PLEASE VOTE, COMPLETE OUR SURVEY, AND LEARN ABOUT STP INITIATIVES

Happy May – I hope everyone has a smooth end of the term if your semester is ending this month. I am not sure why the Spring term always seems so much longer than Fall! Nonetheless, celebrate your accomplishments and those of your students as graduations occur. This month I am going to focus on STP and all that we offer. I think that, too often, we are not aware of everything available to STP members. I know that I have missed things.

PLEASE VOTE FOR STP OFFICERS

First, I want to remind everyone that STP’s elections are currently taking place. Thanks to those who volunteered to run and serve the Society! The STP Elections & Appointments Committee is pleased to announce the candidates for STP offices. Candidate statements are available on the STP website.

All STP members are eligible to vote for four open offices: President-Elect, Secretary, Vice President for Programming, and Vice President for Resources. If you are not a current member and would like to vote for these offices, please join on the STP website. You may vote until May 16 by clicking here (requires login).

APA members of Division 2 will receive a separate ballot for two Division 2 Representatives to APA Council. There are four candidates, and we will use rank-order voting, with the top two vote-getters elected. Ballots will be sent via email to APA members of Division 2 on May 8 and the due date for voting is  June 7.

Thank you for participating in this year's vote.

PLEASE COMPLETE THE STP SURVEY FROM OUR TASK FORCES

I also want to share an update on my two task forces. They have been working hard and I commend the two Chairs for the thought they are putting into this process. I asked each to share what their group is doing.

From Crystal Quillen: The Community College Taskforce has been meeting since the end of January. We have a talented group of individuals and were excited to share our backgrounds and experiences. We began our conversation by talking about surveying members and non-members to see who a community college instructor was. This appeared to be more difficult than we thought, which led us to discuss the need for a larger membership survey and invite the MSI Taskforce and the Membership Committee to help. Some of our questions specifically focused on why current community college members of STP have joined and how we can communicate the benefits of STP with non-members.

From Angela Swilling: The MSI (Minority Serving Institution) Taskforce has met a few times and we are working on analyzing email domains to determine an estimate of what percentage of STP members are at MSIs. (This term covers all categories of minority serving institutions). Although this task is difficult since many domains are more generic (e.g., Gmail or yahoo), it does give us an estimate. Additionally, we are working with the Community College Taskforce and Membership Committee to develop a survey to collect data on how STP can improve. We are specifically interested in how faculty from MSIs can be better served and made to feel welcome. We hope to identify factors that might encourage more membership and engagement, including resources that might be beneficial to faculty at MSIs.

The two groups worked together to develop two survey, one for STP members (requires login) and one for STP non-members. Please click on either of the survey links above and take a few minutes to give us your thoughts.

REPORT FROM THE RENAMING ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY WORKING GROUP

During 2021 and 2022, there was a great deal of discussion about the title of the abnormal psychology course on STP’S social media outlets. In response, the STP Executive Committee approved and charged a working group with considering the pros and cons of recommending an alternate title for this commonly offered course. The working group surveyed what titles are being used for the course and examined the potential effects of changing the title. These effects could include transferability, especially between community colleges and four-year institutions. Other effects could be how admissions officers who review applicants to professional programs (including non-psychology programs that have this course as a prerequisite) would view name changes. The question was if the title was important or if admissions officers would review syllabi for comparability. The group also examined how the title might contribute to stigma around mental health. The Renaming Abnormal Psychology Working Group completed their report. It is one of the most thorough and complete I have read. The  report is located on the STP website. We have sent the report to a number of other groups who might have a stake in the title of the course. Please take time to review the report.

ADDITIONAL UPDATES ON STP INITIATIVES

STP is expanding its presence at international conferences. Susan Nolan has assumed the position of Director of Programming at International Conferences. Read about upcoming events. STP was represented at the 2023 International Convention of Psychological Science (ICPS) held in Brussels in March.

Remember that STP has groups designed to represent graduate students, early career professionals, and mid-career professionals. Just click the Membership tab to find more information. Each group has compiled lists of helpful resources.

STP has a large number of awards to honor teaching as well as grants to fund travel to conferences, teaching projects, and more. The Grants/Awards page has a calendar showing the due dates for each award or grant. Please consider applying for one of the grants or nominate yourself (or someone else) for the awards.

Our Annual Conference on Teaching (part of our Programming area) is now accepting submissions for the conference, which will be held face-to-face in Portland, OR on October 5-7, 2023 with additional online programming scheduled for early 2024. There are many types of submissions accepted. If you have never submitted, please do not think ACT is cliquish. We focus on teaching and while I may be biased, I think it is the most welcoming conference on the national level. If you do not want to submit, please consider joining us this October in Portland or virtually next year.

Our Resources area offers a wealth of teaching resources including eBooks, blogs, journals, and more. I plan to spend some time this summer exploring both new (and older) resources to update my courses for the fall term.

All of the above treasures are due to so many individuals whom I have no space to name. Their dedication to teaching is awe-inspiring and STP would not be the organization we are without all these volunteers. I thank them for their time, energy, and vision.

This brings me to an invitation to check the Get Involved page regularly. All positions within STP are open to everyone to apply. We really want to include everyone, and I encourage you to take the leap and apply for open positions. It can be a bit intimidating, but we really do want everyone to feel welcome and included.

I hope you have a smooth end to the term and a reinvigorating summer. Please take some time to explore what STP offers and join us. We look forward to getting to know everyone.