During our 100th Anniversary year, the ACPA Governing Board is honored to announce the renaming of the Institute for Aspiring Senior Student Affairs Officers to the Paul Shang Institute for Aspiring Senior Student Affairs Officers.
Dr. Paul Shang was the sixty-third ACPA President from 2002-2003 and the first and only Asian American member to have served in this role to date. During his presidency, professional development access and opportunity was the core of his direction for the Association.
Dr. Shang earned his Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctorate, all at Florida State University. His career in higher education spans his first role as a research assistant in the Office of Minority Student Affairs at Florida State University in 1977 until his retirement in 2016 as the Assistant Vice President and Dean of Students at the University of Oregon. His professional roles included leadership at a number of institutions including University of Iowa, Colorado State University, Penn State Scranton, Missouri Western State University, and the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Dr. Shang’s early involvement with ACPA included serving in various standing committees, notably the Standing Committee for Multicultural Affairs, participating on numerous convention planning teams, and presenting educational program sessions at annual conferences. His additional volunteer leadership roles in ACPA included service on the Ethics Committee and chair of the Affirmative Action Committee from 1993-1997. Dr. Shang attended and was an active participant at nearly every ACPA Annual Convention since the 1984 convention in Baltimore, Maryland. After serving as ACPA President in 2002-2003, Shang continued to lead in ACPA as a member of the International Books and Media Board. For his service and contributions, he was recognized with the ACPA Annuit Coeptis Senior Professional Award in 2004, was celebrated as a 2005 ACPA Diamond Honoree recipient, and received the ACPA Esther Lloyd-Jones Professional Service Award in 2016.
During Shang’s presidency, ACPA expanded in its inclusion of two-year, transfer, and proprietary institutions as part of the ACPA membership and emphasized the importance of recognition of these educational experiences at the Annual Conventions. At the 2003 ACPA convention in Minneapolis, a group of ACPA members were appointed by Dr. Shang to serve on the Blue Ribbon Committee to consider possible consolidation with NASPA which later culminated in the spring of 2011 when voting occurred by the memberships of both organizations. To this day, Dr. Shang continues to be an active supporter of ACPA and professional development.
Shang has been published 14 times with numerous collaborators such as Dr. Kristen Renn on Biracial and Multiracial College Students, which was published in 2008 and is No. 123 of the Jossey-Bass New Directions in Student Services series, and Dr. Heather Shea on Mixed Race College Students and Colorism: Considerations for Post- Secondary Institutions. He also has a chapter in the publication entitled An Introduction to Social and Historical Factors Affecting Multiracial College Students. Along with Dr. Marita Barkis, Shang has a chapter entitled “The AISP Model on Increasingly Diverse Campuses” in Dunkle, J. (ed.), Dealing with the Behavioral and Psychological Problems of Students: A Contemporary Update, New Directions for Student Services, Number 128, 2009, and “Minority Students and the AISP Model” In Delworth, U. (ed). Dealing with the Behavioral and Psychological Problems of Students, New Directions for Student Services, no. 45, 1989.
The Institute for Aspiring SSAOs exists to provide an opportunity for individuals to explore ways in which our diverse backgrounds (such as gender identity and presentation, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and physical/cognitive qualities) impact our move to and experience within an SSAO role.
It is for his enduring legacy of passionate advocacy for professional involvement and development, personal learning and growth, and many contributions to ACPA, higher education, and scholarship throughout his lifetime that it is our distinct honor to rename the Paul Shang Institute for Aspiring Senior Student Affairs Officers.
Applications for the 2024 Paul Shang Institute for Aspiring Senior Student Affairs Officers will open in spring of 2024 and the event will take place 13-16 November 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Sincerely,
2023-2024 ACPA Governing Board
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