Origin stories of any long-standing organization or group contain the roots of its culture, its reason for being, and its values (Kass, 2018). Origin stories, Kass asserts, also connect members of the group across the generations. As we celebrate ACPA’s 100th anniversary in 2024, we also celebrate the 40th and 25th anniversaries, respectively, of two of its significant and inter-related entities—the ACPA Senior Scholars and the ACPA Emerging Scholars. In this article, I trace the origins of both groups.
ACPA Senior Scholars
Although 1984 is documented as the first time the Senior Scholars were formally a part of ACPA, the story begins eight years earlier in 1976–a pivotal year in setting the stage for the creation of the Senior Scholars. First, ACPA presented the Contribution to Knowledge Award to its first recipient, E. G. Williamson in 1976. Second, 1976 was the founding year of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), which started as a standing committee of higher education scholars in the American Association for Higher Education (which disbanded in 2005). ASHE, as a new association, attracted many student affairs scholars seeking to network and converse with their peers. And third, it was the first year (of more than 40) that an informal group of ACPA members (including Phil Tripp, Harry Canon, Cynthia Johnson, James Hurst, and Ursula Delworth) gathered in Valhalla, CO to have in-depth conversations about how student development theory could influence professional practice in student affairs. These three events would be the early roots of–and play a significant role in–the formation of the ACPA Senior Scholars.
Early in ACPA’s second semicentennial (around 1982), leadership within the association observed and grew concerned that some of its senior members, who were doing scholarship, were drifting away from the association to join ASHE and take with them their coveted wisdom, experience, and generativity. Harry Canon recalls that while driving with his colleague, Peggy Barr, from Northern Illinois University to Detroit for the 1982 ACPA convention, they discussed this very issue and the need to have an entity within the association to keep these scholars engaged.
These conversations continued that next fall at the Valhalla gathering and at the ACPA Governing Board meeting where a formal motion to begin the formation the ACPA Senior Scholars was made by Member-at-Large Canon and voted on affirmatively by the board. Key to these conversations were past ACPA Presidents, Cynthia Johnson and Paul Bloland. Johnson was especially influential given her skill at deftly moving ideas to action. As leaders such as Ursula Delworth, Lou Stamatakos, and Peter Sherrard fleshed out the idea of the Senior Scholars, it would need to be put into writing for a formal vote at the ACPA governing board business meeting at the 1983 convention in Houston. Peggy Barr is credited with drafting the Senior Scholar Program proposal draft that would detail the initial procedures, policies, and activities of the group and become its working document.
This foundational document started with the rationale for program:
The American College Personnel Association has a richly talented resource in those individuals who have received the Contribution to Knowledge Award and other senior scholars in the field. The professionals, endorsed and honored by their colleagues, possess conceptual and creative skills that have shaped the profession and contain the promise of still further advancement of our knowledge base. In order to insure [sic] continuing benefits and contributions to the Association, ACPA now established the Senior Scholar Program.
The proposal detailed the criteria for being nominated, and initial procedures, policies, and activities of the newly formed group to be initiated at the 1984 Convention in Baltimore. Among these details were: (1) the first seven appointed Senior Scholars would elect their own chair and, annually, additional members to arrive at and maintain a membership of 12; (2) appointments to the Senior Scholar Program would be six years with those who complete the term being awarded with “Diplomate” status (those unable to complete the term were recognized as “Emeritus”) ; (3) Senior Scholars would be allotted a program slot at each convention and submit occasional papers to the Executive Council for possible publication in the (then) Journal of College Student Personnel; and (4) Senior Scholars would be called upon for assistance/counsel by the ACPA President. On March 12, 1983, the proposal was approved at the association’s business meeting presided over by Susan Komives.
On April 20, 1983, Chairperson of the ACPA Awards and Commendations Committee, Lou Stamatakos, sent a memo, per the approved proposal, to the previous recipients of the Contribution to Knowledge Award to formally announce their appointment to this program and to request their acceptance. This memo went to Gilbert Wrenn, Alexander Astin, Robert D. Brown, Arthur Chickering, Ursula Delworth, James Hurst, and Clyde Parker (the first recipient of the Contribution to Knowledge Award, E. G. Williamson, had passed away in 1979). This invited group comprised the first cohort of the Senior Scholars, with Robert Brown serving as the temporary chair of the group to help get it organized in advance of the 1984 ACPA Convention in Baltimore.
These first Senior Scholars were officially recognized and awarded at the opening session of the Baltimore convention presided over by Peggy Barr. In the years that followed, the Senior Scholars program grew to 12, adding David DeCoster, Laurine Fitzgerald, Margaret Barr, Albert Hood, Phyllis Mable, and Melvene Hardee. Through the date of this publication, 103 ACPA members have been selected to serve as Senior Scholars—49 of whom have been honored with the ACPA Contribution to Knowledge Award—and to carry on the fine tradition of engaging with one another to identify critical issues worthy of inquiry and attention, integrate scholarship into the practice of student affairs, and promote scholarship through presentation of programs of interest to the profession at annual conventions.
ACPA Emerging Scholars
Like the origin story of the Senior Scholars, the Emerging Scholars program began several years before the first cohort was formally initiated in 1999. The earliest documented mention of an emerging scholars program dates to March 1996 when the Senior Scholars met at that year’s convention in Baltimore. Several threads came together prior to, and at, the meeting that became the inception of the program. First, although many of the Senior Scholars had been (and were) engaged with other entities of the association at this time, some recognized that they still lacked contact with the issues that were important to the association. Likewise, although the Senior Scholars had designed programs and similar opportunities to interact with other parts of the association, much of their time at conventions was spent with one another in formal meetings to discuss the work of the Senior Scholars and their activities within ACPA. There was an expressed need to widen that circle of scholars within the association by including newer professionals doing scholarship on college students.
Second, this expanding community of scholars could then provide an opportunity for mentoring relationships and for sustained interactions between seasoned scholars and future scholars. And finally, and importantly, there were discussions about how the ACPA Senior Scholars could contribute more meaningfully to addressing diversity issues, particularly with respect to the diversity of the professoriate and the scholarly activities of minoritized scholars.
Interest in initiating such a program, driven largely by Pat King and Karen Kitchener, generated a great deal of enthusiasm and energy. The plan was to create an emerging scholars institute at the 1997 convention that would then become the Emerging Scholars Program. According to the minutes of the 1996 Senior Scholars meeting minutes:
The purpose of the institute would be to encourage the scholarship of ACPA members who were beginning their post-doctoral work and to begin a dialogue about setting an agenda for future research on college students in light of changes in higher education and its student population. Part of the goal would be to support and encourage the scholarship of new professionals from underrepresented groups that were often not recognized for their contribution to scholarship regarding college students.
The plan from there was to solicit nominations (including self-nominations) from doctoral programs and from ACPA entities such as the Committee on Multicultural Affairs and the Standing Committee for Women. From among these nominated early career faculty and/or practitioner scholars, the Senior Scholars would select up to 12 they considered “emerging scholars”. The plan was, then, to meet for the preconference institute the following year. Karen Kitchener agreed to coordinate the planning of the institute as well as maintain connections with the selected emerging scholars and assess what they hoped to get from the institute.
There are limited records and recollections on what happened in 1997 and 1998 with respect to these initial plans for the Emerging Scholars Program. What is known is that the Senior Scholars encountered some logistical problems with getting the necessary grant funding for the institute. Also, a great deal of energy was needed among the Senior Scholars, at this time, to launch The Senior Scholars Trends Analysis Project (1997-1998)–a thematic analysis of national higher education associations by a University of Maryland research team (with Susan Komives as the Principal Investigator) designed to identify the issues and developments the field would face in the new millennium and to establish a research agenda for the 21st century. The project was coordinated by Cynthia Johnson and led to multiple essays authored by the Senior Scholars with titles such as “Improving Access and Educational Success for Diverse Students” (Pat King), “Affordability” (Lee Upcraft), “Changing Government Roles” (Annette Gibbs), “Technology” (Patrick Terenzini and Lee Upcraft), and “Accountability” (Greg Blimling).
By the fall of 1998, the Senior Scholars secured funding and were ready to announce a formal call for nominations for the inaugural cohort of ACPA Emerging Scholars. Coordinated by Pat King and Nancy Evans, the call highlighted the purpose of the newly established program which was to “encourage scholarship and research among ACPA members, especially scholars who are beginning their post-doctoral work.” The call also detailed the application criteria and the activities of the group which would be initiated at the convention in 1999. In addition to receiving mentorship from the Senior Scholars and a $300 grant to support their research, this inaugural group would also attend a Fetzer Foundation Institute with the Senior Scholars in April of 1999 in Kalamazoo, MI. With the support of ACPA president, Jean Paratore, Cynthia Johnson became the driving force behind getting the necessary funding–from former ACPA member and program director with the Fetzer Foundation, Tony Chambers– to support this launch of the Emerging Scholars Program. The inaugural cohort of Emerging Scholars were named in 1999: Jan Arminio, Ellen Broido, Deborah Carter, Tracy Davis, Sharon Fries-Britt, Anna Ortiz, Michael Sutton, Donna Talbot, Siu-Man “Raymond” Ting, and Vasti Torres. Since this inaugural cohort, 126 Emerging Scholars have been honored; 22 of these have, later in their careers, been honored as Senior Scholars.
Reflections on ACPA Scholars Programs
In preparing this brief history on the origin stories of both the ACPA Senior and Emerging Scholars, I had the pleasure of speaking and corresponding with some of our earlier Senior Scholars including Pat King, Susan Komives, George Kuh, John Schuh, Nancy Evans, Vasti Torres, and Marcia Baxter-Magolda as well as some of the more recent Emerging Scholars: Royel Johnson and Amanda Mollet. Many of these colleagues willingly shared their knowledge on the genesis of these programs and all shared their thoughts and insights on the significance of these programs to a professional association. Allow me to summarize some of their reflections.
Many of the Senior Scholars I interviewed discussed how the program, from the very start, benefited those who were members. Susan Komives discussed how some of the earliest Senior Scholars often promoted the group as “a positive culture of scholars really having good conversations that we all didn’t have a chance to have in other places” and she recalled how Patrick Terenzini would tell others about being a Senior Scholar in the mid-1990s: “That’s one of the best things I do; my brain stretches, I learn what’s happening, I see how it can influence my own research.” George Kuh likewise shared that the conversations among Senior Scholars “were intellectually engaging; it was a colloquium of sorts.” Also mentioned was how the program could be influential in ACPA; as Vasti Torres noted, it was “the first program that sought to have the voices of scholars be included in the decision-making of the association.”
On the significance of the Emerging Scholars program’s 25 years, Royel Johnson shared, “It acted as a bridge, helping to foster meaningful connections with then senior scholars like Eboni Zamani-Gallaher, Raechele Pope, Penny Pasque, and Lori Patton Davis, among others. Their wisdom and professional role modeling have significantly shaped the direction and expanded the realm of possibility of my career.“ In a similar vein, Amanda Mollet observed, “Being an Emerging Scholar is more than an award, it is access to a brilliant community and the responsibility to use or knowledge and skills to serve ACPA and the field of higher education. The Emerging Scholars award provided scholarly validation of my research and supported securing a Spencer Foundation research grant building on my Emerging Scholars research project.”
Conclusion
Since their origins, both the Senior Scholars and the Emerging Scholars have demonstrated their importance and their value to ACPA in advancing knowledge within the field of student affairs. More specifically, they have played a role in promoting a culture and community of scholarship within the association, have helped shape the scholarly agenda and stimulated conversation within the association, have generated thought-provoking publications for the association, and have promoted future generations of scholars. As we celebrate this 100th anniversary of the association, it is fitting to honor and thank the visionary ACPA practitioners, leaders, and scholars named in this piece who worked so hard to establish these programs 40 and 25 years ago.
Visit the websites of both the ACPA Senior Scholars and Emerging Scholars to learn more about each program, the current and previous scholars, and how to nominate colleagues to be selected to the programs.
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Heartfelt thanks Harry Canon, Pat King, and Susan Komives for their time and for providing substance and details on these origin stories. Thanks also to Marcia Baxter-Magolda, Nancy Evans, Royel Johnson, George Kuh, Amanda Mollett, John Schuh, and Vasti Torres for their additional insights. And special thanks to the staff at the National Student Affairs Archives at Bowling Green State University Libraries for access to original documentation on the Senior and Emerging Scholars programs.
Author Bio
John A. Mueller (he/him/his)…is an emeritus professor of Student Affairs in Higher Education at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. A member of ACPA since 1985, John has been awarded Emerging Scholar (2004), Senior Scholar (2019-2024), and Senior Scholar Diplomate (2024).
References
Kass, M. (2018). Why you must know your organization’s origin story. Retrieved from https://medium.com/the-center-for-story-and-spirit/why-you-must-know-your-organizations-origin-story-b72ad88fd92d