Curious to learn more about the many opportunities to volunteer with NIRSA, NIRSA Foundation, and NIRSA Champ Series? Come join current and former volunteers as they share their experiences about volunteering on committees and work teams. You will learn about the upcoming opportunities available for the 2023-2024 leadership year. Information will be shared about time commitments and workload involved, as well as the experience and networks you can gain by volunteering on a committee or work team!

Join us as we catch up with past Promising Practice campuses – Oakland University, Rowan University, and University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. We’ll hear from each campus about what has changed for them, what has remained the same, and what they have planned for the future. This roundtable will invite conversation between the panelists and attendees to discuss the challenges and opportunities for integrated wellbeing in these ever-changing times. NIRSA is able to provide this free to Institutional members because of the generous support of our sponsor. Thank you, NIRSA Foundation!

Iowa Guided Reflection on Work (GROW®) conversations are a powerful tool that Campus Recreation student supervisors can utilize to make on-campus employment a high impact practice. GROW® takes the form of brief, structured conversations between students and supervisors to help students connect the skills that they are learning on the job to their career and academic aspirations. To date, over 200 colleges and universities in the United States and abroad have contacted the University of Iowa about implementing GROW® at their institutions. In this roundtable conversation, we’ll hear from Teri Schnelle, Director of Projects and Partnerships for the University of Iowa before moving into a conversation about GROW® use cases in Campus Recreation. Attendees can view the supplement [see Contents tab] to see how peer institutions have brought GROW® to life on their campuses. This roundtable is perfect for anyone interested in practical student staff development resources!

Campus recreation departments are looking to expand beyond the walls of indoor recreation areas. The goal is to create a Healthy Campus™, where student and faculty health and wellness are part of the college experience. This session will teach proven ways to advocate for new campus recreation initiatives, a framework to quantify results, and a design methodology to transform outdoor areas into spaces where people engage in “Accidental Fitness™.” Our experts will present research on the physical, social, and emotional health benefits of outdoor fitness. You’ll also see case study examples of campus recreation professionals who champion this outdoor fitness approach and the positive outcomes of their efforts.

During the 2020-2021 NIRSA Assembly Term, the Inclusive Recreation Work Team focused on exploring inclusive recreation needs and trends within collegiate recreation. With forward thinking data collection – including roundtable conversations, surveys, and needs assessments – the Assembly was able to focus on the future of collegiate recreation and tackle the question of how to advance inclusive recreation. The assessment tool contains questions that are centered around yes or no assessment of departmental aspects of inclusive recreation. The goal is to help departments know where they are currently at with inclusive recreation.

In June and July of 2022, campus rec departments at 92 institutions shared the details of their remote work guidelines within their department. Departments were asked about equipment and supplies offered to remote workers, the impact their remote guidelines had on staffing, which areas of the department were more likely to be in-person vs. remote, and more.

Join us live on August 3 to discuss University of Colorado, Colorado Springs’s Promising Practice in-depth. Hear from the experts themselves about the long and winding road for this campus to build an integrated model that thrives through academic and cross-campus partnerships and interdisciplinary collaboration. Be sure to check out UCCS’s Promising Practice PDF as well!

The Fall semester is around the corner and many of us are preparing for new and returning student employees. Do you have innovative solutions/success stories for student recruitment, onboarding and training? In need of updates to your current protocols and procedures? This discussion will be hosted by Patty Williams, Assistant Director of Athletics for Club/Intramural Sports at the University of New England and Tabbitha Gardner, Assistant Director of Recreation & Wellness at St. Edwards University on behalf of the Small Programs Committee.

Join Climate Study Implementation Team Co-Chairs Victoria Lopez-Herrera (NIRSA At-Large Director), Cara Lucia (2021-2022 NIRSA Board President) and Pam Watts (Executive Director) to review key findings and recommendations from the final Climate Study. Priority action steps, timeline and opportunities for member involvement will be shared.

​Certification is generally considered to be the “gold standard” of professional credentialing. A valued certification program provides enormous promise for educators working in student affairs and campus recreation to demonstrate ongoing learning, identify high quality professional development opportunities, and open new pathways for their professional mobility and career advancement. This session will provide an overview of how NIRSA volunteer leaders have spent the last two years in partnership with our student affairs peers to develop a new certification, and what developments you can expect in the upcoming months.