History

The Caribbean Tertiary Level Personnel Association (CTLPA) was born out of the need for student services personnel at tertiary institutions to:
1. Better understand their role as an essential part of student learning & development
2. Enhance their ability to plan & implement student development programmes.
3. See themselves as a part of a specific professional group, rather than as isolated individuals performing specific tasks.
 

Seeds of CTLPA were sown at the 1996 Student Services Practitioners Workshop, held at the University of the West Indies, Mona (UWI). The main presenter was Dr. Carmen Neuberger, the Director of the American College Personnel Association (ACPA), who encouraged the Director of Student Services at UWI Mona to start a State Division of ACPA. A meeting was convened in December 1996 with student services personnel at UWI Mona and the University of Technology (UTECH).

 

The meeting agreed to seek affiliation with ACPA as “The Caribbean Tertiary Level Personnel Association” rather than as a state division of ACPA. A letter was sent to ACPA asking that consideration be given to the inclusion of countries other than the USA in the nomenclature of the organization. As a result, ACPA by-law changes were approved, and the designation State
Divisions have been changed to State and International Divisions. History was created when CTLPA was chartered as one of the first international divisions of the ACPA at its convention in Chicago in March 1997.

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The CTLPA Foundation was founded in 2026 as the philanthropic arm of CTLPA during the presidency of Shavon Hutchinson, 2025-2026.