Looking Ahead

Greetings CCPA Members!

August is upon us and I know many of us are busily preparing for the upcoming start of the academic year on our individual campuses. I hope you will take this time to reflect on the year that has passed and begin to look forward to the new academic year and what is to come.

As your CCPA President, I am pleased to serve higher education professionals throughout the state of California so that we can better serve our students. As you know, CCPA is a state division of ACPA, American College Student Personnel Association- College Student Educators International. Recently, ACPA hosted a summer leadership meeting in Lousiville, KY whereby 22 out of 25 state division leaders as well as over 20 different Standing Committee and Commission Chairs were present alongside the ACPA Governing Body and International Office Staff.  It was a great opportunity to connect with national leaders and engage in dialogue with the governing board of ACPA about the state of affairs for higher education professionals nationally. Additionally, ACPA shared with the Assembly a number of initiatives and projects that will take place over the course of the year including:

• A Strategic Plan for Globalization
• Visioning Sessions with members and non-members
• Legislative Liaison for Higher Education Issues
• Re-envisioning Career Services

I believe that all of these directly relate to the work we do in California and the impact we have within our own institutions.  Throughout the past year, California has experienced a number of challenges that have impacted our institutions: budget cuts, bullying, bias- and hate-related incidents, student deaths, furloughs, and immigration rights to name a few. These issues and challenges are imminent and evolving on a daily basis. I am hopeful that through CCPA, we can provide leadership to professionals across the state to think critically about these issues and create innovative approaches to tackle the road ahead.

The CCPA Leadership Team also held our own Summer Leadership Meeting on Friday July 29^th at the University of San Francisco. The team began brainstorming and coordinating a strategic plan which we hope to unveil in our September newsletter.  In this strategic plan, we will be enhancing our resources for members and increasing our membership engagement.

I am honored and humbled to serve in this role as your President and look forward to the great work that is to come of CCPA. If you have any questions or would like to be more involved, I encourage you to contact us through email at members@webccpa.com.

Best of luck as you embark on the start of the semester!

In solidarity,

Keegan Mills
President
California College Personnel Association
keegan@webccpa.com