Vice president for UF student affairs elected leader of national organization

April 20, 2010

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Patricia Telles-Irvin, vice president for student affairs at the University of Florida, has been voted president-elect of Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, known as NASPA, the leading professional organization for student affairs administration, policy and practice.

Telles-Irvin will serve one year in the position, followed by single year terms as president and past president for the Washington D.C.-based association, known as NASPA, which serves more than 11,000 members at 1,400 campuses and represents 29 countries.

“It’s certainly an honor and I plan to do everything I can not only for the organization but for the field of student affairs itself,” she said.

Telles-Irvin said she looks forward to assuming a national role in student affairs, which has expanded from a largely service orientation to helping students succeed in their education through achievement on a number of different levels.

“Not only are we paying attention to the life of the mind, but we’re also making sure that their health, spirit and soul remain intact,” she said. “Ultimately, if the students have a good experience outside the classroom, it will help stimulate their intellect so they can be long-term partners in the institution and contributing members of society.”

On today’s college campuses, the field of student affairs relates to everything besides academics that has to do with student learning and encompasses a wide variety of support services, she said.

“Our role directly relates to the mission of the institution by ensuring that students are successful in their academic efforts here and they graduate,” Telles-Irvin said. “Providing housing, intramural sports, psychological counseling, disability programs, intramural sports and mental health services enriches students’ lives so that they have a more holistic experience and helps them deal with any obstacles that get in the way of their success.”

Telles-Irvin oversees a broad area that includes counseling; housing, with more than 8,300 undergraduate students and about 1,000 graduate students living on campus; the Reitz Student Union, which includes student activities, Student Government and fraternity and sorority affairs; student financial affairs, which provides financial aid; the dean of students office, which resolves student conduct and conflict issues and conducts orientation programs for new students; the career resource center, which organizes job fairs and career development opportunities; and recreational sports, with two recreation centers, a fitness center, fields and other facilities used by about 3,000 intramural teams.

“Very often, when I see alumni and they talk about their experiences at the University of Florida, they talk about how much they learned outside the classroom,” Telles-Irvin said. “When it comes to organizing and budgeting or making difficult decisions about leadership and ethics, these are important skills that they received valuable training in.”

One big project within the office of student affairs that is now in progress is the expansion of the heavily used Southwest Recreation Center on Hull Road, which is scheduled to be completed by August.

“At some point down the road, we would also love to see the Reitz Union expanded,” she said. “That building was built in 1967 when we had 19,000 students.”

A leadership retreat center at Lake Wauberg is another building that would benefit students, but construction would depend on the university receiving a large donation, she said.

“Leadership is a very important component to what we do,” she said. “We have many types of leadership programs for our students, and we focus on service as well.”

Among the issues Telles-Irvin said she hopes to address in NASPA is trying to expand the organization’s global influence and its coverage of mental health issues, which has become a growing concern nationwide.

Telles-Irvin received her doctorate in counseling psychology, writing her dissertation about college-age students. She was a psychologist for about 20 years, working for some of that time at a counseling center in a campus community.

“I grew to love not only what I did with the students, which was providing them with psychotherapy, but also being part of a greater community of student affairs,” she said.