This spring the NAPEHE Future Directions Committee met in San
Diego at the Clarion Bay View Hotel, a beautiful site for the 1999
NAPEHE annual conference. The Clarion and the surrounding downtown
San Diego location is on par with our best conference sites. The
rebuilt Gas Lamp Quarter boasts a large number of restaurants, art
galleries, microbreweries, lovely harbor front views, easy
transportation to all parts of the city, miles of waterfront walkways
with stunning vistas, and an extremely friendly support staff at the
hotel with first rate accommodations and conference facilities. With
a little bit of luck we will be treated to some first class southern
California weather for the January 7-11, 1999 conference. But bring
your umbrella: California can be rainy in January.
The committee members met for two days focusing in depth on the broad
issues affecting academia, as well as how the structure of
kinesiology continues to evolve within a new set of academic
expectations. At dinner on Friday night we focused on the
transformations of our home departments and academic institutions
over the last two decades. Members of our committee members
represented research and comprehensive universities of varying sizes
and from different regions of the country (Steve Estes, SUNY
Cortland, NY; Virginia Overdorf, William Patterson College, NJ; Jack
Razor, University of Georgia; Robert Ruhling, George Mason
University, VA; Emily Wughalter, San Jose State University, CA). In
our Saturday meeting we produced several specific recommendations for
the NAPEHE board to consider. They are related to technology, NAPEHE
membership, affiliation with other professional organizations, and
social justice/cultural diversity initiatives.
NAPEHE's accomplishments in technology have been on the cutting edge.
They include: the NAPEHE website; the growth of kinexis; OPERA in
on-line form. The Technology Committee should continue to: 1) define
the role of NAPEHE in facilitating the delivery of in-service
training for professionals in our field as in the preconference
workshop on technology offered at annual conferences, 2) appraise the
membership of proper uses of technology in our field possibly through
position papers, and, 3) explore the use of the website
(www.napehe.org) to publish abstracts, upcoming conference schedules,
papers and/or proceedings of the annual conference electronically.
The WEB would provide advertisement of the conference and its
proceedings, and possibly boost attendance at the annual conference.
The Hanna, Homans, and Sargent lectures should continue to be
published in Quest only. It was suggested this task of making
specific recommendations should be forwarded to the technology and
publications committees.
With regard to NAPEHE membership, specific ideas were generated for
evaluating the make up of the membership to identify why members join
and remain active in NAPEHE; and, what members perceive as the
positive benefits of NAPEHE membership. The future directions
committee recommends to the Executive Secretary and the membership
committee that an institutional analysis of members and benefits be
undertaken. This survey can elicit information about member
demographics, academic disciplines, conference attendance, regional
representation at conferences, university affiliations, and the
anticipation of their future needs. Also consideration of the cost
and benefits of institutional membership should examined for possible
increases.
NAPEHE has been successful in its affiliation with other
organizations like College and University Administrative Council
(CUAC) and the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education
(AAKPE). Affiliations with other organizations outside the field such
as American Association of Higher Education (AAHE) may also be
established.
NAPEHE can provide model programs on social justice and cultural
diversity. The social justice and cultural diversity committee should
continue to generate funds to support development and recruitment of
future faculty who represent diverse cultures, as was done recently
with a grant in support of gay and lesbian students.
As for business of the future directions committee the members agreed
that a narrative of the minutes should be published yearly in The
Chronicle of Physical Education in Higher Education and on the NAPEHE
web site. Meetings of the future directions committee should continue
yearly and should be held at the site of the future national
conference. All meetings should be structured around an agenda which
includes reference to the mission of the organization for old and new
members of the committee.
Finally, the conference theme emerging for the 1999 conference
reflects the changing and diverse nature of the university,
specifically with reference to technology, administrative structures,
students' learning styles, and issues of cultural diversity. The
title for the conference and the dynamics of the sessions will be
developed by Vice President Robert Ruhling and President Steve Estes,
with input from the future directions committee.
I'd especially like to thank Steve Estes for his great notetaking at
our meeting and then providing them to me and the committee; and, I
wish Ginny Overdorf good luck as she assumes the role of Chair for
the Future Directions Committee in 1998-1999. Working on this
committee was a great experience, for it gave me a chance to think
about core issues in kinesiology, and to dialogue with other members
of the NAPEHE professoriate.