As members of enrollment management units look ahead to the next few years, they anticipate many institution-wide challenges: (1) implementation of a new student information system; (2) major upgrade of an existing system; and (3) re-configuring an existing system to reflect changes in academic policies or to accommodate new federal or state…

Middle-managers, including registrar and admissions personnel, must continue to call attention to the need for professional development. The American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers and the regional and state organizations are challenged to define the need and respond appropriately. (MSE)

A survey of registrars in 44 Australian higher education institutions gathered information on their demographic characteristics, qualifications, work experience, titles, current responsibilities, salaries, reporting relationships, and administrative perspectives. Results are reported, and their implications for administration in the new unified…

Provisions of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code that affect the right of colleges to withhold transcripts as a means of collecting student debts are considered. Automatic stay provisions state that the filing of a petition for bankruptcy relief prohibits actions to collect obligations of the debtor. The discharge injunction provides that once a discharge…

Services offered by the college registrar are largely unseen by the student when all goes well. However, the registration system should be viewed as a means of preventing student dissatisfaction. Registrars are important members of an enrollment management team and should share responsibility for their successes or failures. (Author/MSE)

A registrar replacing a long-time college registrar describes how it feels to follow an institutional legend and outlines some facts, approaches, and viewpoints learned during his first year of experience in the job, such as student and faculty attitudes, typical situations, and pitfalls. (MSE)

A national survey of trends in college grading practices was conducted in 1992 by gathering data from college registrars. The survey instrument, which had been field-tested, was sent to registrars at 2,302 institutions and responses were gathered from 1,601 (70 percent response rate). Among the general findings were the following: (1) 97 percent…

The movement to enhance the freshman year experience by changing the way institutions treat, welcome, assimilate, support, and inform freshman students is discussed and illustrated. The potential importance of the movement to admissions officers and registrars is emphasized. (MSE)

The strategies used by the administrator of the University of Melbourne's central registration office to meet the multiple challenges of retraining staff for computerization, substantial reduction in staff, and a specific directive to improve services to users are outlined and discussed. (MSE)

Younger employees in school admissions and records offices wishing to advance within the organization are encouraged to distinguish themselves, find a specialty, focus on customer relations, communicate expectations in leadership situations, keep priorities straight, embrace change and cultivate flexibility, keep integrity intact, and develop a…

Colleges and universities are using innovative methods to improve services that affect the institution's enrollment-management function, primarily in registration and information management. Registrars' offices can also promote academic excellence by incorporating honors into transcripts, participate in student recruitment by providing timely…

The college registrar can help campus information technology (IT) specialists identify/clarify new information management needs, by defining the business process within which the new task will function; determining the task's interaction requirements; listing details of the business process to be automated; letting IT professionals know the best…

A study of job satisfaction at a college registrar's office investigated overall job satisfaction, physical working environment, motivational culture, and worker needs. Findings included significant differences in satisfaction between registration and admissions units. Recommendations for improved sampling, choice of variables, and research design…

A survey of 17 registrars in colleges and universities using narrative evaluation of students instead of traditional grading investigated the types of institutions using the method, number of narratives generated, variations in form of narrative, history of the systems, methods of collecting and processing, control and limitations, costs, and…

Although different in nature from academic activities, college fund raising also requires planning and management. To develop more responsive executive information systems, development officers must take the lead, ask the right questions, and work closely with campus institutional researchers, registrars, enrollment managers, and computer…