“May your summer boats sail true, stay on course, and safely reach the other side.”

In this issue

WASSA gets WASTED

page 2

Social Media SubCommittee Formed

page 3

Advancing Asia Pacific

page 5

WASSA remembers Carol Switzer

page 9

and much, much more.

WASSA Newsletter

President’s Message

Dear Wasserians, As I reflect on the last year and look forward to the current one as your WASSA President, memorable moments (both happy and sad) come to mind.

We had an amazing October conference in Laguna Beach, hosted by the University of California, Irvine. Thanks again to Reid Warner for all his work to make it happen so seamlessly! We learned and networked with our colleagues during the day and were lulled to sleep at night by the crashing of the waves on the beach outside our rooms.

This year we had to say goodbye to colleagues who moved on to other responsibilities outside Summer Sessions, like our past president Dana Dudley, our past treasurer Mike Poe, and Loy Lytle who retired from University of California, Santa Barbara. The idea of not seeing them regularly every year makes me sad, but I’m happy for them and their future endeavors.

On the flip side of that, we welcomed fabulous new members to WASSA like Carol Pasternack, Kristen Pedersen, Brent Pickett and Carley Ries (along with many others) who will bring new ideas and new energy to the group!

The news of the death of our beloved colleague, Carol Switzer, was a blow. I looked up to her, as many of you did, not only as a Tall Timber, a super leader in WASSA, and a guru on Summer Sessions, but as a great lady and wonderful friend. One of my first and fondest memories of Carol was a bunch of us racing her ASU Summer

We had some terrific program submissions last year and look forward to this year’s submissions. I encourage everyone to submit any and all credit, non-credit, administrative, and/or stolen idea implemented in your office over the past few years. My deadline for submissions are always negotiable (still going to therapy about waffling), but I would really appreciate getting them by mid-August, let’s say August 19th.

All entries can be sent directly to me, Ben Perkins (benperkins@wsu.edu)

By the way, we have finally arrived as an organization. WASSA was spelled out at on the web site acronymfinder. com, and done correctly I might add.

While I’m off topic, for some unknown reason I googled WASSA and came across some old newsletters that had

Announcing the 2011 WASSA Marketing Awards

Submitted by Maurine Powell, Co-Chair

Submit four (4) samples or copies of your marketing materials for Summer Session 2011 to share with the WASSA membership. No activity, project, or plan is too small.

You could receive the prestigious Gary Marketing Award in one of the following three (3) categories:

1.Single best marketing idea (you may submit more than one idea).

2.Comprehensive marketing effort created and executed by the Summer Session Office.

3.Comprehensive marketing effort that includes Summer Session in the marketing plan of the institution or as part of another campus unit.

Include a brief description about your submitted materials to help the some interesting commentary. The ongoing dilemma of what the title for summer session should be was brought up in the 1990 newsletter. The argument, of course, is that the nomenclature for summer “session” or “school” was diminutive and lacked respect compared to fall and spring semester, quarter or term. The suggestion was to go with summer term rather than session. That being the case, WASSA would become WASTA.

You can clearly see that has no ring to it, so the thought was to change “Administrators” to “Executives and Directors”, thus becoming WASTED. The slogan could be, get WASTED in Portland this October (in 1990 it was get WASTED in Seattle). This is not academic at all, but could be considered a recruitment tool for the curious non-members out there.

committee understand what your objective was, such as your target audience, how you distributed your materials, if you tracked the effectiveness of your efforts, what you liked best about your piece, project, slogan, or plan.

Provide the name of your institution and department, and the name, phone number and email address of person submitting.

Submit four (4) samples/copies of your Summer Session marketing materials no later than September 1, 2011 to:

Maurine Powell OSU - Summer Session 4943 The Valley Library Corvallis, OR 97331-4504 The Communications Committee is happy to announce that Washington State University was awarded the best Web Site award for 2010. The web sites were evaluated based on overall Design, Navigation, Content and Interactivity.

It’s that time of year again! The Communications Committee will again look for the website that merits the “Best Website” award at the 2011 Annual Conference. Over the years, fewer and fewer institutions are producing the printed catalog and are relying more heavily on their web site to get their message out. Therefore the Communications Committee has added a new criterion for evaluation this year. The websites will be evaluated on design, navigation, content, interactivity, and breadth/ complexity.

Also this year, we’re adding another little something. When submitting your website, you can either submit it for evaluation only, or for consideration for the “Best Website” award. Also in addition to standard self-submissions, if there is another WASSA member’s website you particularly appreciate, you can nominate that for consideration as well.

The Submission process is straight forward. Simply submit the following information via e-mail:

University Name Website URL Contact Person Phone Number Consideration for Award (or evaluation only)

Past Web Site award recipients:

2010 Washington State University 2009 Oregon State University 2008 University of Alaska Fairbanks 2007 University of California, Santa Cruz 2006 University of Alaska Fairbanks

Social Media SubCommittee formed in 2011

The growth of Social Media use (facebook, twitter, etc.) among our target audience is astonishing. A number of institutions have, or are very interested in reaching the students via this vehicle of communication. To address this need, and to facilitate sharing of ideas in this area, WASSA has created a Social Media SubCommittee. The conference this year will also address various areas of Social Media.

There are a number of questions surrounding how we as educational institutions might reach our students using Social Media. This may be a little different than how students use it amongst themselves, or even how businesses are seeking to use it. To begin to explore some of these questions, the Social Media SubCommittee will be:

1) Conducting a survey with the help of the Research Committee. We would appreciate your input on what your unit is and isn’t doing. We trust this will be helpful to all of us.

2) Addressing some questions about Social Media, and discussing do’s and dont’s.

3) Soliciting information on your use of Social Media, and award our very first Best Use of Social Media award at the annual conference.

Kristen Pedersen from Portland State University (kpeders@pdx.edu) will be the chairperson of this SubCommittee. She is also the host for our 2011 conference in Portland Oregon. We’d love to hear about any ideas you may have.

Western Association of Summer Session Administrators Page 4

2010 - 2011 WASSA Catalog Committee

The Catalog Committee is pleased to announce the winners of the 2010 WASSA Catalog Awards.

These awards were presented at the 2010 WASSA Annual Conference hosted by University of California, Irvine in Laguna Beach, California:

Best Catalog: Cover Design – University of Alaska, Fairbanks
Best Catalog: Use of Photographs –University of California, Los Angeles
Best Catalog: Layout and Style – University of California, Berkeley
Best Catalog: Use of Theme – University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Charlie Award – Regis University, Colorado

Congratulations to the 2010 award winners and many thanks to all who sent catalogs in 2010!

If your educational institution continues to print a summer catalog you can enter it for consideration for the above awards. All submissions are included in the Catalog Showcase at the 2011 WASSA conference hosted by Portland State University in Portland, Oregon, October 2 – 7, 2011. This is an opportunity to share your ideas and pick up some new ideas from other catalogs.

To submit your catalog for award consideration, please send the following:

Six (6) copies of your 2011 summer catalog
Name, phone number and email address of the person submitting the catalog
The number of catalogs you printed in 2010 and 2011.*
Method(s) of distributing your catalog (i.e., mailing to students; mailing to parents; dispensing at events; etc.).*
Please note if your catalog is available on your Web Site.*
Any special comments you want to share about your catalog.*

* This information will only be used during the Catalog Showcase

Submit your materials to:

UAF Summer Sessions & Lifelong Learning Attention: Mary Calmes

P.O. Box 747540 Fairbanks, AK 99775-7540

Entries postmarked after Friday, July 29, 2011 will not be eligible for award consideration.

Mary says “Be sure to submit your entries by July 29th 2011”.

If you have any questions, please call (907) 474-7588, or email macalmes@alaska.edu.

Page 5 Western Association of Summer Session Administrators

WASSA’s Featured Program 2011

ADVANCING ASIA-PACIFIC University of Hawai‘i at Mãnoa

In advance of Honolulu’s hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in November 2011, UH Mãnoa Summer Sessions, administered by Outreach College, has planned an array of programs focusing on the region’s potential for peaceful, inclusive and sustainable growth.

The challenges facing APEC’s 21-member economies, which span four continents and represent 43 percent of world trade, are significant. Summer Sessions will draw from the diverse resources of the university and community to present a dynamic summer of lectures, films, performances, noncredit workshops, and certificate programs for high school and university students. These programs will provide venues for learning about the issues, discussing a wide variety of viewpoints, and cooperating toward greater international understanding.

Submitted by Harriet Abe

Theresa Neil Research Funds Awarded

Research Chair Report Submitted by Vanessa Spencer

The Research Chairs of the various be looking at community college summer sessions organizations students that transfer to a four-year recently finished evaluating Theresa institution and the effectiveness of Neil proposals for 2011. Two projects a summer transfer program to assist were awarded funds. The first is being these students. research by Bill Kops of the University

Personally, I am continuing workof Manitoba and Loy Lytle of UC on my Theresa Neil project that wasSanta Barbara. They will be extending awarded funds in 2010. I am lookingtheir research on organizational at developing a model that canstructure that was presented at the predict summer enrollment at private2010 WASSA Conference. They will universities and compare this to thebe contacting many summer sessions previous model that was developeddepartments for data so please to predict summer enrollment atrespond so they can compile the public universities. I will be contactingmost thorough, accurate and useful private universities for enrollmentresearch possible.

data in the near future and the more The second proposal that was people that respond, the better and awarded funds was from Rachel Miller more useful the results will be for all of the University of Virginia. She will summer administrators.

Western Association of Summer Session Administrators Page 6

School’s (Not) Out for Summer @ the University of Regina

Summer is a great time to be a student at the University of Regina. Our Registrar’s Office reports that our 2011 summer enrolments are up over the previous summer. The trend continues as the same pressures that put our students in our classrooms from September through May appear to be keeping them in their seats over the summer.

As of June 20th, the results are extremely positive with Credit Hours up 10% over last summer and the number of students also up 6% over this time last year. This is very good news that we believe has been achieved in part due to the integrated marketing campaign now in its second year … Realize. Your summer’s here.

What do we know about these students? Our summer students are typically part time students who want to get through their degrees as quickly as possible. Many are working. To accommodate these students we have increased the number of online and evening classes offered. We have worked with our faculty partners to deliver courses that are important to students in co-op and intern programs. Finally, we have paid attention to the classes that serve as electives to our international students.

In short, the University of Regina offers a wide array of courses taught by accomplished lecturers, in small class sizes that promote more individualized attention and in a flexible format. Our students can take care of a requirement, concentrate their effort on a particular subject, or try something new, and also have the chance to experience the city of Regina at its liveliest, with all of the summertime outdoor music festivals, street fairs, the Exhibition, farmer’s markets and other amenities.

Secretary WASSA

U of R summer student, Trevor Grill, sums up his view on the benefits of Summer University

“I work full time but wanted to complete my postsecondary goals ASAP beginning with a business diploma and then a business degree. I was 10 years out of High School with a few post-secondary courses complete from back then. In order to get as many classes complete as I could while balancing with my work schedule I have been taking 1 class in each the Spring & Summer semester for the last 2 years. Having been working for quite some time I wasn’t used to having summer off from anything so school didn’t seem any different now and I wanted to complete 6 classes each year but felt that 3 classes in each the Fall & Winter semesters would be too much work while also working full time. There is still plenty of time between semesters for anyone that needs to take a Summer holiday. Since I have now completed the diploma requirements and transferred into the degree program I have decided to give myself a bit of a break and just take a Spring class this year and will take July and August off from school. I plan to continue taking a Spring class each year until I complete my degree (only 5 classes each year instead of 6). Overall I just like the convenience of having the opportunity to take classes all year long rather than just Fall & Winter.”

Page 7 Western Association of Summer Session Administrators

Where are they now….

Dana Dudley is now the Assistant Dean of Special Academic Programs for Seaver College, Pepperdine University. She is responsible for fellowship advising, graduate programs, the distinguished lecture series, and the Washington DC Internship program. Needless to say she’s a little busy. She will also be teaching a First-Year Seminar in the fall as a part of a Keck funded program to introduce undergraduate research in the first semester. Her children Chris and Amanda continue to do well living in Missouri and Venice Beach. She still lives in Reseda with her husband Brad and two dogs Chase and Chili. She has worked hard to be engaged in new professional associations, but nothing can take the place of WASSA.

A message from Holly Weisheit

Hello WASSA friends,

As announced in Laguna Beach last year, I resigned from Portland State as my husband received a transfer to Boston. It was a great pleasure to see everyone in California and introduce the new Manager of PSU’s Summer Session, Kristen Pedersen. Its been eight months since the move, and I’m thrilled to still be working with WASSA to help with the

upcoming conference. I designed the new registration website, am assisting in conference planning and will most likely see everyone in Portland where I’ll come to help out. I’m excited to see what new programs and courses have started this summer; the conference is a fantastic opportunity for each institution to learn from each other. I hope to see new universities/colleges attend so more innovative ideas can be shared.

The move to Boston (and depressing job market) inspired me to return to school to fulfill a personal dream of getting a nursing degree. It’s a little odd being one of the oldest in class and already have a Master’s degree, but learning a whole new field is a lot of fun. So my time out East has been spent back in the classroom. Our big news as of June is that we have just bought our first house! Boston is an amazing city and we are having so much fun exploring New England on the weekends. This winter saw record amounts of snow in which I enjoyed every inch of it. We are thrilled to live in a place with so many sporting events...that’s HUGE for us! The Boston Bruins may have just won the Stanley Cup, but we will always remain Chicago Blackhawk fans!!!.

You are cordially invited

Please join me at the 2011 WASSA Conference in Portland, Oregon. We have planned yet another memorable and informative conference. This is an excellent opportunity to network with amazing professionals and experts who form our ‘connections’ and will share ideas that we can all use to make our summer sessions even better. Register today @ www.regonline/wassa2011 and take advantage of our special early bird rates.

Harriet Abe Conference Chair

The meeting will take place at the historic Benson Hotel. Since opening in 1913, the Benson Hotel has graciously welcomed celebrities, CEOs and U.S. presidents. Now it’s WASSA’s turn to discover the timeless beauty of this AAA four-diamond landmark hotel. For more information see www.bensonhotel.com.

On Thursday, March 10, 2011, at her home in Gilbert, Ariz. after a long battle with cancer, our dear friend and beloved colleague Carol Switzer passed away. She had been diagnosed with a rare form of liver cancer in November and had been treated with an experimental protocol at Mayo Cinic in Arizona. She wanted her illness to be kept private and thus I know that these words you are reading must seem unreal.

Carol was a lifelong educator. She taught in the public school systems of Chenoa and Paxton, Ill. (1966-69); served as administrative assistant to George Kaye, a Paxton attorney (1969-79); served as Coordinator of Continuing Education at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Ill. (197993); and as Director of Summer Sessions and Study Abroad at Arizona State University (19932008). She was founder and CEO of CARMICC LLC (2008-2011).

Carol was a leader of several national professional organizations in higher education. She was an active member of the Western Association of Summer Session Administrators (WASSA), serving as the president in 2001 and receiving the Distinguished Service Award in 2007. Carol was the president of the North American Association of Summer Session Administrators (NAASS) in 2004. In 2000, Carol co-founded the North American Association of Commencement Officers (NAACO), served as the charter treasurer and most recently served as the association’s business manager.

Carol will always be a part of our professional lives. For those of us who knew her, she was a mentor. Carol tucked new colleagues from across the country under her wing and was supportive of them as they gained their footing. How many of her ideas are now a part of our modus operandi? She shared her knowledge and wisdom easily and was always willing to be a sounding board, a reality check. She encouraged sharing of ideas and even lobbied for a WASSA award for the best stolen idea, which was appropriately christened the Carol Switzer Award at the 2009 conference in Regina. Travel tips were one of her many fortes and who can forget her famous line, “you go to see, not to be seen”. We will always remember her as the super organized smiling blond who wore black and accessorized. The list of what she gave us is long, but most importantly it was her friendship.... she will be missed and our hearts ache.

She is survived by her husband, Michael Switzer; her son, Neil Alan Switzer (Paula Jo Gardner); three grandsons, Jeffrey Michael Switzer, 10, Zachary Ben Switzer, 8, and Charles John Suazo Switzer, 4, all of Gilbert, Ariz.; and her sister, Delores Fortney Goodfellow of Seattle, Wash.

Fondly remembered by Michelle Bartlett, Past President