Small Colleges and Universities Division

NASPA's Small Colleges and Universities (SCU) Division is proud to offer this low-cost and high-quality programming to professionals in the early stages of their career. SCUs have very unique needs and often have limited resources devoted to professional development for staff.

The Early Career Development Institute (ECDI) is a signature initiative to provide new, full-time professionals in their first three (3) years in the field an opportunity to connect with peers and senior staff members at SCUs and to explore specific competencies essential for practitioners.

The ECDI program will connect a cohort of professionals to attend monthly webinars to discuss issues, trends, and promising practices within the field. Participants will additionally be matched in a group with a senior-level staff member to serve as their coach. Each group will have time allotted in the monthly webinars to debrief and reflect on the topic at hand.

Institute Goals

• To provide opportunities for new professionals to network via a virtual platform with early career professionals at small colleges and universities across the county.
• To provide coaching opportunities for early-career professionals with senior-level student affairs professionals who have demonstrated a significant professional commitment to the field of student affairs.
• To provide purposeful opportunities for personal goal setting and self-reflection.
• To provide participants with online development offerings, which run from October to June. Each session will be focused on a specific content area and presented by a practitioner with expertise in that topic.

Institute Curriculum

Institute participants will attend online professional development sessions that address the following topics:

• Communicating with different campus constituents
• Managing, leading, and navigating institutional politics
• Engaging faculty
• Enrollment, persistence, and completion
• Justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion
• Careers in higher education
• Professionalism in the workplace
• And Much More!

ECDI Participant Requirements

ECDI participants must:

• Be within their first three years in a full-time professional position in Student Affairs.
• Work at a small college or university (defined as less than 5,000 FTE students)
• Be a NASPA member
• Provide a letter of support from their current supervisor in support of their participation in ECDI
• Provide a current resume

Senior-level Coach Requirements

ECDI senior-level coaches must:

• Hold a position at the director level or higher at a small college or university with fewer than 5,000 students.
• Meet not less frequently than monthly by phone or videoconference with their assigned early career cohort member.
• Complete the Early Career Development Institute Coach Interest Form

Institute Fee

The participation fee for the institute is $50.00. Selected participants will be directed to the online fee collection process after being selected. There is no fee to apply. (Coaches do not pay any fees.)

Apply!

Applications for the 2024-2025 ECDI cohort here.

Schedule

August 15, 2024	Applications Available
September 20, 2024, 5 p.m. Pacific Time	Application Due Date
September 24, 2024	Selection Notification
October 24, 2024	Online Cohort Onboarding Session Preparing for the ECDI Journey: A Conversation with the SCU Co-director An Introduction to NASPA & the Division Comparing & Contrasting Small Colleges & Universities: Similarities & Differences Meet the Coaches
November 21, 2024	Online Professional Development Offering #1 Know Your Audience: Communicating with Different Campus Constituents
January 16, 2025	Online Professional Development Offering #2 Justice, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion at Small Colleges & Universities
February 20, 2025	Online Professional Development Offering #3 Up, Down, & Across: Managing, Leading, & Navigating Politics at Small Colleges & Universities
March 20, 2025	Online Professional Development Offering #4 Careers in Higher Education
April 17, 2025	Online Professional Development Offering #5 Collaboration Between Small Colleges and Community Colleges (Panel)
May 22, 2025	Online Professional Development Offering #6 Professionalism in the Workplace: Things you don’t learn in a classroom
June 12, 2025	Online Cohort Closing Session Reflecting on the ECDI Journey: Continuing Your Involvement with NASPA and the SCU Division

 

Questions?

If you have questions about this program or the process, please contact Danielle Nesselbush, Dean of Students at D’Youville University (nesselbd@dyc.edu), and Darnell Parker, Vice President for Student Affairs/Dean of Students at Wheaton College (parker_darnell@wheatoncollege.edu).

 

 

We are now accepting nominations for the 2025 NASPA SCU Professional Award.

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This award is presented to an individual who has demonstrated leadership and a commitment to NASPA and/or the profession specifically at small colleges and universities (enrollment less than 5,000 students). Student Affairs professionals in all positions are eligible for this award. 

Eligibility requirements: 

• Demonstrates active involvement with the profession and the small colleges and universities division

• Contributed to creating a campus environment that promotes student learning and personal development

• Outstanding individual contribution in innovative and responsive services and programs that address varied and emerging needs of students at a small college or university

• A minimum of five (5) years of experience in student affairs

• All professional positions are eligible for this award 

• Active individual NASPA membership

• Current employment at, or recently retired from, a small college or university in a NASPA Region

How to nominate someone:

1. Please submit your nomination here
2. Deadline: Wednesday, October 9
3. Required documentation:

• 1 nomation letter
• 1 recommendation letter