Higher Education Professor's Work Recommended to Convention Participants

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Michael Hevel

A national professional organization of people who work in student affairs in higher education will use a University of Arkansas professor's article to help educate its members on the history of racism, sexism and homophobia during the development of the student affairs field.

Michael Hevel, U of A associate professor of higher education, wrote an article titled "Toward a History of Student Affairs: A Synthesis of Research, 1996-2015" published in the Journal of College Student Development in October 2016. In the article, Hevel examined research in more than 40 publications, combining the information to give a comprehensive understanding of the history of student affairs. The article is included in a syllabus recommended to members of ACPA: College Student Educators International to study before they attend the organization's annual convention in March in Houston.

In November 2016, the ACPA decided to launch a strategic imperative addressing racial justice in student affairs and higher education around the world. The syllabus that includes Hevel's article provides a four-month long series of articles, blogs, videos, movies and podcasts to help members prepare for a daily aspect of the convention in which they will gather in groups to discuss their experiences and issues on their campuses.

"The purpose is to help student affairs professionals understand the pervasiveness of racism on campus and make campuses more racially just spaces," Hevel said. "This is the first time ACPA has ever done anything like this."

The syllabus is intended to give members foundational knowledge before they begin discussions. ACPA is one of the two largest umbrella organizations for student affairs professionals and scholars, with about 7,500 members.

The Journal of College Student Development, which published Hevel's article, is one of six top-tier journals in the field of higher education and the only one with a specific focus on college students and student affairs, according to research by the University of Alabama. Hevel's article was the first history-related research since 1998 in the journal, which reported a submission acceptance rate of 8 percent for September 2015 through September 2016.

Dian Squire, visiting assistant professor of student affairs at Iowa State and chair of the ACPA Diversity and Inclusion, helped create the syllabus and said Hevel's article was chosen because higher education researchers often examine the history of universities with rose-colored glasses.

"I had yet to read a concise historical piece about our specific field that so explicitly outlines the ways that racism, sexism, and homophobia played out in the early formations of our field both in representation of and interaction between administrators," Squire said. "Those early formations continue to impact the way we do our work today and feed the purpose of the (Strategic Imperative for Racial Justice and Decolonization). It is a relevant and timely piece and connects directly to the strategic imperative and the outcomes we hope to achieve."