NIRSA Policy Agenda announced for 2023-2024

The NIRSA Government Affairs Committee is excited about the work ahead of us this year. Primarily the work of our committee is to actively research and monitor all policies that might impact collegiate recreation and higher education as a whole. In order to strategically focus on our efforts, NIRSA has set out a policy agenda for the year, which was approved by the NIRSA Board at their September meeting.

The Policy agenda typically does not shift radically from year to year. It comprises what issues the group anticipates will dominate legislative action and allocates an action strategy based on current knowledge. For 2023-2024, the topics of “Title IX” and “Transgender Athlete Participation” were carried over from last year. Two other topic areas – “Civic Responsibility and Political Impact” and “DEI in Higher Education” – were also present in previous years but under different titles (previously “Civic Responsibility and Voting” and “Social Justice and Anti-Racism”). The Committee opted to evolve the names of these topic areas to better reflect the types of legislative trends being observed. The Committee also added the topic area “Mental Health Awareness & Health Care Access” to reflect their observation of an increasing amount of legislation proposed in this area, as well as its significance in current sociocultural conversations.

If you have any questions, comments, or legislative/policy items that you would like us to explore, please reach out to any of us. Our role is to keep you informed and share information in a timely manner.

2023-2024 Policy Agenda

The policy agenda, created in 2019 and approved by the NIRSA Board of Directors, is based on the principles that NIRSA supports pertaining to policies promoting and advancing success for both students and the higher education practitioners that support them, and the communities in which they live.  Structured to educate policymakers and others about the work and impact of NIRSA and our members, the agenda fits in four broad categories:

Higher Education Impacts

NIRSA is committed to placing importance on cultivating and fostering an environment of growth, safety, and inclusion for students, faculty, and staff in postsecondary education.  NIRSA supports policies that recognize the benefits of higher education and advance opportunities for all.  NIRSA will provide leadership on issues including affordability, access, recreational facilities and programs, student development, student leaders, the co-circular experience, and the advancement of the profession.

Wellbeing and Healthy Communities

NIRSA plays an integral role in the importance of promoting physical activity, active living, wellbeing, campus safety, mental health, access to health services, and sustainability strategies impacting students and campus recreation professionals. NIRSA supports policies and programs that recognize the benefits of Healthy Communities and that positively impact the physical, mental, and social emotional health of our students, members, and institutions.

Social Justice and Inclusiveness

NIRSA places importance on equity, diversity, inclusion, justice, and safety of college campuses and their students, faculty, and staff. NIRSA is committed to fostering increasingly more diverse, inclusive, and just campuses that actively support all students and help foster democratic campus environments. NIRSA will support policies and programs that help our students, members, and institutions bring together and provide voice to diverse people, thoughts, opinions, and views.

NIRSA Strategic Value Areas

NIRSA will take an active role to move forward policies and actions that maintain the values of our profession: Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion; Global Perspectives; Health and Wellbeing; Leadership; Service; and Sustainable Communities. NIRSA will support and advocate policies to ensure our strategic values are elevated and moved forward.

Action strategies

NIRSA will direct efforts towards these key public policy issue areas. As part of this policy agenda, each of the broad categories will be shaped around three action strategies: advocate,  collaborate, and inform.

Advocate

NIRSA will advocate for students and employees who represent diversity on a broad range of dimensions including gender, sex, sexual orientation, language, age, ability status, national origin, religion, socio-economic status, as well as race, ethnicity, and heritage. NIRSA endeavors to support individuals interested in becoming involved in advocacy work on their campuses and educating student, faculty, staff, and other leaders on how to engage in such actions. This includes allocation of resources by NIRSA HQ, NIRSA Board positional statements, activation of the Government Affairs Committee, and utilizing NIRSA and our members’ spheres of influences to do such work.

Collaborate

NIRSA is committed to collaborating with organizations and partners that support and align with our desire to cultivate learning and growth by fostering lifelong habits of wellbeing.  NIRSA HQ will develop and nurture collaborations to include allocation of resources where appropriate.   The Government Affairs committee will be activated and tasked if needed to assist in any collaborative efforts.

Inform

NIRSA will observe and analyze the progress of government action and legislative policy that concern topics related to campus recreation and higher education. This includes aligning and positioning resources for later strategy and disseminating information to members in an effort to educate. The importance is educating the NIRSA membership while continuing to monitor issue(s). The Government Affairs Committee and NIRSA HQ will be tasked with managing this action strategy.  NIRSA Board position or action isn’t required at this stage.

The Government Affairs Committee has determined the upcoming year the following topics will be our area of focus: