President's Message
ASL's 60th Anniversary
As I finish out my term as your President, I wanted to express my genuine thanks to each of you for the opportunity you have given me over the past six years to meet and work with so many dedicated and caring professionals. You are always a breath a fresh air!!! Thank you.
As you know, this year marks our 60th Anniversary. Over the years, the Alpha Sigma Lambda Honor Society has become synonymous with the recognition of the scholarship and leadership of adult learners. For many years, our services were very much connected with college and university continuing education units and the students served by those units. However, as the number of adult students enrolling in colleges and universities continued to increase, there was a natural tendency for these students to direct their diverse interests to degree programs and courses in academic units other than continuing education units. The impact of this shift in enrollment patterns was aptly captured in a 2006 report from the American Council on Education: "This growing cohort of students, typically (if inadequately) defined as those 25 years of age and older, now account for nearly 40 percent of our student population. Institutions have had to change in myriad ways to accommodate adult learners’ busy schedules and meet their demand for focused, career-related education."
Consequently, in more recent years, we have witnessed the membership of the Chapter Councilors changing from mostly continuing education professionals to a representative mix of continuing education, academic affairs, and student affairs professionals and faculty. In short, the world of adult learning was changing and so were the demands on the Society.
To address these demands, the officers of the Society undertook a two-fold strategy: secure an effective home office under a long-term contract and make greater use of technology in serving the Society’s members. Both these goals were initially, achieved, with the understanding that neither achieved goal represented a permanent solution. As you all know, this has been particularly true in regard to the latter goal as we all try in our respective positions to keep up with changing technologies. Nevertheless, the home office environment with Shirley, Pam and Kaye and our greater use of technology have brought a measure of customer relations of which we can all be proud.
Going forward, the Society's new and very capable leaders will review past priorities as well as consider new priorities. New priorities often create the need for additional forms of expertise and a new structure. A new structure, with all of its unknowns, is not easy to implement and requires special attention to communications and suggestions from those affected by the changes. The crucial ingredient will be you and the student members of ASL. If you are not already involved in ASL-related activities outside of your immediate chapter, please give some serious thought to participating actively in the organization-wide committees and task forces that carry out much of the Society’s business. Your expertise and contributions can help to lay the groundwork for the Society’s future directions.
The challenge for the future is to continue making the Society and its services the best available for the benefit of everyone. As we go forward, we may to keep in mind the following quotation from Charles Darwin that seems apropos to the Society and the times in which we find ourselves: "It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change." Again, thank you for the opportunity to be of service to the Society and all its members.
Sincerely,
Raymond W. Campbell, Ph.D.
President