Updates on the NIRSA Small Program Advisory Council

With the appointment of a Small Programs Advisory Council, 2017 marked a transition in focus for small program members at NIRSA. With one year under its belt, the council is off to a great start in their efforts to amplify their voices and increase resources for this segment of NIRSA’s membership.

In Fall 2017, several local workshops and regional conferences incorporated roundtables for small campus rec program staff to provide increased networking and shared learning opportunities. In November 2017, three members of the Advisory Council shared their experiences via #RecChat on a variety of topics, including how to run cost-effective programs to mitigate budget impact, how to collaborate with departments across campus, and how to handle the challenges of having a small professional staff.

NIRSA 2018 was host to a wide variety of educational sessions and networking opportunities, including an all-new preconference workshop geared specifically towards staff at small programs led by Advisory Council members and featuring a panel of experts from small campus rec programs. Also at NIRSA 2018, small programs grant recipients Marci Kuhrt Iverson, Director of Campus Recreation and Student Leadership at Viterbo University, and Namoonga Mantina, Health & Wellness Coordinator at Beloit College, presented customized data collected via the Institutional Data Set in their session about benchmarking to promote recreation programs to campus administration.

We are so grateful for the expertise and passion of the council members whose terms came to an end in April:

Todd Bowyer, Roanoke College
Andy Lemons, St. Edwards University
Alecia Stegenga, University of Illinois at Chicago

In May, four new council members began their two-year terms:

Christopher Crume, Denison University
Marc Falkenstein, University of the Pacific
Rachael Finley, York College of Pennsylvania
Alicia Rossow, Florida Southern College

They join second-year task force members Matt Grimm at Stevenson University, Joe Hoff at Texas A&M University-Galveston, Geoffrey Nelson at Seminole State College of Florida, and Stephen Putnam at Garrett College.

The council looks forward to building on the momentum of the past year by adding new ventures to the slate of benefits being built with small programs staff in mind—including a webinar series in the fall—and continuing their work with retention and recruitment initiatives to strengthen the network of small program NIRSA members.