2016 Summit on College Students: October 14

The Higher Education Administration (HEA) Department will host a Summit on College Students, Friday, October 14, at 9:30 a.m. in E. H. Butler Library 210.

The event will feature a panel discussion with national experts in the field of higher education who will share their insights and expertise on crises, opportunities, and solutions related to college students today.

“Our panelists are experienced in some of the most critical issues that college students currently face,” said Kimberly Kline, professor and HEA Department chair. “They have backgrounds in assessment and accountability issues and issues of oppression and liberation.”

Panel members include Gavin Henning, president-elect of the Council for Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS), past president of the American College Personnel Association (ACPA), and associate professor and director of Higher Education Programs at New England College; Jesse Perez Mendez, associate dean for academic affairs at the University of Central Florida; and Susan Marine, assistant professor and program director of the Higher Education Graduate Program at Merrimack College.

Gavin Henning
As president of ACPA—College Student Educators International from 2015–2016, Henning led the premiere higher education association centered on fostering college student learning and development. As president elect of the CAS and founder of Student Affairs Assessment Leaders, Henning helps further a national agenda of accountability and continuous improvement of higher education programs and services. In addition to his practitioner work, Henning's scholarship includes two recent books on student affairs assessment. He is co-editor of Coordinating Divisional Student Affairs Assessment: A Practical Guide and co-author of Student Affairs Assessment: Theory to Practice.

Jesse Perez Mendez
Mendez's research explores the dynamics of postsecondary access and campus safety issues in higher education and has been published in such outlets as the Community College Review, Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Journal of American Indians in Education and the recently completed book, Hispanic-Serving Institutions in American Higher Education. Mendez is a former fellow of the American Council on Education (ACE) where he worked under the Office of the Provost at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Susan Marine
Marine is an assistant professor and program director in the higher education master’s program at Merrimack College. She has 20 years of experience leading initiatives in higher education for the advancement of women and trans students of all genders with specific expertise in sexual violence prevention and response, and advocacy for the LGBTQ community. Marine's research focuses on building gender-expansive campuses, including ending sexual violence against LGBTQ students, fostering full participation of trans students, and fostering feminist praxis in higher education. Her work seeks to transform campus cultures and to continually advance social justice in higher education. She has contributed to numerous scholarly journals and books and is the author of Stonewall’s Legacy: Bisexual, gay, lesbian and transgender students in higher education.

This event is co-sponsored by the Faculty-Student Association, the School of the Professions, and the HESAA Collective.

No RSVP is required. For more information, contact Kline at (716) 878-3789 .