News

Student Learning Knowledge Community meets at NNC

President Maureen McGonagle and President-elect Tom Kirch join Executive Director Kent J. Blumenthal in observing the initial NIRSA Knowledge Community meeting at the NIRSA National Center in Corvallis, Oregon on March 1.

The first face-to-face meeting of the NIRSA Knowledge Community on Student Learning will convene March 1 at the NNC. A Knowledge Community (KC) is similar to a think tank and provides ideas, innovations, and leadership to the NIRSA Board of Directors in “new frontiers” or underdeveloped realms of educational research, programs, and products. Members of the Student Learning KC are:

• Chair: Dr. Julie Wallace Carr, James Madison University
• Dr. Sarah Hardin, George Williams College
• Alex Accetta, Portland State University
• Dr. Jeanne Steffes, Associate VP of Student Affairs, Syracuse University (unable to attend)
• Dr. Larry Roper, VP of Student Affairs, Oregon State University

NIRSA President Maureen McGonagle, President-elect Tom Kirch, and Executive Director Kent Blumenthal will be observing the meeting. Iris Rilov, M.A., C.P.C., Certified Life Coach will be facilitating.

The goals for the first meeting of the Student Learning Knowledge Community are:

• To conduct an environmental scan to gain a sense of what is being done in student learning throughout the higher education community outside of the realm of academic affairs.
• To review what we know about current student learning, specifically within campus recreation sports programs.
• To articulate the benefits and opportunities that recreation brings to the student learning effort on the college campus.
• To make recommendations to the NIRSA Board of Directors as to what the Association, its members, and the collegiate recreational sports profession at large ought to be doing to become acknowledged and significant players in student learning efforts within higher education.

The meeting agenda:

1. Student Learning “Outside of the Classroom” Within Higher Education
2. Student Learning & Assessment Activities Within Campus Recreation
3. Benefits & Opportunities that Recreation Brings to Student Learning
4. NIRSA Activities & Relationships that May Affect Student Learning
5. Student Learning KC Recommendations to the NIRSA Board of Directors

Look for highlights from the meeting, as well as a summary of NIRSA activities and relationships that affect student learning, in an upcoming issue of NIRSA Know.

Meeting of the two other Knowledge Communities, Health & Wellness and Sustainability, are planned for March 13 and summer 2007, respectively.