The following members of our HESA Faculty group have received letters of recognition from Provost Mun Choi and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Sally Reis for excelling in their teaching evaluations:

Dr. Milagros Castillo-Montoya
Catherine Cocks, M.A.
Daniel Doerr, M.A.
Dr. Marijke Kerhhahn
Dr. Sue Saunders
Dr. Christine Wilson

These instructors are among a select group of faculty whose ability to engage their students’ curiosity and spirit of inquiry is highly regarded in evaluations completed by their students.

Interested in learning more about our faculty’s interests, backgrounds, and higher education experiences? Check out our HESA Faculty page!

Thanks to the efforts of Dr. Milagros Castillo-Montoya and UConn’s Puerto Rican and Latin American Cultural Center, UConn HESA is happy to visit with Dr. Kenny Nienhusser on November 19, 2015.

Dr. Nienhusser is an Assistant Professor in the Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership in the Department of Education at the University of Hartford. Dr. Nienhusser will present on, “Undocumented Students’ Postsecondary Education Access: The Role of Policies and Institutional Agents in High Schools and Higher Education Institutions.” This presentation will describe the landscape of undocumented students’ college access by focusing on what this population has encountered in high schools and postsecondary education institutions in their efforts to gain greater higher education participation.

Peter F. Lake, professor of law and director of the Center for Higher Education Law and Policy at Stetson University College of Law, will be visiting UConn on October 20 and October 21. At 4:00 PM on Tuesday, October 20, Lake will be speaking at the Konover Auditorium in the Dodd Center about “Freedom of Speech in a Civil Society,” and will engage in a Q & A session with audience members.

On October 21, Lake will share his insight on higher education law and policy in a close knit session with current students of the UConn HESA Masters Program. We are grateful to have this level of interaction with a leader in the field!

Lake is an internationally-recognized expert on higher education law and policy and has been quoted or referred to in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Chicago Sun Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, various reported legal decisions including the supreme courts of Virginia and Florida, and the most recent Restatement of the Law of Torts. He has appeared on major television networks such as ABC and CNN.

This academic year will be the final year at UConn for current Program Director, Dr. Sue Saunders, as she will be retiring in June 2016. Though all of us at HESA are sad to see Sue leave UConn, we are happy that she is doing what is best for her, and excited to see what else lies ahead! Though the news is bittersweet, Sue shares considerable gratitude for having the privilege of serving as a student affairs administrator and faculty member for  43 years.

Her career includes service as a program coordinator and faculty member in the College Student Affairs Administration Program at the University of Georgia. In addition to teaching and research positions, Dr. Saunders has served as the Dean of Student Affairs (CSAO) at Lycoming College (PA), as Dean of Students and as Executive Assistant to the President and Board of Trustees at Longwood University (VA), and in other administrative positions in Virginia, Georgia, and West Virginia. Her Ph.D. in counseling and student personnel services is from the University of Georgia. She is the author of more than 45 publications, including Supervising New Professionals in Student Affairs (2003) and Learning Through Supervised Practice in Student Affairs (2014), both written with colleagues from Virginia Tech and the University of Georgia. More information about Sue can be found here.

Though we would love to continue celebrating, Sue regularly reminds us that we’ve plenty of work left to do this academic year!

Congratulations to our affiliate faculty member, Dr. Jen Lease Butts, on being selected to serve as an outside reviewer for the Journal of College Student Development,  one of the world’s leading journals in higher education.

Dr. Lease Butt’s topical and methodological expertise will add to the already strong JCSD review team. We wish her the best of luck with this new challenge!

HESA’s newest faculty member, Dr. Blanca Rincón, has been selected to join the Review Board for the Research in Brief and On the Campus sections of the Journal of College Student Development. JCSD is one of the world’s leading journals on higher education and the official journal of the American College Personnel Association.

As the Fall 2015 semester approaches, we here at UConn HESA wanted to introduce you to our newest incoming cohort, the Class of 2017!

Students hail from a range of home states, undergraduate institutions, work placements and student affairs experiences. We hope that they all enjoy the summer weather, and look forward to welcoming them with open arms this August for orientation!

 

 

On Friday, May 8, our program welcomed in the newest cohort into our alumni ranks! Congratulations to the HESA Class of 2015 for all of your accomplishments and for receiving the degrees for which you’ve all worked so hard. We wish you all the best in your next steps!

To anyone in the Storrs area (or those willing to visit our campus):

UConn HESA would like to cordially invite you to the HESA 2016 Cohort Assessment Day. Please join us on Thursday, April 30, 2015 from 9am-3pm in the Student Union room 304B. The cohort conducted four assessment projects aiming to understand student learning through various forms of outreach and engagement. The four teams will be presenting their findings on these year-long projects sponsored by campus partners. The agenda is as follows:

9-9:15am- Welcome and Overview
9:15-10:15am- Presentation #1: Husky Sport
10:30-11:30am- Presentation #2: La Comunidad Intelectual
11:30am-12:30pm- Lunch Break
12:30-1:30pm- Presentation #3: KUBE
1:45-2:45pm- Presentation#4: Education Abroad
2:45-3:00pm- Closing Remarks

Light refreshments will also be served. We hope you are able to join us!

Dr. Elizabeth (Betsy) Cracco, who currently co-instructs a college student development course for the HESA program and serves as the Director of Counseling and Mental Health Services at UConn, has agreed to serve as the Interim Director of Student Health Services after the retirement of the current director Michael Kurland.

Dr. Cracco’s ability to support students in a variety of settings and roles serves as a model for members of the campus community to strive towards, and her dedication to the general student welfare is inspiring. The HESA program and the university community at large congratulate Dr. Cracco on this new role, and wish her luck in the coming months!