3 perspectives from first-time attendees at this year's AACRAO Annual Meeting:
From Jennifer Wagner, Operations and Reporting Analyst, Strategic Enrollment Management, Lamar University
If I am completely honest, I had never heard of AACRAO until about two months before the 100th Annual Meeting, held in my beautiful hometown of Denver, which I was lucky enough to attend. Two months might even be generous. So how did I end up not only as a first time attendee, but one of maybe three enrollment management analysts to attend AACRAO? Allow me to explain!
I am technically the Enrollment Management Operations and Reporting Analyst at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. If you’ve never heard of Beaumont, don’t worry, I hadn’t either! That is, until about 5 months ago when I was brought in as an analyst dedicated entirely to Strategic Enrollment Management. The position was brand new, the idea of an analyst existing entirely separate from IT and IR was still shocking, and the possibilities were endless. They were also very overwhelming. At Lamar, the SEM “umbrella” encompasses 10 different departments including Admissions, Registrar, Financial Aid, and Recruitment, among others. Having previously worked in IR, I was familiar with institutional data, but I was now expected to become the data expert for ten different departments. A three day intensive course on the inner workings of my two biggest departments, also known as AACRAO, seemed to be a perfect solution.
What I didn’t recognize when I started my SEM journey, and didn’t fully understand until attending AACRAO, were the enormous hurdles in terms of data and access faced universally in higher education. I had worked in IR on the provider side of the data, not the requesting side. It had never occurred to me how difficult life was on the requester’s side! I sat in one session where an Enrollment Management Vice President listed all of the places they had to go to accumulate data they needed to perform an analysis. They had asked eight different departments for data. I was shocked. In my position as the analyst for SEM I have access to every piece of data the presenter had been trying to acquire.
The theme for the 100th Annual Meeting was “Education on the Verge: The Precipice of Change.” What I realized that day was that Lamar University, in creating my position, had sauntered up to that precipice and jumped right off. Without AACRAO I would have never been aware of the magnitude of what we are trying to do at Lamar with a dedicated analyst--and the success we are having. I can’t wait to update you all on our progress [at the 2015 Annual Meeting] in Baltimore. See you then!
From Jared M. Morosco, Program Coordinator, Enrollment Services, University Registrar, The Ohio State University
My first AACRAO Annual Conference was a great experience. It gave me the chance to meet people from institutions around the country and network with other professionals who will be invaluable resources as I progress in my career. Although I have attended and presented at our state conference in Ohio, I was unsure of what to expect heading into my first AACRAO Annual Conference. I was surprised (and a bit overwhelmed at first) by the size and scope of this conference in comparison to our state conference. There were so many quality sessions going on at any given time that it was often difficult to choose which one to attend.
The most beneficial part of the conference for me was hearing how other institutions manage some of the same problems that we deal with at our university. I found the variety of sessions that focused on national topics and trends in higher education particularly informative, especially those related to legislative and regulatory changes and their potential impacts on higher education. The wealth of knowledge and experience of the presenters was evident, and often led to some very interesting follow-up discussions about best practices in a Registrar’s office. Overall, I had an excellent time at the Denver Conference and I look forward to attending future conferences.
From Scott TerMeer, Associate Registrar, Michigan State University
The 2014 AACRAO Annual Conference in Denver Colorado provided me with my first international professional conference experience since my transition to the Registrar profession. Having spent over ten years in information technology in higher education, I have had similar experiences with collaboration organizations and conferences (e.g., Educause). I have also had the opportunity to participate in regional organization conferences and meetings (e.g., MACRAO and CIC).
AACRAO has found the right balance of size and participation. I found that conference to be large enough to provide a variety of perspectives and wide range of session topics, yet small enough to find and network with peers with similar responsibilities.
I was pleasantly surprised at the effectiveness of sessions that paired institutions with product companies. Presenters did an excellent job of displaying practical implementations of several of the products available in our space. The alignment of technical capabilities of the products to the end result of business solutions was well done.
I also had the opportunity to personally present on project management. Having just completed my first year in the Registrar profession and not attending AACRAO previously, I was unsure what to expect with this topic. I was pleasantly surprised at the full house audience at the 8am session on the final morning. The audience was highly engaged and comforting. Having not presented more than a couple of times in the past, this experience has motivated me to continue my involvement and propose additional presentations for AACRAO conferences in the upcoming year.