Jeff von Munkwitz-Smith retired from Boston University in 2015 where he was Assistant Vice President and University Registrar. He is a Past President of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO), served as Editor-in-Chief of "College and University" from 2014-2020, and is currently a Senior…

Luisa Havens Gerardo is Vice President for Enrollment Management at Virginia Tech. She has served the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) as president, vice president for access and equity, chair of the international admissions committee, and member of the nominations committee and the program committee…

Emerging regulations require higher education financial aid staff to handle many tasks. Complying with these regulations and participating in mandated compliance audits are complex processes that require numerous departments to work in concert. This article discusses what steps colleges and universities can take to improve their compliance audits.…

Being a woman leader in higher education has many challenges. The author often reflects on the careers she has attained and the advice she has given to students and colleagues only to realize she has always been an advocate for improvement, advancement, and fairness. She gives advice on how women can lead authentically: (1) Take care of your body;…

Brian C. Rosenberg, President-in-Residence at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, served as Macalester College's sixteenth president from 2003-2020. During his tenure, enrollment of U.S. students of color at the college increased significantly. Moreover, under his leadership, the college prospered during a challenging economic…

In today's financially strained higher education landscape, the student services infrastructure is often supported by fewer staff, less money, less experience, and less knowledge. Gone are the days when higher education staff professionals acquired the necessary education pieces, apprenticed in positions, and waited patiently for promotions. Most…

At the 2016 annual Strategic Enrollment Management Conference, Mark Hommerding presented a workshop entitled "Are You Happy?" Author Michael Hawkins concludes in this commentary that happiness not only creates a "better you" (as Hommerding convincingly argued) but that it also undergirds and sustains effective leadership. More…

I wrote this reflective piece in 1999 as I was assuming my first full-time position as a professor with limited administrative responsibilities at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). After 30-plus years in administrative roles in higher education that provided the opportunity to teach on a part-time basis only, I quickly became aware of…

Lotus D. Coffman became the fifth president of the University of Minnesota in 1920 and served in that role until 1938. Two new colleges were established under his tenure: General College offering two-year degrees and University College, intended for students whose academic needs were not being met by other existing colleges. This article provides…

This is the second installment of the AACRAO management series focusing on project management in the academy. In this article, the authors focus on white papers (often called charters, briefs, or fact sheets) and their partner, the work plan. The work plan is a detailed document that defines each aspect of a project. It is often preceded by a…

This is the first in a series of forum articles on applying project management (PM) techniques and tools to the nonprofit sector with a focus on higher education. The authors will begin with a traditional look at project management because they believe that the integration of the tools and the processes associated with PM into many campus offices…

The author never planned to work at a college, but she finds she is vice president of student development at a community college; she served previously as assistant to the dean of academic services, as registrar, and as dean of enrollment management. She started her career in health care administration, and her master's was in public…

There are many hundreds if not thousands of registrars--unsung leaders in U.S. higher education who often may be "unseen" but who are both quite present and surprisingly influential. Leadership styles among them vary somewhat, but many of them practice what the author calls "inconspicuous" leadership. "Inconspicuous"…

The author once was a student in a graduate seminar taught by the president of the university where he was a mid-level administrator. The course focused on what it takes to be the chief executive of a university. The university president was the only one of the ten presidents under whom the author served who embraced the role of a college…

A number of colleges and universities are aggressively recruiting professionals from outside academe for various administrative roles. Many of these professionals come to campuses from substantial corporate careers, with excellent aptitude for the job at hand, and are generally wonderful additions to the staffs. The test often faced as managers is…