Community Building Continues

During the Association’s 2025 Annual Conference in New York City, there were both formal and informal conversations related to the challenges facing higher education from decisions being made at the federal level. With a seemingly accelerated pace, student union and student engagement staff, and our students, are encountering new challenges resulting from threats to federal funding, national and state-based attacks on diversity and inclusion, and increasing risks facing our international and marginalized populations. For many in the Association, the reality that the work of community building our Association has advanced for over 110 years is being questioned is deeply unsettling. We each face unique challenges and many staff and students in our Association feel personally and professionally anxious and apprehensive.   

The Association is also challenged in our capacity to address these changes. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit association with an operating budget and reserves that are still recovering from the pandemic, we are in a position to advance our mission without engaging in partisan activities. Likewise, while the strength of our Association is that our members originate in different states and international countries, each of our campus communities face their own unique legislative and institutional opportunities and demands.  

As has been the case since our inception in 1914, the Association’s strength, innovation, and resilience originates from within our membership. Just as the strength of a student union lies in its student governance and an engaged community, the ACUI Board of Trustees and Central Office have developed an initial plan to navigate these changes, as well as a series of volunteer member developed programs and services to support our membership.   

The overarching approach will hold true to our values, will follow applicable legal statutes, and is intended to ensure that barriers do not exist for members to participate in ACUI programs. With this framework, the Association will be reviewing its current programs and services as it relates to DEI using the following guiding principles. 

• ACUI’s mission is to support college union and student engagement professionals in their service to students and in the advancement of campus community.
• ACUI’s vision is to advance campus community to positively change the world. 
• These values guide our work: Community, Inclusion, Learning, and Innovation. 
• ACUI will abide by legal statutes and other legal parameters that we understand to affect ACUI as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. 
• ACUI will be conscious of DEI limitations put into place for our member institutions and strive to provide programs that all members can take part. 
• ACUI will consider financial implications in the programs and services that we provide. 
• ACUI is and always has been an inclusive organization. 

None of ACUI’s current programs or services have been altered as they relate to DEI components, and it is planned for teams to be thoughtful and thorough in their review rather than the Association reacting too quickly to an evolving landscape. We are proud of initiatives like our career and mentorship Closing the Gap program, cultural heritage months that have spotlighted the great work of our members on their campuses, and the Active Dialogue Institute designed to provide leaders with tools to navigate contentious campus situations and to embed civil engagement as standard practice. The external challenges complicate, but do not discontinue, our efforts to support members exploring their own culture and identity, and their work with students. 

As we advance this plan, we encourage members to register and participate in a series of important discussions:  

• Starting April 18, the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Program Team will host a biweekly Chat and Check-In Fridays for casual dialogue about current events on campus.
• During the four-part Leading through Federal Policy Roundtable Series, starting on April 25, senior leaders are invited to register and discuss interpreting policy, balancing institutional risk and values, crisis response, and planning in the grey.  
• On April 29, join recent Bulletin article authors as they explore the student union as a space for activism and protest in the current environment of higher education.  

Higher education and our association will face ongoing challenges, with no perfect solutions. All of us on our campuses and in the Association will continue to adapt and make the best decisions possible, remembering that we have persevered through global pandemics, two world wars, and periods of societal change and economic unrest. It is through our collective community that we are stronger, and we know that together we can overcome such challenges.   

Thank you for all that you are doing on your campus to advance campus community and support students. Our work as community builders is more important now than ever, and our world is better because of the engagement and learning that is taking place in our college unions to nurture the leaders of the future.