By Danielle Faucett, Associate Registrar, University of Missouri – St. Louis
Kimberly Barber from Florida State University, Kelly Brundage from Kansas State University, and Tim Amyx from Volunteer State Community College began their Wednesday morning session at the 108th AACRAO Annual Meeting in Aurora, Colorado by letting their audience choose their own adventure. This session discussed the spaces between black and white for a university registrar: where institution policy, faculty intent, administration goals, strategic initiatives, and students’ lives meet. The speakers gave the audience two options for the style of the presentation:
Choose Your Own Adventure:
The case studies would be presented by the speakers with the solutions they implemented at their institutions and then they would take questions.
The case studies would be presented by the speakers, and the audience would discuss the options and provide solutions. Then the presenters would tell the audience what they did at their institutions and there would be time for questions or discussion.
In a nearly unanimous vote, the audience chose option number two where the presenters would present the options and let the audience discuss and say what they would do, or ask questions, and then find out what the speakers did at their institutions. This approach to the session was enlivening, engaging, and thought-provoking, as the presenters shared case studies with information about the policies, procedures, and culture at their institutions and asked the audience for their thoughts.
Three Primary Case Studies Presented:
Degree Integrity and Institution Error:
Two students were given the wrong grades by an instructor, who made a mistake and reversed the grades. Student #1, who was graduating at the end of the Spring semester, was issued a passing grade when he should have received a failing grade. The transcripts for Student #1, as well as the diploma, were already mailed by the time the error was caught, and changing the grade would mean the GPA falling below the minimum requirements to award the degree. Student #2 received the failing grade when he should have received a passing grade. What do you do? Where do you start?
Et tu, Brute?
A student has complained that the rules surrounding Latin Honors are unfair because she feels she should have received Latin Honors because of her GPA at the time of degree conferral. The policy, however, is that Latin Honors are based on the graduate’s GPA as of the semester before graduation, using all grades in college-level courses no matter if the course was taken at the institution or transferred in. This includes very old transfer coursework being included in the GPA calculation. Therefore, the student might earn Latin Honors based on their final GPA but not the GPA at the end of the semester before graduation. What do you do? Where do you start?
Dropping\Withdrawing & Adding Back
The Office of Student Life asks if a D grade be added back to a student’s record and includes Assistant Dean from the College, but that is not the designee for student academic decisions. This is after the Office of Student Life sent a form to the Registrar approving a withdrawal of all Spring 2022 courses, requesting to remove four grades total (3 – F grades and 1 – D grade). The student is an Engineering major who meets with a new Academic Advisor and discovers that one of the courses (the D grade) would have been an approved exception to the C or better requirement in the degree audit. What do you do? Where do you start?
The audience pondered over each scenario, asking questions and gathering more information, leading audience members to solutions based on the material offered. In a surprise twist, the audience learned that the second case study was a test as the speaker, Tim Amyx, had rushed the audience to come up with an answer, stating that time was limited and only a restricted number of voices could be heard. He pointed out that the audience succumbed to groupthink and that none of the audience members addressed every single part of the problem. Registrar duties are often black or white, but there are times when they live in the “grey” space. It is very important to think of the “grey” areas when at the table, and to not just fall into solving the issues that are black and white, or common.
Key Takeaways:
Think through the unintended consequences and make sure you are not focusing on just the black-and-white common solutions. Make sure you are addressing the entire scenario and all concerns.
Ask questions and brainstorm solutions, thinking through all of the pieces in the “grey” areas.
The transactional and policy parts are easy, but the Registrar position means having to think through the nuances and figure out the solutions to problems, considering who might be affected.
Leverage your network when you run across a “grey” area you have never seen, realizing that your institutional culture can play a part in your ability to solve the problem.
Realize that you never have a full story and will need discussions to walk through it with others. This requires piecing together who needs to be at the table to come to an adequate solution.
Find the path that is fair, honest, and does the least amount of harm to the students, without leaning to the default.
At the end of the session, audience members were invigorated, thinking about how this session could be offered every year with different scenarios. It was a session that was not only interesting, but inspiring to attendees. The recommendation was to continue to think through scenarios at their own institutions, utilizing this presentation as a training tool, while remembering to leverage the network here at AACRAO for those “grey” areas that prove challenging.