NASPA Public Policy Division | 2021 NASPA Virtual Conference Guide
Focus Area Policy and Advocacy Community Public Policy Division
As a Student Affairs professional, I always look forward to the NASPA Annual Conference. Like many, I enjoy the variety of workshops, socials, knowledge communities, exhibits, and featured speakers. The NASPA Annual Conference is also an opportunity to reconnect with colleagues both near and far. The conference experience often serves as a time to re-set, re-frame, and re-energize. Despite not being able to meet in person this year, the 2021 NASPA Virtual Conference offers a robust schedule with a variety of events and activities.
Scrolling through the NASPA schedule, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the many excellent options. As you build your conference schedule the NASPA Public Policy Division (PPD), encourages you to explore the conference with a public policy lens. With such an eventful year in the public policy arena, the NASPA PPD guide is a compilation of sessions focused on educating, informing, and supports conference attendees in acquiring a framework for understanding policy and the impact in higher education.
The selection of workshops included in the guide is in alignment with the 2021-2024, NASPA Public Policy Division Agenda that centers advocacy, equity, inclusion, social justice, research, scholarship, professional development, and engagement, as key areas of policy issues. The intent was to capture the broad spectrum of sessions related to government, civic engagement, social justice, laws, etc., and also recognize that your public policy lens may vary depending on your interests and campus role.
As we reflect on a year of the pandemic, that has forever changed the landscape of higher education, and impacted so many lives, in addition to the social justice movements, and monumental 2020 elections, it’s evident that public policy plays such a critical role in enacting positive change.