We invite you to participate in the 44th annual CASP Conference! The College Academic Support Programs (CASP) Conference, Texas’s oldest student success conference, is an annual event jointly sponsored by the Texas chapter of the College Reading and Learning Association (TxCRLA) and the Texas chapter of the National Organization for Student Success (TxNOSS). Please join our efforts to offer professional development that is current, dynamic, and relevant to the ever-changing field of higher education.

This year’s theme is Scaffolding and Support for Today’s Learners.

The theme is centered around the ways in which we as faculty and support staff build and sustain the structures that help our students learn, progress, and persist toward success. With such varied needs across student populations, educators must be innovative in meeting students where they are through systems of structured support. To be comprehensive, these structures should focus on wraparound supports, classroom pedagogy, and curriculum. Pedagogical structures include class guidelines, instructional design and theory, opportunities for modeling techniques, and creating opportunities for engagement and help-seeking. Curricular structures include subject matter content, non-cognitive content (e.g., belonging, identity development, self-awareness and management, responsible decision-making). Wraparound supports are support systems provided by the institution and colleges that are outside the classroom but serve to create an inclusive school environment and experience to help students thrive, like academic, mental health, financial, and career supports. Scaffolding these varying types of student supports across campus creates structures and conditions that meet the needs of the entire student population. 

We aim for our 44th annual conference to serve as a space for sharing research and best practices on shortening the distance between students and support resources and innovations that you or your institutions are embedding into the culture or systems at your institution. Sessions where institutions may be grappling with implementation issues and would like to engage attendees in problem solving consultancies are also welcome. 

CASP welcomes anyone and everyone who works in the area of student success. We encourage all professionals, from faculty, academic advising, supplementary instruction, tutoring, career support, academic coaching, program administrators, librarians, counselors, peer mentors, graduate students, faculty/staff mentors, students in developmental education courses, and others to submit conference proposals to share their current practices, experiences, and/or research. Presenters should plan for a 45-minute virtual session.