National Association of Student Personnel Administrators

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The National Association of Student Personnel Administrators is a major student affairs organization in the United States of America. Founded in 1919 at the University of Wisconsin, NASPA has over 11,000 members at 1,400 campuses, and 29 countries.[1]

[edit] History

In December 1918 Robert Rienow, the dean of men at the University of Iowa desired to create a meeting that would bring together various deans of men in the midwest. He, with the dean of men at the University of Illinois, facilitated the founding meeting held at the University of Wisconsin in January 1919. The first meeting was quite small - three deans of men and three professors having campus interests were in attendance.[2]

Professor Louis A. Strauss of the University of Michigan referred to the first meeting as the "Conference of Deans and Advisers of Men." This label was used in prevalence until 1929 when it was changed to the National Association of Deans and Advisers of Men (NADAM). The new name was more fitting because many American universities did not have the "Dean of Men" title.

In 1925 the first piece of "research" was offered at a NADAM meeting. It dealt with the prevalence of the office of dean of men in American colleges and universities. The last meeting of the '20s was the first to be conducted away from the college campus - held at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C.. There were 76 participants, each paying dues of $10.

In the 1930s the NASPA administration continued to request publications to be submitted to the conferences. The NASPA Journal, as a result, was first introduced in 1963. Before that time newsletters were the primary way of communicating regarding published material.

As student affairs offices began to change and administrators no longer used "Dean of Men" and "Advisor of Men" as their titles, the organization followed suit. NASPA began counting the different types of titles of its members and saw over 30 different types of administrators near the end of World War II. But attendance continued to grow - in 1949, the annual meeting reached 217, passing 200 for the first time.

Dean Wesley P. Lloyd at Brigham Young University recommended a name change in 1951 to the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA). This gave a new breadth to the organization and it began, for the first time, to seek out membership. The newly expanded organization stated its purpose: "to discuss and study the most effective methods of aiding students in their intellectual, social, moral, and personal development".[2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ About NASPA. NASPA. Retrieved on 2007-09-09.
  2. ^ a b NASPA History. NASPA. Retrieved on 2007-09-09.
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