ACPA Senior Scholars Blog
ACPA Senior Scholars Statement of Action
As we continue to observe the pervasive and enduring acts of white supremacy, anti-Blackness, and colonialism—deeply rooted in our nation—we recognize that our campuses are not decoupled from that history; they are microcosms of what is playing out in larger society....
The Oar
If you put your soul against this oar with me, the power that made the universe will enter your sinew from a source not outside your limbs, but from a holy realm that lives in us. Excerpt from That Lives In Us by ~Rumi The Oar As this academic year dies, there is life...
A Response to Patricia Daugherty’s Commentary: Situating My Beloved ACPA
Written by Sherry K. Watt "I only preach from my scars, not my wounds." -Nadia Bolz-Weber is the founding pastor of House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver, Colorado As I read Patricia Daugherty’s Essay entitled What I Saw At A College Administrators’...
Radical Openness, Revolutionary Change: Shifting My Own Thinking
Written by Sherry K. Watt "The teacher also has to be a person who is going a little further. I don't for a minute think that we can be teachers who invite students into radical openness if we're not willing to be radically open ourselves, if we're not willing to be a...
How to Start a Revolution
Sherry K. Watt Professor, Higher Education and Student Affairs Program University of Iowa ACPA Senior Scholar The Revolution has started. Many are pushing back against our systems of traditional dominant-culture values, White supremacy, gender binary, heterosexism and...
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. It Needs to Be Improvised.
Tracy Davis Professor and College Student Personnel Program Coordinator Western Illinois University ACPA Senior Scholar If we want to start a revolution, we need to begin not with technology, but with ourselves, becoming more critical of the media we ingest. One of...
Justifying Student Affairs programming: What’s behind the academic curtain?
Vasti Torres Dean, College of Education University of South Florida Former, ACPA Senior Scholar Since becoming an Academic Dean in 2013, I am seeing the nexus between research and practice from a very different perspective. As a faculty member in a student affairs...
How to Start a Revolution: Use Intersectionality as a Framework to Promote Student Success
Donald “DJ” Mitchell, Jr. Assistant Professor of Higher Education, Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, Michigan ACPA Emerging Scholar Do you want students to reach their educational goals? My guess is you answered in the affirmative. Nevertheless, we know...
The upcoming Fisher II SCOTUS decision and its potential relationship to the campus climate for inclusion
Cassie L. Barnhardt, Assistant Professor, Higher Education and Student Affairs University of Iowa ACPA Emerging Scholar Very soon, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is expected to decide the case of Fisher II...