Former NCA presidents respond to questions on NCA past and future
By Paloma Richards - November 12, 2009
NCA will mark its 100th anniversary in 2014. Six former NCA presidents commented on the past, the present, and the future of NCA during a Thursday question-and-answer session. Current NCA President Betsy Bach conducted the Q&A. Below are the three questions and some of the answers provided by the former presidents. Plus, check out video from this session.
Question #1:
What have been the biggest changes in the NCA since you've become a member?
Answers:
- More diverse and broader
- Scholarship has become more sophisticated
- Women and people of color are no longer invisible in organization
- Size and scale; membership has grown
- Size of convention has grown; used to be only four time slots per day
- Number of journals published has grown
- Women and professors from community colleges can be president of NCA
Question #2
What are the major contributions that NCA has made in the past 40 years?
- Encouraging scholarly respectability of your research
- Diversification
- Emphasis on scholarship
- Have began to look at more movements and groups
- More effective advocate
Question #3
What changes do you think we will see (or hope to see) as NCA continues as a vital organization in the next 100 years?
- Become a more significant force politically
- The leadership of women will become much greater
- Become stronger in digital technology and embrace digital technology
- Develop more ways to promote NCA within its own discipline and demonstrate NCA's benefits
Hear more from Betsy Bach and Isa Engleberg by clicking these videos.