The Registrar’s Office, located in Esch Hall, has a lot more to offer than most students realize.
“What I know about the Registrar’s Office is that it’s where you take stuff regarding registration, and that’s about it,” said sophomore business administration major Omar Posadas. “Usually when they tell you, ‘oh take this to Accounting or to Admissions,’ I rarely hear the Registrar’s Office mentioned. If I had any questions, I probably would get them answered at that office.”
The Registrar’s Office held a Secrets of Success workshop entitled “The Registrar’s Office: More Than Just Transcripts,” to give students a look at what the office is all about.
“The Registrar’s Office maintains all of the academic records for students at the university. We publish the schedule of classes every semester and assign classrooms, build the final exam schedule, and assign classrooms for that as needed,” said Associate Registrar Janna Ulbright. “We kind of oversee the activities for online registration every semester. We also work with our partner international site. So when we had the Athens campus, we did a lot of data for that, and the list goes on and on.”
According to Ulbright, the main thing that the Registrar’s Office deals with is maintaining student records.
“We also are the ones that post academic probation and academic ineligibility. We also have to be the ones that enforce the policies that are set by the faculty—deadlines, GPA minimums—those different kinds of things, too,” Ulbright said.
The Registrar’s Office can be a very busy place depending on the time of year according to Ulbright.
“Right now, we are in the middle of registering for next semester, so it’s [our job] taking a look at, ‘do we have enough classes for next semester,’ and reaching out to departments to create more sections for students and working through the waitlists for classes. So that’s where we are at now,” Ulbright said. “As we get closer to December and May, it [our job] will be preparing for commencement and making sure that we have everyone accounted for and everyone knows what’s on tap for the commencement ceremonies and how you get your diploma, and all those types of things. Right at the start of every semester, it’s a mad dash for dropping and adding classes; end of semesters, it’s transcripts. So it’s really hard to say [what the most important thing we do is], because it’s dependent on what time of the year it is.”
Another piece of information that was discussed at the SOS workshop was how students can be proactive and find their own records online. According to Ulbright, the Registrar’s Office is a good place to stop by if you have any questions.
“We are kind of a nice landing place for students, because sometimes students will come to our office when they don’t know where to get information,” Ulbright said. “We are not financial aid, we are not academic advisors, but we definitely can help point students in the right direction. So we want to make sure that if students have questions, we are kind of a nice place to stop by, and we can get you to where you need to go.”
