We are excited to announce the formation of the Consortium of Organizations for Student Affairs Assessment (COSAA), a collaborative effort across key student affairs assessment organizations. 

The mission of the consortium is to align the efforts of student affairs assessment organizations to advance the practice of assessment and enhance support, learning, development, and community.

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A Unified Vision for Student Affairs Assessment

The COSAA brings together leading organizations in the field of student affairs assessment, including ACPA’s Commission on Assessment and Evaluation (CAE), NASPA’s Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Knowledge Community (AERKC), the Association for the Assessment of Learning in Higher Education (AALHE), the Student Affairs Assessment Leaders (SAAL), the Journal of Student Affairs Inquiry, Improvement, and Impact (JSAIII) and the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS). By aligning these organizations' efforts, the Consortium plans to create a cohesive approach to student affairs assessment, guaranteeing that our collective work supports the emerging needs of student affairs assessment professionals and institutions. This effort is not about combining or merging these organizations. Instead, it's about bringing us together in thought and leadership to better align our efforts and effectively meet the needs of our members. This alignment highlights that we are strengthening our collaborations across various organizations dedicated to supporting student affairs assessment professionals.

Why the COSAA?

The COSAA was established to strengthen collaboration, resource sharing, and encouraging effective practices across the field within established professional organizations. We acknowledge the challenges assessment professionals face engaging with the multiple student affairs professional organizations. By uniting our efforts, we can streamline professional development, making sure that our collective expertise is leveraged effectively. This approach simplifies the professional organizational landscape, making it easier for our student affairs assessment colleagues to navigate the various organizations and feel more supported, ‘working smarter, not harder’. While much of this work will take place behind the scenes, we are placing you, our members, at the heart of the process to ensure we are supporting each other’s student affairs professional organizations rather than duplicating.

Photo by Volodymyr Hryshchenko on Unsplash

Key Collaboration Efforts

The Consortium will focus on several key collaborations designed to support student affairs assessment professionals and the student affairs assessment organizations involved:

• Professional Development: Promoting collective opportunities, resources, and support to help assessment professionals stay current with emerging trends and by leading conversations at major national conferences each year, where we share our expertise.

• Advocacy and Support: Engaging in collective advocacy efforts to ensure that student affairs assessment remains a priority in higher education, particularly in the face of political and social challenges.

• Expanding Communities of Practice: We recognize the value of communities of practice in peer learning, support, and innovation. The Consortium will actively promote the formation and growth of these communities within our individual organizations. By connecting professionals with shared interests and challenges, we want to facilitate knowledge exchange, collaboration, and the development of practices that benefit the entire field.

• Collaborative Research: Conducting joint research projects to identify emerging trends, share findings, and drive continuous improvement in student affairs assessment practices and our field.