The other day someone who I hadn’t seen in 20 years said to me, “Hey, you’re the Registrar now? That’s awesome – I guess you’ve made it, eh?”
Other than the fact that I’ve been a Registrar for 19 years now, I realized yet again, here’s someone who doesn’t understand what it means to be a Registrar. I don’t know too many Registrars who’ve “made it” and can sit back and relax. That might happen in retirement, but those of us who work in our profession certainly aren’t resting on our laurels.
Indeed, in the last nine and a half years that I’ve been Registrar at TWU, every year we have taken on a big project. As I reflect on the past couple of years, for example, our office has rolled out some significant new products and services, and we have restructured to better serve one of our partner organizations. We made a major upgrade to our student information system, we rolled out a new student portal, implemented a new registration system, completely revised our student financial statements, implemented a new student alert system, and in a couple of weeks we will offer a completely new payment method for international students. Also in the past 9 months, after the retirement of a colleague and the restructuring of the Graduate Schools of Theological Studies at TWU, we have reorganized our office to serve this partner organization and students.
This is normal. It has always been thus, or so it’s been for the past 19 years of my career. What’s next? What’s on the horizon? I am going to the ARUCC Conference in Vancouver, where I plan on having my imagination sparked and my interest piqued for a number of things. I intend on hanging out with a whole lot of brilliant colleagues and learning from them. If they learn anything from me, it is purely accidental!
Of course, this doesn’t mean we don’t take a few breaks now and then (see below):
Who Wants To Be A Registrar? 