News

Joint Communiqué

To: Boards of Directors: ACPA, ACUHO-I, ACUI, NACA, NASPA, NIRSA

From:
ACPA, Greg Roberts, Executive Director, gr@acpa.nche.edu
ACUHO-I, Sallie Traxler, Executive Director, sallie@acuho-i.org
ACUI, Marsha Herman-Betzen, Exec. Dir., mherman@indiana.edu
NACA, Alan Davis, Executive Director, aland@naca.org
NASPA, Gwen Dungy, Executive Director, gdungy@naspa.org
NIRSA, Kent J. Blumenthal, Exec. Dir., kentb@nirsa.org

Re: CHEMA STUDENT AFFAIRS GATHERING, Washington, DC – April 27-28, 2005

Date: May 10, 2005

The Council of Higher Education Management Associations (CHEMA) STUDENT AFFAIRS GATHERING (Group) that convened in Washington, DC on April 27-28, 2005 came together because of our common organizational goals to provide opportunities, programs, services and related functions to college and university students. Participation within the larger CHEMA group remains valuable to us and to our respective organizations though it does not afford this opportunity.

The Group identified commonalities among each organization that serve student affairs functions within higher education. In particularly, executive directors of associations represented at the meeting addressed their respective association members' contributions to the importance of understanding and supporting learning and development as intertwined, inseparable elements of the college student experience, and integrated use of all of higher education's resources in the education and preparation of the whole student. Further, the Group agreed to work together to further an enlightened understanding among university officials of transformative education – a holistic process of learning that places the student at the center of the learning experience.

With the support of our respective Association boards of directors, we intend to continue to engage in discussions to further increase understanding among college administrators and government officials of our collective role in preparation of the whole student within higher education through the active involvement and participation of our respective members.

Specifically, we intend to facilitate collection of important data that will address the following elements and may contribute to the upcoming publication, Learning Reconsidered 2 (working title):

• How student affairs programs have an impact on students;
• How student affairs programs enhance student learning;
• Identify what campus programs are intentionally doing to enhance campuses as learning environments;
• Explore the feasibility of a longitudinal study to collect data on the impact of student affairs on student success post college graduation.