continuing education hours during the national conference.

In contrast, the NASPA Mental Health Conference was held jointly with the NASPA Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Prevention & Intervention Conference, January 13-15, 2011 in Miami, FL. This 11th annual conference has grown to be a gathering that brings together excellent speakers from campuses and government agencies presenting about best practices and trends, specifically related to the provision of mental health services on college campuses. Since the mental health and substance abuse prevention conferences are held at the same time, and in the same hotel complex, it makes moving between sessions hosted by the different conferences simple. Given the tremendous overlap of the topics between these areas, that opportunity is a welcome one. Fortunately, NASPA arranges co-sponsorship of this conference with several organizations, including AUCCCD. Thus, ample CEs can be earned, and I recommend the 2012 conference to our CCAPS members.

I should note, that one of the topics addressed throughout the NASPA Mental Health Conference was the January 8, 2011 Tucson shooting that had occurred the week prior. At the time of the conference we were just starting to learn about the shooter, and about his connections to his local community college. Media commentators were just starting to question whether the staff on campus had done their duty to protect the community from the threats posed by Mr. Loughner. While those questions remain open for some, the Tucson tragedy provided excellent source material for the discussions that emerged during this engaging conference.

Recommended reading: In the Winter 2011 volume of the Leadership Exchange magazine published by NASPA there are a series of articles about counseling center trends, challenges and management. On my campus we found some of the articles valuable, informed and supportive of our work with students. Other articles were more challenging with respect to how our services are utilized and supervised. Your Vice President likely gets and reads through this magazine, so it will be prudent for counseling center staff and management to be aware of what the thoughts and recommendations are on your boss’s desk.

Finally, budget constraints prevent me from attending the mid-March NASPA conference in Philadelphia. I will be ending my liaison role between CCAPS and NASPA with this report. It is my hope that someone from CCAPS will be able to step into this role to continue connections between the organizations. With the ACPA/NASPA consolidation discussion and vote ahead, it is important that CCAPS be well represented in the conversation. Having a strong voice in any newly formed organization will be critical, should a consolidation result.

Respectfully submitted,
Donn Marshall, Ph.D.
Associate Dean of Students
University of Puget Sound
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