William Paterson University

The result

William Paterson University “went from a nearly inactive chapter to inducting more than 100 new members in only one semester,” as published by the National Society of Leadership and Success (NSLS). That semester was spring 2022: the NSLS’s September 2022 chapter spotlight reports more than 100 newly inducted members in the 2022 spring semester alone, and names William Paterson its 2022 Chapter of the Year. The chapter advisor, Donna Minnich-Spuhler, was recognized as Distinguished Advisor of the Year.

It is a chapter-operations result: evidence of how quickly a chapter can restart.

Why a turnaround matters

Many administrators are not starting from zero. They have something that exists on paper and does almost nothing: an organization with a roster, no programming, and no one who feels responsible for it. A dormant program occupies the space, has already spent its credibility with students, and reviving it can feel like more work than starting fresh.

William Paterson shows that it does not have to be. A nearly inactive chapter produced more than 100 inductions in spring 2022, which shows recruitment and delivery restarting fast.

What the chapter did

The student executive board led the restart, with the advisor’s support. Karla Inchaustegui, then chapter president, credited the whole board, and the spotlight describes a sequence any chapter can follow:

• Communication first. The board activated the chapter’s Instagram account, then hosted events both in person and online.
• Roles for the work. It added a fundraising chair committee and a community service chair committee to run those initiatives.
• Partners in the community. The chapter worked with OASIS: A Haven for Women and Children, the Shani Baraka Women’s Resource Center, and Universal Institute rehabilitation centers, and ran its own events, including a clothing and food drive.
• Recognition on campus. At the university’s SGA Leadership Awards, the chapter won Outstanding Event of the Year in the educational category for “Overcoming to Achieve: A Black Woman’s Perspective on Success and Leadership,” an event co-sponsored by the Center for Diversity and Inclusion and the Black History Month Celebration Planning Committee.

Her advice to other chapter leaders was about listening rather than logistics: “Don’t underestimate the perspective of a member.”

Sector context

Public four-year institutions retain full-time students at a median rate of 75 percent, against 77 percent at private nonprofit four-years, 71 percent across all degree-granting institutions, and 63 percent at public two-years (IPEDS, Fall 2023: the fall 2022 cohort returning in fall 2023, across 646 public four-year institutions).

Regional publics carry a particular version of the engagement problem: large commuter populations, students working substantial hours, and thin staffing on the programming that would reach them. A program that restarts without new headcount speaks directly to that. The William Paterson result is about chapter activity rather than retention, so present it that way.

Why one semester is enough

Most of the work is not local. According to the NSLS, a chapter arrives with managed engagement and recruitment, an annually updated curriculum, an all-inclusive Chapter Portal, six broadcast speakers a year, marketing kits, training on setting up a student executive board, free regional conferences, annual program assessments, help recruiting chapter leaders, and a dedicated success team. The published advisor commitment is 10 to 20 hours per semester.

The member journey fits inside the restart window: orientation, a two-hour Leadership Training Day, three Speaker Broadcasts, three Success Networking Team meetings, and induction, which usually takes place in a ceremony, around ten hours in total and typically one semester. Students are nominated by their campus, and induction is the fifth and final step, so an induction count measures completion, not sign-ups.

A reactivating chapter is not rebuilding a curriculum, booking speakers, or writing recruitment materials. It is seating a student executive board and running a sequence that already exists.

For a semester-by-semester account of building a chapter’s executive board, see our Coastal Carolina case study, with the strategies, the induction rates, and the staff involved.

Planning for a similar campus

Two numbers make a turnaround meaningful. First, inductions alongside the size of the nominated cohort: 100 inductions means something different on a campus that nominated 200 students than on one that nominated 1,000. Second, whether it held the following semester: two or three consecutive strong terms show the infrastructure is in place.

Set your own baseline before you start, so your result is a measured change.

For the operational side, see the advisor time commitment and what’s included. For engagement benchmarks on a regional public campus, see the four-year publics segment page.