IN CONCLUSION

Paul L. Gaston, Chair, ASPA Board of Directors

March 31, 2008 to Members at ASPA Spring Meeting

In these brief remarks—my last opportunity to speak to you as your chair—I can think of no better way to begin than by quoting Susan Zlotlow. She wrote a brief e-mail following one of the many successful skirmishes fought this spring by our indefatigable executive, Cynthia Davenport, and by those of our colleagues who have worked together as ERIC: the External Recognition Issues Committee.

Here is what Susan writes.

“Thank you Cynthia for your persistence and patience; Judy for your guidance; Sam and Bernie for their ability to always stick to what is most important; and to Karen and Kathy for bringing us to where it hits accreditors.  As a team we have been able to move things along for ASPA and hopefully for higher education.  We have won some battles and there is more to come.”

I say “Amen” to Susan—but would also observe that the one name conspicuously absent from that encomium is, of course, that of Susan Zlotlow. So I will add my thanks for her strong leadership of ERIC as its chair. She has been a resourceful and determined leader at a challenging time—and it is worth recalling that she served us also as an alternate in the Negotiated Rulemaking discussions.

I want to ask you to join me as I recognize those who have given so much in the past year to this Association and to the principles of independent accreditation. Because it conveys the gratitude of this Association, this certificate is worth more that the paper it is printed on. It recognizes both members of the ERIC and those who have worked diligently to support it. And it is to be presented to the following individuals, who I want to recognize individually: Susan Zlotlow, Sam Hope, Bernie Fryshman, Kathy Megivern, Betty Horton, Judy Sherman, and Karen Moynehan. As the certificate says, these individuals have been “HEArd on Capitol Hill.”

The efforts of ERIC deserve the emphasis I am giving them. They represent a critical element in the past year, one that proved to be a positive watershed for ASPA in many respects. This year has presented your association with a defining challenge in the truest sense of that phrase. And your association has met that challenge.

Last fall, I invoked the current notion of a “tipping point” to point to ASPA’s growth in size, in activity, and in influence. Even by that point, ASPA had become more visible, more influential, and more secure in its mission than at any time in the past. As I indicated, references to ASPA in the press had multiplied. Members of ASPA had stepped up to places at important tables. Good work to coordinate these efforts had made them even more effective. There in Louisville, where they know a thing or two about what it takes to win at the track, I said that ASPA was “on a roll.”

But we had not seen nuthin’ yet.

This year, your leadership and members of the ERIC have monitored, analyzed, and, where appropriate, weighed in on one of the more tortuous and torturous legislative processes in recent memory, the still unfinished saga of Higher Education Act Reauthorization. Last fall, by the way, planning my syllabus for a graduate course in State and Federal Policy, I confidently scheduled for early April a case study on the reauthorized HEA. Now, as things stand, that process has become an even richer case for study. One of my students, scheduled to make her presentation on April 23, said to me the other day, “I may not know until that week what I can say in any final sense about this process.” I welcomed her to the real world.

There is much more that I might say about ASPA’s year since Louisville, but, with apologies to those whose efforts we will recognize instead at the cocktail hour, I want to use the remainder of my brief report to look forward. Given the prerogative of a retiring chair and board member, I want to address directly what will continue to emerge as a pressing concern.

By preface, I would be delighted to propose our offering a 20-year contract as executive director to Cynthia Davenport. The problem is that she would not accept it. But it should be clear that I am raising the issue of succession planning because, as I imagine the BC era (before Cynthia), I can hardly imagine a better appointment having been made. Any good glue comprises several ingredients, but the glue that holds ASPA together is as strong as it is because of Cynthia Davenport. She brings to her leadership a strong organizational vision, an attention to detail, a natural diplomacy, and an energetic commitment to mobilizing the forces of accreditation in defense of accreditation.

But, eventually, we will reach the AD era: After Davenport. And if ASPA is to remain strong, it must anticipate, begin planning for, and begin to build sufficient resources for that eventual transition. A successful search will in all likelihood require a significant investment of time and resources. But there is also the prospect that operating expenses following such a search may well increase. We are fortunate in an executive director who makes her domicile our organizational address. With the possible exception of the Pope, I know few other leaders willing to do that. We are unlikely to be so fortunate next time.

As many of you know from your own experience, effective succession planning involves far more than planning for the eventual hiring of a successor to the chief executive. If that process is to be substantive, it must rest on a secure sense of current organizational mission and priorities. For that reason, I suggest that ASPA’s planning for the future must include a thorough revisiting of its strategic priorities. Not since the 2003 meeting in Scottsdale has ASPA settled down to a thoroughgoing review of what it wants to be when it grows up. It is probably time to schedule that review.

Third, I suggest that while the supplemental assessment has prompted and will continue to support a number of worthy projects, sustaining that assessment with a view towards an eventual succession might be the single most important investment this association could make in its future.

My final observation is one of gratitude. My participation in your board has offered to me divers assignments. To a significant extent, I learned facilitation by practicing here. The advantage for me was that you are demanding but cordial colleagues. The advantage for you was that you did not have to hire a facilitator.

But even more precious to me than my operational assignments has been the personal acquaintanceships I have been able to form with so many of you. One ASPA member—and you will know who I mean—inspired me to celebrate my post-provostial life by converting to bow ties. Several of you have indulged me in brewpub expeditions—in Chicago, Washington, and Denver, for starters. Others I have come to know through shared intellectual and artistic interests. I will step down as your chair, but I will not step down as your friend.

I will continue to follow the progress of ASPA, and I will look forward to assisting the Association whenever I can. I am in fact already breaking into a new role by working with your Fall 2008 Professional Development Committee. And there are several of us here today—you know who you are—who know a really good brewpub in New Orleans!

Thank you for this opportunity to serve you and to work with you. I will conclude as I did last fall. “Guided by the principles we share, the energy we have exhibited, and the influence we deserve, we will look forward to a year of accomplishment, one in which ASPA pursues its important mission in ways that contribute to higher education and to the nation.”