NASPA conference draws large crowd despite economy

Chicago, IL- Student affairs officials from across the United States and some from Canada meet in "Chi-town" for the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators annual conference held on March 7-10. The conference brought together an unexpected large crowd as over 4800 registered guests gathered at the Shertaon and Marriott hotels in downtown Chicago. At the opening session on Sunday, Planning Chairman Lori S. White said "We anticipated around 2800 participants for this conference. As of today we have over 4800 registered participants." White continued "We have over 600 programs submitted for the program." The large party of student officials arranged from undergraduate students interested in pursuing a career in student affairs to vice presidents and deans of students interested in learning about ways they can help support, foster, and aide their student body.
This conference was valuable as student affair workers came together to learn and develope their ability to affectively serve their students. Mike Segawa, President of NASPA and from the University of Pugent spoke how valuable this conference is in it's relationship of student affairs officials and the students they serve "In a digital age with emails, facebook, and twitter, nothing can get rid of this. Face to face interviewing and networking."
Featured speakers and programs included former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, Under Secretary of Education Martha Kanter, and Sister Helen Prejean, a well known advocate for the abolition of the death penalty.