Northwestern sent a delegation of 9 representatives from Student Affairs to the annual conference for the Association of College Unions International (ACUI), which “Advances Campus Community,” located in Indianapolis, Indiana. Among the attendees were Jeremy Schenk, Coretta King, Brittany Williams, Christopher Burpee, Phillip Booker, Meredith Young, Christopher Cvikota, William OIdham (Norris), and Kelly Schaefer (Student Engagement).
Notably, Brittany Williams served as a member of the Conference Program Team (CPT), and was responsible for much of the vision that went into this year’s conference. Brittany was responsible for a new initiative called “People of ACUI” that helps to recognize the diversity and experiences of the ACUI members and conference attendees. Brittany is also the co-chair of COMP, the Community of Multi-Ethnic Professionals and Allies, and helped coordinate a pre-conference session as well as a slate of programs and meetings.
Jeremy Schenk completed his 2-year term as a member of the ACUI Board of Directors. This was Jeremy’s second term on the board, where he led two strategic planning processes.
Coretta King is serving on the Conference Program Team (CPT) for the 2020 conference, which will be held in Atlanta, the planning process for which has already begun. Coretta spent much of the conference collaborating with that team, culminating with a reveal on the last day. Coretta was also tapped for the newcomer’s welcome (including new attendees, new institutions, board of trustees, and notable participants of the association) to speak on her appearance for the “People of ACUI.” Coretta was the first spotlight feature of the conference.
Coretta King and Christopher Burpee presented an education session called “Leading With Restorative Practices.” They presented to a group of approximately 40 people in an interactive circle format that demonstrated some ways to use restorative practices, and discussed how they were beginning to implement certain aspects at Norris. Kelly Schaefer joined them to provide some context to how other areas within Student Affairs have also used restorative practices. Coretta and Chris both participated in the 3-day restorative practices training that was held in 2017, and also in a 1-day training that was held later that year with the Norris staff. Coretta and Chris will be presenting again on this topic in a webinar for ACUI later this month.
Current Norris staff also were able to connect with former Norris staff at a lunch on Tuesday.
Pictured from left to right: [Front Row] Rick Thomas (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) former Executive Director, Dr. Jeremy Schenk, current Executive Director, Amy White (University of Michigan) former Director, Chris Burpee, Assistant Director, Dr. Kelly Schaefer, current Assistant Vice-President for Student Engagement, [Second Row ] Coretta King, current Director, Phillip Booker, Assistant Director, Jackie Grinvalds (Emory University) former Manager, Chris Cvikota, Tech Specialist, [Back Row] Michael McKean (Texas A&M-Commerce) former Assistant Director, James McHaley (Indiana University-Bloomington) former SAM Director, Andy Smriga (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) former Coordinator and Will Oldham, current Graduate Assistant.
