AACRAO Spotlight interviews are published biweekly before major professional development meetings. They feature our conversations with industry experts, highlighting key issues and promoting sessions and workshops at the upcoming conference.
In this issue of Connect, we talked with registrars on federal financial aid regulations and curricular change. We also talked about student success and peer mentors in first-year programs, and talked with AACRAO Executive Director Mike Reilly on the higher education policy landscape.
Federal legislation regarding higher education, and particularly financial aid, has had a significant effect on institutional business processes and student services. These mounting compliance requirements could be described as “The tail wagging the dog,” say Kristi Wold-McCormick (Registrar, University of Colorado-Boulder) and James Kennedy (Associate Vice President, University Student Services and Systems, Indiana University).
Read their interview here.
Registrars play a central role in the curricular change process at institutions. Including registrars at the beginning of discussions regarding curricular change can make the implementation of new changes go over more smoothly.
AACRAO spoke with Julia Pomerenk, University Registrar at Washington State University, and Rebecca Mathern, University Registrar at Oregon State University, about their session "Registrars and Curricular Change: Proven Practices for Facilitating Degree, Course, and Requirement Changes" at this years Annual Meeting
Read their interview here.
It’s inevitable: first-year students must integrate into campus life. They may learn to navigate campus piecemeal, reading pamphlets and researching websites; they may have a formal course that helps them to transition; or—most common—they may pick up information—and misinformation—through casual conversations with other students who have been there before them.
Often, students hear what their peers tell them, whether it’s true or not. So why not take advantage of this resource to get accurate information to first-year students?, advises Heather Eckstein, Director of Student Success Programs at Pittsburg State University. In her session “Students assisting students: Peer mentors in first-year programs” at this year’s Annual Meeting, Eckstein will discuss her school’s peer mentoring program – now in its sixth year – and offer information and tips for getting a similar program off the ground at your school, even with a limited budget.
Read our interview with Eckstein here.
Mike Reilly, Executive Director at AACRAO, is set to moderate a panel of experts at the upcoming Annual Meeting in Baltimore, MD. We caught up with him to get some more information about the session on the Higher Education Policy Landscape.
Read our interview with Reilly here.