In This Issue
President’s Column: Board Takes Proactive Steps for Future of Association
Board of Directors Nominees Announced: Meet the Nominees for the Board of Directors
Capitol Outlook: Legislative Conference Recap
NACACtion: Admitted: The Official Blog of NACAC; NACAC Resources: Student Disciplinary Information; NACAC Receives Lumina Foundation for Education Grant to Study Alternative College Admission Strategies; NACAC to Host Webinar: Understanding Financial Aid Awards and Communicating with Financial Aid Offices; Awards: Nominate Your Colleagues for their Outstanding Contributions to the Field; Call for Nominations for Appointed Positions 2009 Board of Directors
Knowledge Center: Office Management; New in the Knowledge Center
National Conference News: Registration and Housing Open; Bookmark the Conference Web site; Baltimore Volunteers Needed; Exhibit at the National Conference; Connect With Your Colleagues Before You Arrive in Baltimore; 2009 National Conference Sponsors
Professional Development: Guiding the Way to Inclusion
Imagine Fund: Donor Profile Chuck Bachman; NACAC Celebrates 10 Years of Imagine, 1999-2009
NACAC in the News: A New Factor in Making That College: Loving It; Sewanee Drops Use of ACT, SAT Results
President’s Column
Bill McClintick
Director of College Counseling
Mercersburg Academy (PA)
Board Takes Proactive Steps for Future of Association
More often than not over the past few months, I have fretted about how much time I am devoting to NACAC work as opposed to my real job. However, at this time of year, I am actually happy to take a break from these days of tears and cheers—as we refer to them during the admission decision season—to report some of the good things that have been happening on the association front. Yes, believe it or not, despite many of the hard decisions we have had to make, there is still a lot of good work coming out of Arlington, VA.
Several weeks ago the Board of Directors, the affiliate Presidents' Council, and a number of our government relations leaders gathered to conduct association business and walk the halls of Congress to promote our legislative agenda. As you can imagine, it was an exciting time to be in Washington and we found the mood to be quite different than in recent years in terms of a renewed focus on education policy and spending. It was a productive week, and while there were interesting conversations of how to advocate for our legislative agenda in the future, I would like to focus on some of the business matters we addressed.
The board has been busy over the past few months dealing with a number of topics. We have been trying to scale back travel and conduct as much business as possible by conference call or electronically, so this was the first opportunity the full board had to sit down together and firm up a number of decisions and actions. Among them, we:
- Approved revised 2009 financial projections to address an anticipated deficit
- Continued to monitor the association’s programmatic and financial performance and provided direction for further improvements
- Announced plans to suspend hosting the Washington, DC Legislative Conference in 2010 and charged the Government Relations Committee to seek new strategies for legislative advocacy
- Received minutes and requested activities from 11 of the 12 standing committee meetings held in January-March, 2009
- Monitored progress on the dissemination and response to the Commission on Testing Report Recommendations
- Received news of a successful 2008 audit that we will formally act on in the weeks to come
- Initiated steps to explore the growing size of the NACAC Assembly
- Approved membership application criteria as a companion to the new bylaws
- Approved plans to advance a bylaws revision to reinstate a category of non-voting membership that was inadvertently left out of the new bylaws
- Appointed members to a US News and World Report Ad Hoc Committee
- Took steps to appoint members to serve on an Advisory Committee to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)
- Approved policies and provided training for affiliates to clarify expectations articulated in the NACAC Bylaws
- Initiated discussion to fine tune the operation of the board and board committees
- Designated board members to attend and actively participate in the spring and summer conferences of all affiliates
- Ensured NACAC or its issues were represented at national conferences of the National Association of Independent Schools, American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers and the American School Counselors Association in the months to come.
While I have confided to a number of friends that I have often felt as though we have been on the defensive at times during recent months as we try to stay a step ahead of financial concerns, you can see we have still managed to take a number of proactive steps as well. I am particularly pleased by the establishment of two committees which will be working to address concerns with US News and World Report and the NCAA. For many years our members have spoken out about concerns over both college rankings and navigating the NCAA eligibility process. We have heard those concerns, and are excited to have established dialogue with both organizations that will continue over the coming years.
Now it is time for me to get back to my real job of explaining to my kids what a waiting list means and reminding them they have until May 1 to make up their minds. To my friends on the college side, I hope your yields are high; and to my colleagues on the secondary side, I hope you have more cheers than tears.
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Board of Directors Nominees Announced
Meet the Nominees for the Board of Directors
The Governance and Nominating Committee met March 21 and 22 and had the opportunity to review a significant number of applications from highly qualified colleagues who were generous enough to submit their names in consideration for nomination to the NACAC Board of Directors. In selecting a final list of nominees for election by the 2009 Assembly, the committee considered factors including overall career experience, representation, and association leadership at both the affiliate and the national level.
On behalf of the committee, I am pleased to announce the following slate of nominees for President-elect and two board directors. This slate represents a broad range of leadership qualities from among our members that address the needs of our association.
When additional information about the nominees is published in future issues of the NACAC Bulletin and on the NACAC Web site, we encourage you to read the nominee information and statements carefully, and consider each nominee’s history of career experiences and overall commitment to the profession. We also plan to provide delegates with opportunities to meet and have a dialogue with the nominees face-to-face.
Mary Lee Hoganson
NACAC Governance and Nominating Committee Chair
on behalf of the Governance and Nominating Committee
For President-elect, there are two nominees listed in alphabetical order:
- Jim Miller
Coordinator of Enrollment Research
University of Wisconsin-Superior
- Carl Peterson
Counseling Department Chair
Forest Hills Public School (MI)
For two director positions, there are six nominees, listed in alphabetical order:
- Jenifer Blair
Director of College Counseling
The Boys’ Latin School of Maryland
- Nancy Caine
Director of College Counseling
St. Augustine High School (CA)
- Rafael Figueroa
Director of College Guidance
Albuquerque Academy (NM)
- Phyllis Gill
Director of College Guidance
Providence Day School (NC)
- Mike Willis
Director of College Counseling
Bellarmine Preparatory School (WA)
- Beverly Woodson Day
Interim Associate Director of Admission
Texas State University-San Marcos
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Capitol Outlook
Legislative Conference Recap
NACAC’s 2009 Legislative Conference was held March 8-10 at the Washington Court Hotel. More than 130 elected and appointed officials from NACAC’s affiliates and interested members gathered in Washington, DC to visit Congressional lawmakers about NACAC’s college access priorities for 2009. The focus of the conference’s advocacy activities was the Pathways to College Act legislation sponsored by Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Richard Burr (R-NC), that aims to increase the college going rates of the neediest students through investments in college counseling programs. The bill is based in part on recommendations from NACAC and findings from a report from the Consortium on Chicago School Research. NACAC will continue to work with both Senators through reintroduction of the Pathways to College Act in the 111th Congress, and eventual passage as part of the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act. Visit NACAC’s policy recommendations Web page for more information on NACAC advocacy.
In addition to generating support for the Pathways to College Act, conference participants also heard from a series of speakers on various education and training topics with policy implications. Visit the Legislative Conference Web page to view slideshow presentations from a selection of those speakers.
Hear from NACAC colleagues attending the Legislative Conference on a range of current issues including state budget cuts across the country and how members are advising their students.
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NACACtion
Admitted: The Official Blog of NACAC
NACAC proudly presents its first blog on general college counseling and admission issues, where experienced professionals in related fields will share their insights and raise awareness of critical issues.
Admitted is a place for professionals associated with the transition from high school to college to broadcast their perspectives on relevant topics that include issues in the media spotlight, public policy, NACAC initiatives, anecdotes from members in the profession, and many more.
Contributors to Admitted include NACAC members and staff, and each posting will offer a comments section to encourage responses from members. NACAC also intends to feature the occasional policy maker or opinion leader.
The blog is one more way that NACAC is taking advantage of Web 2.0 technology to more effectively communicate with its membership. To subscribe to Admitted, use the RSS feed icons at the bottom left corner of the site. If you don’t want a regular subscription, simply visit the site at your convenience. New postings will appear regularly!
Check out the latest post:
NACAC’s Admitted blog offers a subscription option that lets users follow updates via the blog’s RSS feed. In order to take advantage of the subscription, users should already have access to an RSS Reader, such as the Google reader, which collects blogs in one place and updates them accordingly.
Each RSS Reader should have an option on its site for new subscriptions. In the Google Reader, the option is listed at the top left corner of the page. To find and subscribe to Admitted, simply search for NACAC in the text field and add the subscription.
Subscriptions to RSS feeds are also available through Microsoft Outlook. To add a new feed, click on Account Settings under the Tools dropdown menu. Click new and paste in the Admitted Blog’s URL:
feed://www.nacacnet.org/PublicationsResources/Admitted/_layouts/listfeed.aspx?List=452aa1cc%2D4507%2D4449%2Da05f%2D33a57a1eece2
The RSS Readers will do the rest for you, and check back often to get the latest news on NACAC-related affairs.
NACAC Resources: Student Disciplinary Information
At this time of year, college admission counseling professionals may face questions about the transfer of student disciplinary information to colleges. NACAC’s Research-to-Practice brief on the release of student disciplinary information addresses the increasing demand for confidential disciplinary student information for the college admission process and the approach high schools have taken to develop policies regarding the dissemination of such information. According to the brief, only 26 percent of high schools have written policies on disclosure of student information. However, regardless of whether schools had written disclosure policies, 23 percent of schools allow disclosure, 39 percent consider disclosure in some cases, and 38 percent never allow disclosure. Private schools were twice as likely as public schools to have a written policy on disclosure (49 percent vs. 21 percent) and allow the disclosure of student information (44 percent vs. 19 percent).
NACAC recommends that each school/district develop written disclosure policies to guide school officials, incorporate parent/student consent forms in disclosure procedures and make disclosure policies readily available for students and parents. Read the 
entire brief . Also, visit NACAC’s Knowledge Center for sample disclosure policies from public and private secondary schools.
NACAC Receives Lumina Foundation for Education Grant to Study Alternative College Admission Strategies
The Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education, in partnership with NACAC, has received a $315,000 grant from Lumina Foundation for Education to study the use of alternative and innovative approaches to college admission and academic support.
The goal of the project is to examine the effectiveness of innovative strategies and programs that institutions are using to enhance educational opportunity and success for historically underserved student populations-specifically racial/ethnic minorities, low-income and first-generation college students. Emphasis will also be placed on strategies employed to assist students in the transfer process from two-year to four-year institutions.
A series of site visits to select institutions, along with a national survey of admission policies and practices, will assess the implementation, effects and prevalence of such alternative admission strategies and approaches to academic support. This collaborative effort is expected to yield a handbook that may potentially serve as a valuable resource for both high school guidance counselors and college admission officers at community colleges and four-year institutions.
Read full press release.
NACAC to Host Webinar: Understanding Financial Aid Awards and Communicating with Financial Aid Offices
Date: Wednesday April 15
Time: 1-2:30 p.m. EDT
Register Online
NACAC will offer its second Webinar with a focus on financial aid in a series of interactive Webinars on admission-related topics. This Webinar is intended primarily for school counselors and other college admission counseling professionals, but also useful for students, families, and other stakeholders, on navigating the financial aid award process. Participants in the call will learn about the basic structure of college financial aid award letters, and the likelihood that college financial aid letters will vary greatly between colleges. Participants will also learn how to compare financial aid award letters between colleges. Finally, participants will acquire tips on how to communicate effectively with financial aid offices.
Moderator:
Tim Christensen, Consultant
Former Vice President with National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, Former Financial Aid Administrator
Speakers:
Cedrick Andrews, Policy Associate
The Institute for College Access and Success
Youlanda Copeland-Morgan, Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management and Director of Scholarships and Student Aid Syracuse University (NY)
Visit the Webinars page for more information on previous Webinars
Awards: Nominate Your Colleagues for their Outstanding Contributions to the Field
The Governance and Nominating Committee invites you to nominate individuals to receive special recognition for their outstanding contributions to the field of education, to the profession and to our organization. Detailed information is available on the NACAC Awards Web page. Nominations are due to NACAC by April 15.
Call for Nominations for Appointed Positions 2010 Board of Directors
NACAC is interested in identifying individuals to serve as appointed members of the Board of Directors starting in September 2010. All nominations must be submitted by May 1, 2009. Fill out and return this form to nominate a candidate.
This nomination or application process is different from the regular solicitation of NACAC members for service governed by the Governance and Nominating Committee. The Board of Directors solely considers individuals outside of the NACAC membership and selects them to serve as appointed directors. Recommended categories for prospective nominations for board service should include, but is not limited to any of the following:
- Education/research association leaders
- Public policy/advocacy experts
- Enrollment specialists/school superintendents/principals
- Community college advisors/leaders
- International educators
- Technology specialists
- Doctoral or master’s degree candidates in education or student personnel programs.
Board of Directors’ Mission
NACAC seeks leaders willing to collectively support the board’s governing mission to:
- Play a leading, proactive role in NACAC’s strategic decision making, and in setting strong, clear strategic directions and priorities for all of NACAC’s operating units and programs
- Serve as the steward and guardian of NACAC’s values, vision, mission, and resources
- Monitor NACAC’s operational performance against clearly defined performance targets in partnership with the CEO ensuring that financial and other resources necessary are available to realize NACAC’s mission
- Ensure that NACAC’s image and relationships with key stakeholders are positive and that they contribute to NACAC’s success. Ensure that the board’s composition is diverse and that its members possess the attributes and qualifications required for strong governance.
Board of Directors' Expectations
The following briefly outlines expectations for individuals serving on the Board of Directors as appointed members.
Commitment
Time spent as a member of the Board of Directors will broaden candidates’ leadership abilities and experiences, forge lifelong professional relationships, offer opportunities to mentor others, bring visibility corresponding institutions/organizations, and provide opportunities to make a difference for the association, the profession and the students NACAC serves.
Board members spend time deliberating on full board and board committee conference calls, reviewing and studying materials for decision-making, consulting with other board members, conferring with members and external stakeholders, representing the association to the media or other organizations and vendors, visiting states and regions and attending board meetings. As the governing policies and procedures evolve, the meeting plans may change, but the typical travel schedule includes the following:
- Board meetings or board committee meetings are normally planned for February, March, June, July, September and November (typically 1-3 days each)
Board committees will have conference calls and at least one meeting each
- Leadership Development Institute (3 days) in July. The association supports the participation of the national Board of Directors, state and regional presidents, presidents-elect, past presidents and standing committee chairs in training and development of their skills as leaders. A review of formal business and policy issues under consideration for approval by the membership is also presented during this event.
- National Conference (4 days) in September/October. Attendance at the national conference is essential and includes two additional days of meetings prior to the opening of the national conference. The national conference is the association’s premier professional development and governance gathering. Over 6,000 members and exhibitors participate annually. The association offers over 100 professional sessions, preconference workshops and seminars, and meetings of the Assembly and General Membership where formal action is taken on business matters.
- 1-2 NACAC Affiliate Conferences lasting 2-3 days each may also be an expectation for engagement. The board representatives may present a session update or keynote.
Apply now.
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Knowledge Center
Office Management
According to a 2007 survey of NACAC members, budget constraints are among the issues creating the most problems for members. The challenging economic climate is requiring school counselors and admission officers to administer services with fewer resources.
NACAC wants to help you operate your office more efficiently by utilizing the Knowledge Center as the forum for sharing best practices for office management. Our next Knowledge Center project will be the collection of resources that will enable NACAC members to provide high quality services under tight budget constraints. We are seeking ideas for managing resource challenges that can be replicated by offices facing similar difficulties. Ideas include approaches to cost savings, time management and effective processes.
If you have office management materials you wish to share your colleagues, please send them to KnowledgeCenter@nacacnet.org.
New in the Knowledge Center
The Knowledge Center has a new quick link: www.nacacnet.org/knowledgecenter
The recent Legislative Conference hosted education and training speakers on a variety of topics. The following PowerPoint presentations are available throughout the Knowledge Center based on subject:
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National Conference News
Registration and Housing Open
Registration and housing for NACAC's 65th National Conference in Baltimore, MD is open. You must be a registered attendee of the national conference in order to secure a housing reservation. Register online now. Upon successful registration, you will receive an email confirmation from DMTCenter@nacacnet.org with instructions for accessing the housing system. To ensure you receive conference communication, including your conference confirmation, ask your IT administrator to default allow all emails sent from addresses ending in “@nacacnet.org.”
Housing reservations are processed on a first-come, first-served basis, and availability may be limited at some hotels. To receive the NACAC discounted rates, you must make your hotel reservations through the NACAC Housing Bureau. Only one room reservation is allowed per registrant.
All conference activities (except the closing Saturday night Social) will be held at the Baltimore Convention Center. NACAC does not have a “host” or “headquarters” hotel.
Bookmark the Conference Web Site
Want to know the latest happenings during the national conference? Visit the National Conference Web site . New information recently posted includes:
- College Tours offered by more than 30 colleges and universities before and after the national conference
- Travel and transportation information into BWI, Penn Station, DCA, and IAD. Want to reduce your environmental footprint and save money on travel to the national conference? Check out the new Ride Share program offered to NACAC attendees by PickupPal. It’s free to register and use.
- Social Networking tools available to conference attendees: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Bookmark this site and visit it frequently.
Baltimore Volunteers Needed
Interested in volunteering during the 65th National Conference? Complete and submit this form available on the Volunteer Opportunities Web page. Not from the Potomac and Chesapeake region? That’s okay! Volunteers can be from any location worldwide – we just ask that you have a few hours to spare during the conference. Thank you in advance for your help.
Exhibit at the National Conference
Your company still has a chance to exhibit at the 2009 NACAC National Conference. Your presence at this conference gives you guaranteed exposure to more than 5,000 secondary and postsecondary professionals in the college admission counseling field. To become an exhibitor, visit the Web site to view the Exhibitor Prospectus and Floorplan. In addition, consider holding an information session during one of our Exhibitor Presentations. These sessions provide the ability to present in-depth product and service demonstrations. If you have any questions, please contact Shannon Burke, 703/299-6813.
Connect With Your Colleagues Before You Arrive in Baltimore
Now is your chance to see what social networking is all about. As an added opportunity to communicate with attendees and exhibitors, we have created several social networking spaces specifically for you. We’ll put quick tips, reminders and general information on these sites on a regular basis. You must be members of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to receive the updates.
We hope these new efforts will keep you in the loop as we move forward to the conference. Need more info? Email us.
Become a fan of the National Conference!
Follow the National Conference on:
You can also follow NACAC on:
2009 National Conference Sponsors
NACAC thanks the following company for its generous sponsorship support of our 65th National Conference in Baltimore (MD):
Gold Sponsor
StudentAid.com
Chief Enrollment Officers Forum (CHIEF) Preconference Programming
Hotel Keycards
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Professional Development
Guiding the Way to Inclusion
Registration and housing for Guiding the Way to Inclusion (GWI) is now open. GWI focuses on key issues facing admission offices, including:
- Effective multicultural recruitment in a stressed economy
- Creating and enhancing the strategic multicultural recruiting plan
- LGBT campus communities as a regional or national trend
- Cultural competency in a changing admission landscape
- Increasing enrollment for students of color, first-generation and undocumented students
Through speakers, breakout sessions and networking experiences, this program provides an in-depth understanding of the college admission profession. The workshop also gives invaluable insight on changes in the profession in the current economic atmosphere, career advancement and tools to improve equity and access for all students at your institution.
To further enhance this year’s program, attendees are encouraged to bring:
- Their institutional mission statements
- Their current diversity recruitment plans
- Information on diversity recruitment budgets
- Details on five years of diversity enrollment numbers
- Laptops to take notes and send daily logs/updates back to their director or supervisor.
Additionally, participants will be emailed a list of recommended preconference reading on national diversity issues.
College admission officers with 0-5 years of experience, especially those who assist students (or are themselves) from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, are encouraged to attend. College admission officers with more years of experience are encouraged to attend to serve as mentors.
GWI will be held July 28-30 at the Hyatt at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, CA.
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Imagine Fund
Donor Profile
Chuck Bachman
Senior Associate Director of Admissions
Lafayette College (PA)
Why do you think it is important to donate to Imagine?
It is important to donate to the Imagine Fund so that NACAC has the financial resources to continue to fund the Presidents' Council Grant Program. Prior to my involvement in the Presidential cycle in Pennsylvania ACAC, I would annually donate a small amount to Imagine because I felt it was my duty as a college admission officer to provide support to this NACAC effort. Once I became a member of the State and Regional Presidents' Council, I saw firsthand the many colleagues that were able to attend professional development programs through the financial support of the Imagine Fund. Some of these beneficiaries came from Pennsylvania, and I was pleased to see how many deserving yet underfunded professionals were able to directly enhance the skills they use in working with students transitioning to postsecondary education. Through support of the Imagine Fund, your gift is multiplied exponentially by the number of students that will benefit from their counselor, teacher or mentor having the opportunity to attend a professional development program they otherwise would not be able to attend due to budgetary constraints.
How would you convince your colleagues to get involved donating?
When I was President of Pennsylvania ACAC, I was noted for often saying “If everybody does a little, nobody has to do a lot.” This simple yet powerful phrase applies directly to the Imagine Fund as well. If every NACAC member made even a modest donation, collectively we would be able to fund a record number of Presidential Council Grant proposals. An annual gift of $10, less than 20 cents a week, would make a tremendous impact. Now, you are welcome to donate more than $10 a week, but the key is to do something that will serve others.
If I didn’t work in admission, I would be a ___________:
That is a tough one because college admission work is the only career I have ever known. But since you asked the question, I would most likely be Bill McClintick’s bodyguard. It is a tough job being the second most important President in the metro DC area!
NACAC Celebrates 10 years of Imagine, 1999 – 2009
The Imagine Fund has reached its 10th year of supporting the Presidents’ Council Grants—giving underserved college counseling professionals access to information and professional development opportunities. Please join us in celebrating with your contribution to the fund. A postcard with a postage-paid envelope will be mailed to you sometime in the month of April or you can contribute online today.
Major reasons to contribute to Imagine include:
- To support the Presidents’ Council Grants—in 2008, 44 grants totaling nearly $38,000 were awarded to 19 of 23 affiliates— assisting those most in need in performing their jobs more effectively.
- To demonstrate belief in your profession and in NACAC’s mission. Every dollar—no matter how small the contribution—makes a difference as we work to advance NACAC’s mission and expand our outreach efforts.
Learn about more reasons to contribute.
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NACAC in the News
Boston Globe: NACAC members Gil Villanueva, Kelly Walter, John Mahoney and Gail Berson were quoted in the article “A New Factor in Making That College: Loving It” (March 15).
Chattanooga Times Free Press: NACAC member David Lesesne and NACAC Immediate Past President Kim Johnston were quoted in the article “Sewanee Drops Use of ACT, SAT Results” (March 18).
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