While most scholars and higher education professionals believe in the intrinsic value of a liberal arts degree, high school students and their parents often have a different bias as they seek to determine where to invest themselves and their resources. Anyone who has taught in or recruited for the social sciences or humanities will recognize the…

As an associate registrar at Berklee College of Music, the author is responsible for ensuring the College's compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA). In 2009 he was asked to be part of a team charged with assessing Berklee's conformity with a soon-to-be-enacted state regulation. The Massachusetts Department of…

For most of his career, the author served as a registrar at Brigham Young University. He has come to understand something about leadership and what it requires to really make a difference in the lives of students as they pursue their education and life dreams. In this article, he shares lessons that he hopes will be beneficial to all his…

Thousands--if not tens of thousands--of books, monographs, and articles have been written on the subject of leadership. A Google search of the word returns nearly a half-billion Web sites. As a professional who has spent nearly 40 years in the higher education sector, the author has been blessed with opportunities to view and practice leadership…

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…

Successful administration of remote programs and services requires that information technology (IT) professionals and university administrators address two critical identity management factors: (1) linking the institutional electronic record representing an individual with the "real" person; and (2) establishing a mechanism/protocol (user name and…

One of the most fervent debates at the University of Kansas (KU) during the Vietnam War played out in the University Registrar's Office. During this period, James K. Hitt held the dual role of university registrar and Selective Service Representative: he used his position as registrar to inform the military of students' grades and class standings…

In order to support a new knowledge-based economy, President Obama has determined that more of the nation's population will need a college degree. While much of the research on two-year colleges has focused on public community colleges, there are a number of private, independent two-year colleges whose graduates will also contribute to a…

Building on the principles of Enrollment Management (EM) and Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM), Anticipatory Enrollment Management (AEM) offers another level of managing enrollment: anticipating future enrollment. AEM is grounded in the basic principles of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and includes strategic out-reach to parents and…

The education sector is no stranger to fraud, unfortunately. This article provides best practice guidance in recognizing and dealing with fraud, with emphasis on domestic and international academic credential fraud. It includes practical approaches to academic document review and verification. Success in fighting fraud requires becoming informed,…

In this article, the author talks about his career that has included positions in government and higher education, with the last 25 years having been spent working at four postsecondary institutions in the United States and Canada. In all cases, he has been blessed by having a caring and supportive mentor (sometimes more than one). Looking back…

Two "philosophers" on leadership have had great influence on the author: Warren Bennis and John W. Gardner. She cannot speak or write about leadership without referring to one or both of them. She regards their perspectives as timeless. In this article, the author discusses her interpretation of Bennis's (1996) "guiding vision, passion, and…

On-campus admissions events are the secret weapon that colleges and universities use to convince students to apply and enroll. On-campus events vary depending on the size, location, and type of institution; they include campus visitations, open houses, preview days, scholarship events, admitted student events, and summer yield events. These events…

The goal of this article is to shed light on a variety of metrics institutions and some accreditors currently use to track the retention of working adults. Further, it identifies a number of important principles that all stakeholders should consider when creating a standard measure of adult student retention. Finally, it describes a few errors to…

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…