SEATTLE — Prominent student affairs practitioners of color shared powerful stories of leading in higher education amid major challenges, including the recent COVID pandemic and ongoing attacks to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
"Navigating the Opportunities in Uncertainty: Stories of Diverse Student Affairs Professionals Across the Career Span," was among the dozens of panels held on Sunday during the opening day of the NASPA annual conference--the nation's largest gathering of student affairs professionals. The panel was organized by the Melvin C. Terrell Educational Foundation, a nonprofit committed to supporting the next generation of practitioners and was moderated by Dr. Terrell L. Strayhorn, vice provost and interim dean of the School of Arts & Sciences at Virginia Union University.
Drs. Melvin C. Terrell, Martino Harmon, D'Andra Mull, Shawna Patterson-Stephens, Melissa Shivers participate in a panel at NASPA that was moderated by Dr. Terrell L. Strayhorn.
The politicization of higher education has increasingly made the task of serving students more difficult in recent years, the panelists noted.
"Higher education has forgotten its why," said Dr. D'Andra Mull, vice chancellor for student affairs at the University of Colorado Boulder, who reminded practitioners to ensure that their values are in alignment with the institution where they serve.
"Bloom where you are planted, but go where you can grow," said Mull, who urged professionals to figure out what they want to learn before making the leap to another job. "It might be your time, but not your door," she added.
Student affairs professionals, like faculty at many colleges and universities, are increasingly subjected to outside interference by state and federal legislators who have in some places, made it more difficult to promote diversity and inclusion.
