Tanisha
A very important topic, slash issue that’s important to me in higher education is effective and open communication. I think that between staff and students, it’s important to let people know how you want to communicate with them, and strategize a way to communicate through conflict and through different opinions, because people should not feel closed off to what they want to say and how they want to speak in these spaces in higher education, especially if we want to make effective change everyone’s opinions, everyone’s value, should be taken into consideration In order to create a cohesive and manageable environment and how we can visualize the future through the communication and our differences and the individualization of how we all bring impact into the room.

Glenn DeGuzman
Hello and welcome to a special edition Student Affairs NOW. Episode, as I reflect back on my recent participation at the 2025 ACPA Conference in Long Beach, I’m your host for today’s episode, Glenn DeGuzman, and you will find that this is not your traditional Student Affairs NOW episode where I would sit down with a panel or talk to a student, first legend type of interview. This falls more in line with some past episodes we have done, for example, when I attended Comic Con and asked various student affairs professionals some questions and their experiences and how what they do in student first intersects with geek culture. We’ve even done an episode we call our jamboree podcast episode, where we heard from various student affairs professionals just drop in and talk about their student affairs related podcast. If you want to check those episodes out, definitely go to our web page and check out our archives. But this was a lot of fun. What I did was during ACPA 2025 I planted my podcast camera down and just asked random attendees who have drawn to the ring light just one question about what topic or issue is very important to them as they attend that conference. I did the recording over a couple of days, February, 16 and 17th and and that’s important, because so much had just happened before those dates, and I’m sure a lot will happen nationally by the time we release this episode sometime in March. So I do want to thank and share my deepest appreciation to those who took the time to go in front of the camera and share their perspective with all of you watching or listening today. So if you see them or hear them on this episode, please reach out to them and let them know you heard them on Student Affairs NOW. So let’s get started. Student Affairs NOW is the premier podcast and online learning community for 1000s of us who work in alongside or adjacent to the field of higher education and student affairs. We release new episodes every week on Wednesdays, find details about this episode or browse our archives at studentaffairsnow.com we also need to acknowledge and thank our sponsors for this episode. Our first sponsor is Evolve. Evolve helps higher education senior leaders release fear, gain courage and take action for transformational leadership through a personalized cohort based virtual executive leadership development experience. Our second sponsor, Huron, Huron education and research experts help institutions transform their strategy, operations, technology and culture to foster innovation, financial help and student success. As I mentioned, I’m your host. Glenda Guzman, my pronouns are he, him, his. I’m the Associate Dean of Students and Director of Residential Life at UC Berkeley. You can find out more about me at Student Affairs now.com I’m recording this introduction and my introduction from Livermore, California, home of the unceded lands of the Ohlone peoples. The recordings were done from Long Beach, California, on traditional lands of the Tongva people, and we pay respects to their elders, past, present and future generations who have been stewards of that land for countless generations. Let’s get started. I asked all who participated to share their names, pronouns, and what would they do to answer this question, what topic or issue is very important to you now and that you want to engage with more in student affairs.

Em Nakamura
Hi, my name is M. My pronouns are she, they. I work at Heartland Community College in central Illinois, where I work in student engagement and advice, global student union, and a topic or issue that’s like, specifically important to me right now. So I’ve been talking with a lot of other Akita professionals lately, and I’ve been so interested in the dynamics between like, Asian international students and Asian American students, especially with, like, the fluid be of like, you know, second generation immigrant families, like that, like that. There’s so much that can be explored within those dynamics. And I think it would be really, I think it’d be really good for scholarly research in terms of that kind of, like, social dynamic understanding. So, yeah, sorry, that was just all at one talk about.

Kelvin Rutledge
Hi. My name is Kelvin Rutledge. I use he, him, his pronouns. I serve as the Interim Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at southern Connecticut State University. And something that’s really important to me, that I think a lot about, is as we think about the employee life cycle, we’re going to have a lot of people who are entering retirement within the next five to 10 years. And so what does it mean as a profession to not only honor their legacy but also celebrate their wholeness and really think about what does it mean to just truly center their contributions in a way that not only feels right to their humanity, but also to their professional.

J. Cody Nielsen
Cody Nielsen, he and him and his pronouns. I’m a assistant professor of higher education and the Keith coordinator at Western Michigan University, as well as a consultant running an organization called Convergence strategies. Think one of the most important things for us to be talking about in the Student Affairs field is about how do we effectively equip not only our students but our staff and faculty with discourse laden conversations and the ability for us to break that idea of social harmony and social fabric in the sense of being able to have hard, discourse laden conversations in our work? So I’ll do it for now.

Windi Sasaki
Hi. My name is Wendy Sasaki. I use she and they series pronouns. I work at the University of California in San Diego, and I am the inaugural staff person and lead the Asian Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern des, the American Programs and Services office there. One of the things that I think would be interesting for more student affairs folks to engage in is some of the histories around some of the minority student movements. Currently, I help teach a class with our faculty that encourages our students to learn about some of the movements that some of our different groups of Asian, American and Pacific Islander students have taken students have taken on campus to do things like to get the Asian American and Pacific Islander studies program started. Those things also start at the cross cultural center on our campus, my office and a number of other things, like student organizations and things like that. And so what happened from that now is that we have a class that students can take for three units, and they learn about these movements, and they’ve been able to connect with alumni who never thought these things would happen on our campus, and it has inspired them to understand that there have been part of the campus the entire time that there are things that they can continue to do that impact change there, and maybe that’s what they need the most right now. So it’s been really inspiring to watch our students go and learn this from alumni, that there are things that used to exist, that they can bring back, that there are ways that they can create change on the campus, and then collect these stories, post them so that other people can hear them, but then go out and do those things. So, yeah, I think that’s what we need to think about as our work. More about how do we amplify some of these voices that are from some of our minoritized communities that have always been in our health cases?

Brad Johnson
Hi. My name is Brad Johnson. I use him his pronouns, and my issue or topic that I feel is important to talk about with Student Affairs now is the use of AI, and that is not only in academic work, but also in administrative work. So an example is I recently used AI to build an interview schedule for a recruitment weekend event that I’m getting ready to hold. So AI built my student interviews and built my employer interviews based upon the preferences from each that I gave. So I basically uploaded the spreadsheet and said, This is what I want your program coordinator, I need you to build these schedules. And it did it in about 10 minutes with a few tweaks, versus the three hours I had set aside for me and some students to sit down and do it. So I would like to talk more about and hear more about how others are using AI from an administrative standpoint.

Anne M. Hornak
Hi. My name is Anne Hornak. She her pronouns. I work at Central Michigan University as a faculty member in counseling, educational leadership, higher education, on the higher education side, and the topic or issue that is very important, and I think that student affairs now should engage, continue to engage in is offering resources and opportunities for individuals to continue to get information about the changing nature of what’s happening the federal government. I feel like we’re a little bit in COVID times again, where the information is just fast and furious, and it’s really hard for Student Affairs, some of our newer professionals, to keep up with this. And what does this mean for my work? It’s anxiety producing so even in my program, we have. The university has started a website. Center Michigan has that we can then direct students to consistently, and they update it weekly. And I think a lot of universities are doing that. I think that might address some of the mental health. And we saw this during COVID too, was the major mental health and the anxiety, and just live. In that state of like, parts and bucks, am I going to have a job? Is this grant going to go through? Is just really, really challenging for people. So,

Connor McLaughlin
Hi everybody. My name is Connor McLaughlin. I use he and they series pronouns. I work at San Diego State University, which is on the unceded territory of the Kumeyaay people in San Diego, California. And I worked there as the staff development manager in the Center for Inclusive Excellence. I think a really interesting topic to talk about more in student affairs now is how we develop professionals in this field whose responsibility that has been historically, and how much of any professionals development has depended on who their supervisor is, or the availability or lack of resources in their department. And I think there are a lot of opportunities to really explore whether or not that history needs to continue, or what else could happen to make a different culture of professional development on our campuses, in our field and in our larger network.

Geron Robinson
Hi, my name is Geron Robinson. I’m a USC, hymn pronouns. I’m the program director for TRiO Student Support Services at Michigan State University. One issue that I am worried about right now Student Affairs is job security as a federally funded program, and everything that’s happened federally, we just don’t know what’s going to happen, and so job security is something I’m worried about right now.

Gudrun Nyunt
Hi everyone. My name is Gudrun Nyunt. I use she, her pronouns. I am an associate professor at Northern Illinois University. I also serve as AC case vice president of membership and topic or issue that’s important to me right now is thinking more about how within student affairs and higher education as a whole, we can focus on coalition building to really figure out how to deal with what’s happening in the world and in our country right now, right and so I think we really need to think about, how do we support each other? How do we find a united voice so we can find ways to resist and fight back?

Yi Xuen Tay
Hello, my name is Yi Xuan. I use she, her pronouns. I’m currently a resident director at the University of California, Berkeley, Go Bears one of the topic or issue that’s extremely important to me right now, and I would love to engage with more in student affairs now, is the experiences of international students and international professionals in US higher education. So that looks in many different forms, whether that includes immigrant experiences or non immigrant experiences, really thinking about their experiences, transitioning from graduate programs to working in a full time role and the life after that.

Stanley Bazile
Hello, everyone. Stanley Bazile, Vice President of Student Affairs and campus life at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York. I guess my question is, what are the topics or issues that are important to me? I want to engage more in student affairs. I think that question The answer would have been vastly different in some way, if you would ask me this a year ago, but now, more than ever, has issues related to Diversity Equity and Inclusion, providing access to individuals who are first generation college students, probably paramount for me. I’m fortunate enough to live in a blue state. We have a governor who’s unapologetic about supporting those things, but I do recognize I’m in one of 50 states, and there are vastly people around the country who are not having access to education, who are worried about whether or not they’re going to have federal funding, whether or not programs like the LGBTQ Center on my campus or the bipod Unity Center on my campus, or the mill K Scholars Program on my campus is still going to be in existence. And so I believe that those things are paramount to us being successful. For us, creating what higher education is supposed to be, probably the last meritocracy that exists in our day to day. And so I am unapologetic about providing students not with what they need, but providing with what they deserve. And that goes to be honest with you, beyond just students, but that’s for faculty, staff and all constituents. So we’re going to continue to fight the good fight, because it costs us nothing to we can we can be frightened, we can be hesitant, we can be fearful, but we will always continue to move forward whatever speed that is.

Will Shu
Hi everyone. My name is Will Shu my English pronouns are he, him, his. I work as an assistant director as of July San Jose State University in San Jose, California, ancestral territory of the muwekma Ohlone tribal nation. The topic or issue that’s really important to me is how we talk about and heal from Workplace racism and hostile work environments in student affairs and higher education. I know that now, nowadays we’re focused so much on what’s happening on, quote, unquote, the big stage. So federal government, policy, legislation, what’s happening on our state levels, but what’s always been happening has been the microaggressions, the the race based harm, the identity based harm that we experience in this field. And there have been folks who’ve healed from it. There’s folks who’ve survived it, there’s folks who’ve also left it. And those stories, I feel like are what we need. Because I don’t think we realize how much our field has been suffering, and still is suffering, on losing out on amazing professionals because of the things that continue to be perpetuated and how these phenomenon continue to exist.

Tanisia
Hi, my name is Tanisia, and I use this she series for pronouns. I am a residential area coordinator at Brown University, and a very important topic, slash issue that’s important to me in higher education is effective and open communication. I think that between staff and students, it’s important to let people know how you want to communicate with them, and strategize a way to communicate through conflict and through different opinions, because people should not feel closed off to what they want to say and how they want to speak in these spaces in higher education, especially if we want to make effective change everyone’s opinions, everyone’s value, should be taken into consideration In order to create a cohesive and manageable environment and how we can visualize the future through the communication and our differences and the individualization of how we all bring impact into the room.

Kadisha
Hi everyone. My name is Kadisha pronouns, and currently I am a master student at the University of Connecticut, where I work at UConn Hartford’s anapese institution project called tease, transformation, equity, access and sense of belonging. One of the topics or issues that I’m really passionate about is actually Muslim accommodations at UConn Harvard. I get to work with Muslim students, providing support for them, building resources with them. And so I just want to see Muslims be implemented and integrated inherently in higher education. Follow so short,

Angelica Canales Castro
Hi. My name is Angelica Canales Castro, and I use she, her, they, them, Shia pronouns, which is Shia is in Tagalog, just Filipino Filipina, and I am the Assistant Director for diversity, equity, inclusion education at the University of Massachusetts. Amherst. I’m here actually to present with my colleagues about how to bring folks together to do an event, which is a conference that we’re doing at our UMass Amherst is really to we sometimes go abroad or go elsewhere to present, and it’s nice to kind of hear what other people are doing. And it’s really focused on, again, diversity, equity, inclusion. I know right now that’s a hot topic and a hot button, but for me, it’s something that I’ve lived all my life, as someone who immigrated from this from the Philippines and moved to us, I think inclusion and equity and diversity is really important topics, and so raising kids also who are multiracial in this world, and how to survive and how to also thrive. So those are important topics to me, and so I’m glad I’m here at ACPA, learning from lots of wise people and brilliant people with big hearts.

Jeff Alton
Hello. My name is Jeff Alton. I use he, him, his pronouns. I’m the assistant director of the Asian American Cultural Center at the University of Connecticut stores campus. I also work on our regional campus, the Hartford branch as well, an issue that’s very important to me that I want to engage with more student affairs are around issues of accommodations, particularly for Muslim students. I have the pleasure of working with. Many Muslim students on our campus, we’ve been able to establish things like halal food, dining options, prayer spaces, and, of course, it all culminated around a Eid celebration, also accommodations during Ramadan. So we’re really hoping to sort of set an example and be a sort of main force in helping institutions understand how easy it is to accommodate students some of the common challenges, but of course, the benefits to the student population. So that’s something I really want to engage with.

Glenn DeGuzman
A huge thank you to everyone who participated and answered my question. It’s always fun to meet my colleagues in the profession, and just randomly, I enjoyed talking to people and just hearing the responses. So it was pretty cool, especially doing it at a professional association like ACPA, where it’s critical our community now comes together to engage in sharing and learning. So that’s been really, that was really kind of cool. These conversations, as you know, are just so important to us, shaping the future of our student affairs profession and helping emerging leaders as well. I just want to thank of course, Nat Ambrosey, our incredible producer, again, your efforts are just, are they? You know, they should not go unnoticed. And I just want to let you know we truly appreciate all that you do behind the scenes to make this happen. And our sponsors Evolve, Evolve helps senior leaders who value aspire to lead on and want to unleash their potential for transformation leadership. This is a program that Keith Edwards, along with Brian doctors, Brian Rao and Don Lee, offer a personalized experience with high impact value the asynchronous content and six individual and six group coaching sessions maximize your learning and growth with a focused time investment, greatly enhancing your ability to lead powerfully for social change. We also want to thank our other sponsor, Huron. Huron collaborates with colleges and universities to create sound strategies, optimize operations and accelerate digital transformation by embracing diverse perspectives, encouraging new ideas and challenging the status quo. Huron promotes institutional resilience in higher education. For more information, please visit go.hcg.com/now. And of course, to all of you our listeners, thanks for tuning in today and again, if you haven’t subscribed, or you know someone who has not subscribed to our newsletter, please take a moment to drop your your email on our website. Student Affairs now.com or forward this episode, or forward the website to your friends and peers and colleagues. Stay in the loop with our latest episodes delivered to your inbox every Wednesday and again, while you’re on our website, check it out. There’s a lot of good materials in there. We know a lot of people are checking out our archives as we’ve covered so many so many topics over the last several years. Again, I’m Glenn DeGuzman, thanks to everyone watching and listening. Take care. Have a great day.

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