Strategic Imperative for Racial Justice and Decolonization

leading with an equity focused lens

Thank you for learning more about the ACPA Strategic Imperative for Racial Justice and Decolonization. Through this page, we hope to keep members and other interested parties up-to-date regarding the planning and implementation of the Strategic Imperative. Our goal is to be transparent and engaged with our membership throughout the course of this process. If there is information you would like to access that is not available on this site, please contact [email protected].

ACPA will direct resources, energy, and time toward addressing racial justice in student affairs and higher education around the world. Our lens is intersectional, intentional, and directed. The focus is on reducing the oppression of communities of color at the intersections of their identities, knowing that all oppressions are linked and that the work is ongoing. Our goal is to provide leading research and scholarship; tools for personal, professional, and career development; and innovative praxis opportunities for members that will actively inform and reshape higher education. We move toward this goal knowing that the roles and daily tasks of our jobs are important to the functioning of colleges and universities. We also know that racial justice and the tasks of our jobs do not sit as dichotomous poles. Racial justice is at our core; it underlies the work we each must do every day, in every way we can.

History

On November 17-21, 2016, the Governing Board, Assembly Leadership, and International Office gathered in Alexandria, VA to discuss a variety of issues related to mission, values, and the future of ACPA. Below we share the text from an email that past-President Donna Lee shared that best explains that gathering.

Update from ACPA President Donna A. Lee, 6 February 2017
“This past November I shared with you some highlights of the planning retreat in which the leaders of ACPA, including members of the Governing Board, Assembly, and International Office,  gathered to reflect upon the mission that guides us, the things that matter most to us as leaders and educators, and the deep and meaningful ways that we impact student learning. We departed from that retreat inspired and energized, emboldened by our capacity to affect change in a world that has been impacted by ubiquitous change, turmoil, and pain. Our work as student affairs educators is transformative, thoughtful, leading, and catalytic; our commitment to equity, inclusion, and justice is even more present. This is a time for us to boldly move forward as a profession and as an Association. In order to move in this boldness, it is important that we intentionally and strategically direct our energies, time, and resources.

 

What became evident for us as we reflected on our way forward was the need to identify a strategic imperative for our Association. What most powerfully and compellingly emerged as this imperative was Racial Justice.  This strategic imperative is an authentic demonstration of who we are as an Association. In conceptualizing racial justice, our lens is intersectional, intentional, and directed. The focus is on reducing the oppression of communities of color at the intersections of their identities knowing that all of our oppressions are linked and that the work is ongoing. Our goal is to provide leading research and scholarship; tools for personal, professional, and career development; and innovative praxis opportunities for our members that will actively inform and reshape higher education. We move toward this goal knowing that the roles and daily tasks of our jobs are vitally important to the functioning of our colleges and universities; and, we also know that racial justice and the tasks of our jobs do not exist as dichotomous poles. We believe racial justice is at our core; it underlies the work we each must do, everyday, in every way we can.

 

As we forge forward, authentic, committed, and transformational, it will take the collective gifts, skills, and voices that make up our Association. We will need each of you in this work. Over the coming months, there will be multiple and varied opportunities to provide feedback and input, ask questions, and help shape the work, our profession, our Association. We urge you to take the opportunity to engage in these conversations.”

As such, a small working group of Governing Board members and Assembly Leaders continued the conversation and formed the collective imagining sessions as a first step to begin to gather information in order figure out who should be involved in the conversation for creating a plan to implement this strategic imperative. The first collective imagining sessions took place in Columbus, OH during ACPA Convention 2017.

Planning and Progress

We conceptualize the planning of the strategic imperative as expansive, inclusive, intersectional, and transparent.  The intial working group that created the collective imagining sessions was made of Governing Board and Assembly Leaders and will be disbanded in its current form shortly after ACPA Convention 2017 in order to coalesce a new body that will ideally include ACPA members, faculty, staff, students (graduate and undergraduate), and community members and leaders.  This website will be the place where those interested in the strategic imperative can receive updated information on the planning and progress.  The team will be tasked with determining and recommending how the association moves forward with this strategic imperative.  The team will also engage in education of members, implementation of programming, and assessment of the imperative.

Timeline

1 April 2023
ACPA launches the Faculty Racial Justice and Decolonization Institute which provides a guided, curricular experience for faculty to develop essential knowledge and skill related to racial justice & decolonization in teaching activities.

28 March 2023
ACPA membership votes in favor of a full Implementation of the new Association Governance Model (to be effective 18 February 2025) during ACPA23 in New Orleans, LA. Building upon historical shifts in ACPA governance and in alignment with the Strategic Imperative for Racial Justice and Decolonization, the Governing Board is pursuing governance transformation to address current leadership challenges, better meet Association needs and explore decolonized ways of leadership.

13 January 2023
The ACPA Campus Racial Justice and Decolonization Expectations Project Task Force launches the Campus Racial Justice & Decolonization Expectations Project, a document written to serve as a resource for those interested in implementing the Strategic Imperative on campus.

30 November 2022
ACPA launches the Report on 21st Century Employment in Higher Education.

12 November 2022
The ACPA Governing Board approves a new ACPA vision statement which reads “In engaging in daily practice, ACPA aspires to be higher education’s and student affairs’ most inclusive and community-driven association by leading our profession in centering social justice, racial justice, and decolonization as defining concepts of our time and the foreseeable future”.

2-5 March 2020
The Strategic Imperative for Racial Justice & Decolonization is incorporated as part of overarching goals of race-based caucusing during the 2020 ACPA Annual Convention in Nashville, TN.

3-6 March 2019
The 2019 ACPA Annual Convention enhanced the caucus experience by updating the goals to articulate a deeper understanding of participants own racial identities; connect with colleagues who engage in solidarity work toward racial justice and decolonization; identify issues of power, privilege, and oppression in our individual work and broader field; and begin to individually and collectively develop strategies that move the self and field toward liberation and social change.

30 January 2019
The International Office released A Bold Vision Forward: A Framework for the Strategic Imperative for Racial Justice and Decolonization to membership. The goal of the document is to share the intentions of the Strategic Imperative for Racial Justice and Decolonization and direct action toward the possibilities. Written by: Stephen Quaye, Rachel Aho, Melissa Beard Jacob, Dre Domingue, Florence M. Guido, Alex Lange, Dian Squire and D-L Stewart.

10-13 March 2018
Race-based Caucusing is implemented at the 2018 ACPA Annual Convention using the Strategic Imperative for Racial Justice and Decolonization (SIRJD) Caucus Syllabus; a collection of articles, blogs, videos, movies, and podcasts to support professional and personal development leading into caucusing.

19 April 2017
President Stephen Quaye, Past-President Donna Lee, Vice President Jamie Washington, and immediate past Director of Equity & Inclusion Dian Squire presented on HigherEd Live about the Strategic Imperative for Racial Justice and Decolonization.

30 March- 2 April 2017
Information from collective imagining sessions compiled and made public on this website.

26-28 March, 2017
Three collective imagining sessions were held at ACPA Convention 2017 in Columbus, OH.  These sessions were advertised on CrowdCompass and in the printed program booklet, as well as sent via email on 8 March 2017

8 March, 2017
President Donna Lee sent third email to ACPA members about involvement in collective imagining sessions

6 February, 2017
President Donna Lee sent second email to ACPA members about strategic imperative

28 November, 2016
President Donna Lee sent email to ACPA members about strategic imperative

16-21 November, 2016
Governing Board, Assembly Leaders, and International Office staff gathered in Alexandria, VA to create the Strategic Imperative on Racial Justice

video Resources

26 June 2020

2020 Student Affairs Assessment Institute Closing Address: Keynote Reflections on ACPA’s Strategic Imperative for Racial Justice & Decolonization

19 July 2019

Live with Leadership: Centering Love in Racial Justice & Decolonization Practice.

Craig Elliott and Dr. Tanya O. Williams

 

17 May 2019

Live with Leadership: Implementation of the Strategic Imperative for Racial Justice & Decolonization

Craig Elliott, Danielle Sims Brooks & Brian Bourke

12 February 2019

Live Live with Leadership: Feedback Session with the authors of A Bold Vision Forward: A Framework for the Strategic Imperative for Racial Justice and Decolonization

Stephen John Quaye, Dian Squire, Rachel Aho, D-L Stewart, Alex C. Lange, Melissa Beard Jacob, Florence M. Guido and Andrea D. Domingue

2 July 2018

Live with Leadership: ACPA Leaders sharing content from the Writer’s Retreat focused on the Strategic Imperative for Racial Justice and Decolonization

Stephen John Quaye & Craig Elliott

17 September 2018

Live with Leadership: Authors of A Bold Vision Forward: A Framework for the Strategic Imperative for Racial Justice & Decolonization share their progress.

Stephen John Quaye, Dian Squire, Rachel Aho, D-L Stewart, Alex C. Lange, Melissa Beard Jacob, Florence M. Guido and Andrea D. Domingue

7 February 2018

HigherEd LIVE episode with ACPA leaders discussing racial justice and decolonization in practice. 

Andrea D. Domingue, Bill Huff, Lynn Huynh, Melissa Beard Jacob, Ray Plaza, and Richard Stevens, Jr.

22 January 2018

ACPA-ASHE Presidential Symposium on Racial Justice in Higher Education

Stephen John Quaye, Lori Patton Davis & Shaun R. Harper

19 April 2017

HigherEd LIVE episode featuring the ACPA Racial Justice Imperative

Donna Lee, Stephen John Quaye, Jamie Washington & Dian Squire

written Resources

A Bold Vision forward book cover

13 January 2023

Campus Racial Justice and Decolonization Expectations Project

21st Century Employment in Higher Education

30 November 2022

Report on 21st Century Employment in Higher Education

A Bold Vision forward book cover

4 February 2019

A Bold Vision Forward: A Framework for the Strategic Imperative for Racial Justice & Decolonization

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