The Board met for its mid-year in person meeting on February 12-13 at our next conference location, the Hyatt Regency Orange County, in Garden Grove, CA.  The Board made a decision almost two years ago that it would be beneficial to have our mid-year meeting at our upcoming conference location to allow us to preview the space and think through any logistical issues that might not be apparent if we didn’t spend physical time in the space prior to the conference. We’ve also been able to write the meeting into our conference contract, which allows us to have some cost savings as well.

A significant portion of the Board meeting was focused on our new strategic plan. You can read TJ’s strategic plan update in the newsletter for more specifics on the plan. We also spent time talking about the flurry of legislation, executive orders, deal colleague letters, etc. that have been occurring and discussing ways of supporting our membership and identifying ways to advocate around issues that we know are harmful to our campuses mental health and wellbeing.  This includes gathering and providing resources related to immigration and undocumented students and/or their families. We’re continuing to attend all webinars and meetings that become available that provide guidance and perspective on navigating the potential changes on the horizon.

Here are a few other updates and topics that the Board addressed:

• New Position Paper - The followup to our first position paper, Navigating a Path Forward for Mental Health Services in Higher Education, is complete. The title is: Essential: The Roles and Impacts of the University and College Counseling Center. It has been authored by myself, Cindy Bruns, Gary Glass, and David Walden.  The Board will be doing a final review of the paper soon and we are waiting to get statements of support from a few of our sibling college counseling organizations before publishing it. In preparation for the paper’s launch, Cindy, Gary, David are presenting the paper at a variety of local and national conferences including, NASPA Strategies, ACCA, and NASPA.

• We discussed updates for the virtual conference occurring on March 25 from 8:00 am - 2:20 pm EST entitled: Beyond the Student Mental Health Crisis: A Collaborative Transatlantic Symposium. This is a follow-up to the virtual conference collaboration between AUCCCD and the University of Oxford, the Mental Wellbeing in Higher Education Group, and Togetherall that was held this past fall.  We sent info and a registration link via the listserv on Feb 19th and encourage all who are able to attend, even for part of the event, to register and join us.  AUCCCD will be represented by myself, Marcus Hotaling, Gary Glass, and David Walden.

• We approved the Director’s Survey monographs that were published on February 21. Many thanks to Cindy Bruns, our Survey Coordinator, and her entire team on their great work compiling this data and thanks to all of you who contributed data. This valuable information isn’t possible without your participation.

• The Board is working through a process of identifying areas where creating policies to help guide the ways in which we make decisions can bring more intentionality to the way we function. Two of the policies we adopted at this meeting are regarding gender-inclusive restrooms and acknowledgement of indigenous communities.

• The Acknowledging Indigenous Communities Policy reads: AUCCCD is committed to recognizing and respecting the Indigenous communities on whose land we hold our conferences. Prior to each conference, AUCCCD leadership will engage with local Indigenous groups to seek their guidance on appropriate land acknowledgment and meaningful ways to support their communities. This process will ensure that our acknowledgment is informed, respectful, and reflective of the voices of those whose land we gather upon. AUCCCD Board will accept responsibility for final review of any engagement and communications with regard to this policy. 

• The Gender-Inclusive Restroom Policy reads: AUCCCD is committed to fostering an inclusive and accessible environment for all conference attendees. To ensure that all individuals feel safe and respected, AUCCCD will work with conference venues to provide clearly marked gender-neutral restrooms in a central location, accessible to conference activities. These restrooms will be designated with inclusive signage to accommodate the needs of all attendees, regardless of gender identity or expression. AUCCCD will include the above policy language in request for proposals and event contracts. AUCCCD will collaborate with conference management on event bathroom locations.

The Board will be holding short meetings as needed throughout the next few months to ensure that we are making intentional, thoughtful decisions about how to support members and identifying ways to increase our advocacy efforts. Our next quarterly virtual Board meeting will occur this summer.