School News

Each fall under the leadership of President Raymond E. Crossman, faculty and staff of the Adler School of Professional Psychology’s Chicago campus come together to celebrate the start of a new academic year, welcome new colleagues, greet returning ones, and recommit to the goals of higher education and the School mission.

Faculty and staff at the Chicago campus gathered this fall on September 27. In his address at the Annual Assembly, Dr. Crossman focused on the School’s ongoing growth and progress as vital to ensuring the impact and sustainability of the Adler School’s work.

Click on the video below to watch Dr. Crossman's annual faculty & staff assembly address.

“We are all part of a community that has been doing essential work for the past 59 years,” Dr. Crossman said. “We’ve been doing work in a way that no one else can do – because we are uniquely and specifically informed by Alfred Adler’s paradigm-shifting, rule-breaking, revolutionary ideas and constructs. 

“As much as I love the profession and discipline of psychology, we have more to offer, beyond the status quo of today’s psychology, because of Alfred Adler’s perspective, Gemeinschaftsgefühl, social interest, or the intersection (the relationship) between health and community is the smartest, the most effective, and the most efficient way to initiate the work of social justice and the work of practitioners in communities.

“This is why I feel great responsibility, great dharma, for the Adler School to grow and to get better at our work. It is essential that the Adler School grow to educate practitioners who are uniquely prepared to face today’s challenges.” 

Dr. Crossman spoke on how the School has been asked to progress its work in the coming year. “We don’t and won’t stand still at the Adler School,” he said. “Our curricula, our learning outcomes, our teaching, our service, our initiatives – all improve each year. I believe it’s partly because of our legacy (the gift of sweat and potential from the School’s founders), partly because of the magnitude of today’s challenges that motivate us, partly because of our discipline, use of data, and hard work, and partly because something happens through engaged collaboration across the School community – from the Board of Trustees to our students – to stimulate better and better work.” 

In looking ahead to highlights for the 2011-12 academic year, Dr. Crossman cited the School’s upcoming visit for continued reaccreditation by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools; new tracks for child and adolescent psychology and for military clinical psychology in the School’s Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology program; new faculty and staff; the School’s new center focusing on LGBTQ mental health’ and a new parenting center—as well as the Campaign for the Harold and Birdie Mosak Library at the Chicago campus.

Dr. Crossman also said the School’s new incoming class of students is “the strongest I’ve seen in my eight years here-both in terms of their credentials and qualifications, and in terms of their commitment to healthy communities and a more just society.”

After describing a few of those students, he ended by sharing with faculty and staff: “Together, let’s have an extraordinary year.” Click here to read the full address.