Resource Released for Implementing CAS in Women's and Gender Programs and Services

The National Women's Studies Association (NWSA) and Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) have partnered to release the Functional Area Resource Paper for Women's and Gender Programs and Services (WGPS). This resource includes an introduction, brief overview of the WGPS functional area, and provides five distinct examples of how both two-year and four-year college's have used the WGPS CAS Standards. 

The release of this resource is a first for CAS, who has six other committees appointed to release a similar document for other functional areas. Under the leadership of Cathy Seasholes and Rebecca Morrow, former NWSA representatives to CAS, a diverse team of NWSA members pulled together these case studies with the hopes that it will help other members of the Association and fellow users of the standards to implement in a way that is most meaningful and impactful for their campus community. The team members included:

Claudia F. Curry, Ed.D., Community College of Philadelphia 
Jennifer Graham, M.P.A., Georgia College
Devan Ford-McCartney, Ed.D., University of Houston
Penny J. Rosenthal, Ph.D., University of Rhode Island
Amber L. Vlasnik, Ph.D., University of California San Diego


"We are so grateful to this team of wonderful professionals who contributed time over the course of a year to pull together these five different approaches to CAS" said Dan Bureau, CAS President. “The objectives of this document are to help others use CAS in a way that is meaningful and relevant to their institution. Members of NWSA pulled together a resource that I believe will add a lot to your field as well as the use of CAS across other functional areas in higher education."

Cathy Seasholes added, "It's exciting to see the finished product and to know that CAS continues to value the contributions of WGPS to the organization and within higher ed. Deep appreciation to my colleagues for having made time in your full lives to reflect on, and so thoughtfully write about your utilization of CAS standards for this paper."

CAS exists to provide standards for the operation of higher education programs and services. CAS has had standards for Women's and Gender Programs and Services since 1992 (previously called Women Student Programs and Services). NWSA has appointed representatives to CAS since 2006. Devan Ford-McCartney, University of Houston (and University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center), and Sau-fong Au, Brooklyn College, currently represent NWSA on CAS. 

The resource is part of the CAS subscription package and is available for $15 for individual sale. 
They can be purchased at the CAS Store: https://www.cas.edu/store_home.asp