Today’s debates about the value of college fail to weigh the importance of out-of-the-classroom experiences, said Anna Gonzalez, new board chair of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) and vice chancellor for student affairs at Washington University in St. Louis.
She said the nation’s thousands of student affairs professionals do more than provide housing and cafeteria food. They support student physical and mental health, connect students to meaningful careers, develop leaders and teach students vital skills, from how to manage a budget to how to navigate hard conversations about fraught topics such as race and politics.