About our ASCA Adventure

ASCA. A Natural Partner for HECMA

Some of you may know that Katherine Zilmer and I recently traveled to the ASCA Annual Conference in Jacksonville, FL, at the invitation of the organization.  We were provided the opportunity to present about HECMA and the field of higher education case management as well as staff an exhibitor's information table about our fabulous organization.  This opportunity grew from connections that we made via our CAS membership with initial conversations held with myself and Mackenzie Schiemann, and then moving things forward to our current partnership via Katherine Zilmer.

ASCA, for those of you who may not know, is the Association for Student Conduct Administration and you may have seen them on our twitter feed as @TheASCA. The following (from their website) aptly provides an overview and introduction to their work and purpose: "The Association for Student Conduct Administration (ASCA) is the leading voice for student conduct in higher education. ASCA and its members are dedicated to upholding the integrity of the student conduct process, resulting in the ability to build safer educational communities and positively impact the higher education experience."

We find that in many ways, our associations are traveling down paralleled paths and we hope you find that the same is true of your work with colleagues in student conduct on your campuses.  The goal of providing an additional mechanism for individual and campus safety is inherent in the foundation on which higher education case management emerged.  Our path to this goal is through a focus on interventions through the provision of resources, a growth in resiliency, and support of individual success- all with an eye on the difficult balance of student rights, campus safety, risk, and behavior mitigation.  Student conduct is designed to ensure a safe and healthy campus community and a partnership between the two functional areas is vital to an institution's and students' wellbeing.

While at ASCA, Katherine and I met colleagues who were building or enhancing their behavior intervention / student concern / CARE teams and exploring case management positions. We got to chat with current, former, and future HECMAtes and we were proud to introduce many student conduct professionals to our field and our association. We look forward to representatives from ASCA joining us at our annual roundtable this June and for the opportunity to collaborate further in the future. We believe this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship and look forward to what is to come!  In the comments, tell us how you work with student conduct colleagues at your institution! 


Peace,

JJ Larson
HECMA President

Katherine Zilmer
Chair, Training & Professional Development