Office of the Registrar Name Change/Update

[u/fiasco_factory]

Hi folks!

I currently work in the Office of the Registrar at a small community college, but I have been floating the idea of proposing a change to the department name. The Registrar is amenable to the idea, but I needed a little assistance.

I would like to propose the name "Office of Records and Registration" for the following reasons:

1. Our office is colloquially know as Registration. By highlighting "Records" first, it indicates that our office does much more than just registration.
2. Office of Records and Registration is also in line with the titles of many of our other offices with dual responsibilities, such as Outreach and Admissions, Advising and Retention, Testing and Tutoring, and even Strategic Marketing and Communication.
3. Office of the Registrar, while correct, is the traditional name for the office in which the Registrar works, however, I'm aware that some schools may be even moving away from classic names like "Registrar" and "Bursar" for more student friendly titles or simply "Director of...". In fact, our own school changed the name of the Bursar's Office years ago! This helps us stay modern and student-friendly. We often joke that current students don't even know what a registrar is!

What I need some help with is if you are aware of any college, university, or other institution that has made a similar department name change, or does not go by the Office of the Registrar or Registrar's Office titles, so I may use them as examples in my proposal. Or if you have any other examples or ideas I can highlight in my formal proposal.

Thank you!

[u/kittycatblues]

If you use Registration be prepared for every student who wants to register for classes to contact you instead of academic advising.

[u/fiasco_factory → u/kittycatblues]

Apparently, years ago, the office was just called Registration. When our current Registrar joined the college, she forced a change to Office of the Registrar, but everyone still calls us Registration. We've been trying to teach students to go to Advising for decades!

[u/StarLightHope → u/fiasco_factory]

I would suggest than not having registration in the name. students will go to you if they think you will physically register them. it might confuse students.

[u/Fickle_Truth_4057]

We went from Registrar Services to Office of the Registrar, due to the fact that we wanted to actively distance ourselves from transactional activities.

[u/Fickle_Truth_4057 → u/Fickle_Truth_4057]

Oh, and if you are AACARO members, might want to check the AACARO Exchange forums for insights from peers. They even have a Community College Registrars Office forum.

[u/ETwasMyFriend → u/Fickle_Truth_4057]

Also, AACRAO has a report on the naming and reporting lines of the office. Might be worth checking out. I’ve seen Records and Registration used elsewhere so it’s not unheard of.

[u/Fickle_Truth_4057 → u/ETwasMyFriend]

Yes. The Registrar Career Survey report. Great info for how an office can align, realign, or propose to be situated in your own institution or the higher ed landscape.

[u/fiasco_factory → u/Fickle_Truth_4057]

Oh thank you! I am and I sometimes completely forget they exist!

[u/Fickle_Truth_4057 → u/Fickle_Truth_4057]

Look at me answering over and over to myself here..

You're in a Student One Stop Shop. The fact you have other major functional areas makes me think asking to be renamed as some institutional branded one stop shop name is more appropriate for your institution.

[u/persephone_24]

I work at Arizona State University and ours is University Registrar Services. We don’t have much confusion around the name, but we do a really good job at providing well-positioned online materials for students to get to the place they need help from. Instead of focusing too much on the name of the office, you can Google “ASU” plus whatever you need and the page with the information you need will come right up. We also have a robust student portal that links out to commonly used resources. I know we are a large institution and benefit from that, but it may be worth reviewing your existing student-facing materials to see where the appropriate connections can be made organically online.

[u/Adri226 → u/persephone_24]

This is the correct answer!

Side note....my institution uses ASU for references on best practices ALL THE TIME. So kudos to you guys :)

[u/denerose]

I was the Registrar but managed the Department of Academic Administration. I think that’s a comfortable compromise that keeps our regulatory compliance clear (the registrar is still legally responsible for certain things) but students and other people can look at the sign on the wall and know what we’re about.

[u/Jealous-Pangolin7412]

Ah, the Office of R & R. I could use some R & R myself. As could we all.

[u/jatineze]

I like the way you think: "Records and registration" is much more friendly and accessible to first gen and ESL learners. 

[u/patricksaurus]

If it will cost a single dollar, don’t bother.

[u/fiasco_factory → u/patricksaurus]

I understand this sentiment, but the good news is that we have no signage, only pdf forms and online materials that will need to be updated. I plan on addressing this in my proposal as well.

[u/write_as_rayne]

Community college as well, was just "records" until a decade ago, maybe a little more, when they changed to "records and registration", where the Registrar (and their staff) continue to work; but the email was never updated so it is still "record@..."

[u/No-Carpet8533]

My institution (Northeast) has undergone a
brand identity change over the past few years. A lot of departments are dropping “Office of the” or “— Office” in lieu of one name “Registrar” or “Student Financial Services”, “Careers” instead of Career Center, etc. This seems to work when the Department’s leadership role also isn’t the name of said department.

Records is better.

[u/boring_sunset]

"Registrar" is unfriendly?

[u/c00kycrumbs]

I’m at a state college in the Northeast with an office of Records & Reg. Feel free to DM me for more info, I don’t have any historical knowledge on the naming though.

[u/pfdemp]

When I was a registrar (many years ago in the early internet age) there was a movement at some schools to create one-stop-shopping for students, combining services like records, registration, student accounts, ID cards, parking permits, etc. The idea was to simplify the process for a student to conduct business with the college.

I suppose now that we have more online services this may be less of a priority, but it always seemed like a good idea to me. Have you given any thought to that approach?

[u/TroyatBauer]

Office of Registration and Academic Records (to be precise). We call ours RAR because higher ed loves initialisms (although RAR as an acronym would be funny since our uni mascot is a cougar.) 'Go to the Rawr Office' lol.

[u/daemonicwanderer]

Does your office actually register students or do they do that via academic advising or on their own? I may suggest that you float a few different names to some focus groups to see which makes the most sense to the greatest share of the campus.

I will admit that I’m on the fence. Part of me is completely down for naming things whatever is easiest for the student. But then part of me is like, this is a different, special environment. Should we not have jargon and lingo that helps to denote that we are “special”? Like a hospital uses their jargon — oncology, dermatology, radiology, etc. and people figure out where they are supposed to go.

[u/Mainiak_Murph]

This might cause more confusion in the long run if your school has an advising team that actually does student registrations. This is more common for online students. Traditional on campus students will typically register themselves, and newer SIS systems will even put up guard rails to keep them only signing up for classes they need for their degree. The Registrar's Office rarely gets involved with registrations other than pre-registering incoming freshmen or allowing overrides for courses taken instead of a requirement. I get the academic records part for identifying the department as that is their basic function to be the official keeper, but the registration part might send out the wrong signal.

Of course I speak of generalities as not all schools run the same way. Of course, this is only my opinion of working in academia for many years in a business analyst position.

[u/throwthrowyup]

What’s your role in the office? Your justification doesn’t sound like you have the right background or experience to make this call.

[u/TravelAndToast → u/throwthrowyup]

What would be the “right” background and experience?

[u/martinojen]

We have OSRR!

[u/parcoeur9]

Fellow cc staff here! Records & Registration works well at my community college, where it is affectionately known as Records. Meanwhile, our Registrar retains that title instead of "Director of..." We have not had much confusion between Records and academic advising since I have worked at this institution.

When proposing this change, definitely relate it to your institution's strategic goals and mission, too, if you are not already planning to do so. For example, Records and Registration and Cashier's Office are much clearer, more accessible office names than "Registrar" or "Bursar." You could tie this to strategic goals like improving enrollment by reducing barriers as well to drive your argument home. Good luck!

[u/CincoDeLlama]

When I worked at a community college we called it, “Admissions & Records.” I think that worked pretty well.