NEAIR Newsletter Summer 1997
NEAIR President: Jennifer Brown
Newsletter Editors: Fred Cohen, Ellen Kanarek
Next Edition: Summer/Fall 1997
If you have news to contribute (and all contributions are gladly accepted),
please send them to the Editor, at Fred.Cohen@NYU.EDU or:
Fred Cohen
Director Enrollment Research and Analysis
New York University
7 East 12th Street Suite 615
New York, NY 10003-4475
Table of Contents:
President's Corner
Review of NEAIR's 1996 Conference
Princeton Conference's Closing Session
NEAIR Research Grants Program
NEAIR Mailing List Update
Top 10 Signs That You Have Overdosed on the World Wide Web
Plans Are Being Made for NEAIRs 1997 Conference - And We Want to Include
YOU!!
The Internet Corner: Let Your Agent Handle It...
Current Membership Statistics
NEAIR web site
Confessions of an NEAIR Conference Grant Recipient
NEAIR Distinguished Service Award
Calling all pack rats
President's Corner by Jennifer Brown
Spring already! Is it just me, or is time flying by faster than ever these
days? We just held our spring Steering Committee meeting on May 2 in Philadelphia.
The results of the Steering Committees work and the results of the meeting
will be found throughout the Newsletter, so I encourage you to take a few
moments to catch up with NEAIR activities in these pages.
Before moving on to new business, let me mention a bit of old business.
What a terrific conference in Princeton! Thanks to Ellen Kanarek and her
excellent selection of Barbara Palmer as program chair and Eleanor Swanson
as local arrangements chair, the conference was great. These folks did a
lot of work to make the conference happen but without the rest of you, their
work would have been for naught. Thanks to all those who participated in
submitting papers and workshops and workshares, in presenting papers and
workshops and workshares, in attending sessions, in moderating sessions,
in making new friends, in encouraging colleagues, and in having a good laugh
about life in IR. All of you made the conference the friendly and supportive
environment we look forward to each year.
Speaking of which, the 1997 conference will be held in Hartford, Connecticut
from November 1 to November 4, 1997. Bob Yanckello (local arrangements chair)
and Denise Krallman (program chair) will explain more elsewhere in this
Newsletter. Meanwhile, start your file marked "NEAIR 97" and scribble
a few ideas to throw in it about roundtables, presentations, workshares,
workshops or panels you would like to present. We will be depending on you
to make the program what you want it to be! The Call for Papers is included
in this mailing.
By now, you should all have received your Proceedings from the 1996 conference.
Many thanks to Publications Chair Corby Coperthwaite, for her efficient,
timely and careful work in preparing the volume. And thanks to all who submitted
papers for inclusion. The Steering Committee has been a busy bunch of people
on behalf of NEAIR over the last few months. Jim Fergerson has been working
on the NEAIR web site. Members of the Steering Committee have had a chance
to click on it and enthusiastically endorse proceeding with the site. See
Jims article on how you can get there! Bob Yanckello and Denise Krallman
are especially pleased as they will be putting a lot of information on the
1997 conference on the site.
Jim Trainer initiated an NEAIR Steering Committee listserv (over the objections
of your Luddite president) and it has turned out to be a most useful thing!
If any of you have items you think the SC ought to discuss, please send
them along to an SC member who can post the material.
Member and former president Mike McGuire initiated a good deal of SC discussion
with a proposal that NEAIR develop a Distinguished Service Award. We distributed
drafts and assembled suggestions and voted to approve this wonderful new
program at our meeting. More details are included in this newsletter.
You have also all received, and 114 of you responded to, the NEAIR assessment
survey developed by Craig Clagett (reviewed by Ellen Kanarek and myself).
Craig shared some very interesting preliminary results with the SC and will
be presenting the information at the 1997 conference. Your opinions will
guide the decisions of the SC, and we thank all of you who took the time
to respond to the survey.
The term of our Treasurer, Wendell Lorang, ends on June 30, 1997, and Rebecca
Brodigan, your newly elected Treasurer, takes office. We thank Wendell for
all his work on behalf of NEAIR. He has consistently gone beyond the call
of duty and always with great good humor.
The Nominating Committee, headed by Immediate Past President Ellen Kanarek,
is preparing for the1997 elections of officers and Steering Committee members
at large. You should have received the Call for Nominations by the time
this Newsletter reaches you. Volunteer yourself and your friends. This is
a wonderful organization to serve and you should take advantage of the opportunity!
So, enjoy all the news in these pages, participate when you can, and enjoy
spring and summer. By the way, I have been trying to develop an IR toast.
Hows this? May our professional lives bring us all attentive colleagues
who care about coding and data quality, who appreciate the full range of
our expertise and who never met an IR person they didn't like!!
Jennifer Brown
Executive Officer for Academic Affairs and Research
Connecticut State University System
[TOP]
Review of NEAIR's 1996 Conference
The 1996 NEAIR Forum, held at the Nassau Inn in Princeton, New Jersey, was
an outstanding success! Thanks are due to many people for their hard work:
Barbara Palmer put together an outstanding program, grouping many sessions
by theme. The closing panel, Thoughts of Ones Own, chaired by Jack Dunn
and featuring Terry Hartle of ACE and Richard Spies, Financial Vice President
of Princeton University, was one of the highest rated general sessions ever
held.
Eleanor Swanson compiled a tremendous amount of local information, including
maps, shopping guides, running/walking routes, and restaurant lists. There
were only a few groups that went out together for dinner on Monday night
-- a sign that most people made their own connections and felt comfortable
walking out to one of the many restaurants located within a few blocks of
the hotel.
Brenda Bretz led the "Fun Runs" and provided, as always, friendly
and practical advice about NEAIR.
George Gallup, Jr. was the speaker for the opening session, and gave us
some insight on how the world-renowned Gallup Organization conducts research.
We were all interested to hear that the survey refusal rate seems to be
rising everywhere! Marc Abrahams, of the Annals of Improbable Research,
drove down from Boston to give us myriad examples of research that cannot
or should not be reproduced. He told me he thought he had found several
candidates for future publication in his AIR!
Marian Pagano and Marge Wiseman coordinated the mentor program this year,
and managed to get all interested parties paired up at the conference. If
anyone is interested in being either end of a mentor relationship, let us
know.
Last, and far from least, all the presenters did an outstanding job. Personally,
I thought the sessions I attended this year were far and away the best I
have heard in several years. As usual, the two statistics workshops and
the Newcomers workshop received very high marks, as did the Web Basics workshop,
offered for the first time this year and without benefit of a live connection.
I hope those of you who attended the Forum went home invigorated and enthused,
and that those who were unable to attend will benefit from the conference
Proceedings. I thank all of you who helped make my year as President so
enjoyable and rewarding, and I look forward to seeing you all in Hartford
next fall!
-- Ellen Kanarek
[TOP]
Princeton Conference's Closing Session
In a change from recent practice, this year's NEAIR Conference closed with
an invited Plenary Session. In the session entitled "Thoughts of One's
Own: Speculations about What the Future Holds for Higher Education and Implications
for the Practice of Institutional Research," three higher education
experts shared their thoughts on the future of higher education and the
work we do in institutional research.
Terry Hartle, Vice President for Governmental Relations at the American
Council of Education, began the session by discussing the impending reauthorization
of the Higher Education Act, as well as the development of the Clinton Administration's
HOPE Scholarship program and tuition tax credit plan. He said that it is
an interesting time inside the beltway in that while many things are being
discussed there seems to be little clear vision as to how certain proposals
may work and what they may ultimately accomplish.
Particularly troubling is the notion that some of the scholarship options
being discussed include awarding certain federal aid based on merit at the
secondary level. While on the surface such a plan may seem to make sense
(rewarding students who have already done well and have shown potential
for continued success), it raises a plethora of questions. For instance,
a Clinton proposal which would require that students must have maintained
a "B" average in high school to be eligible for certain aid awards
certainly will ignite arguments over what's a "B" and whether
a "B" at high school X is equivalent to a "B" at high
school Y. In addition, questions have been raised as to how this grade-dependent
eligibility would be monitored. In a development that many in education
find troublesome, some parties have suggested that the IRS might be the
appropriate entity to gather such information.
Richard Spies shared with the group a view of the future from his vantage
as Financial Vice President at Princeton. Among the items Spies discussed
were the need to: find ways to maintain institutional financial viability
while containing tuition costs; continue commitments to providing financial
aid; keep pace with technology; manage diversity at all levels; create true
living and learning environments for students; and respond to the life-long
learning needs of graduates. As technological advances continue to promote
rapid change in both what we do and how we think about what we do, it is
increasingly important that students receive a strong liberal or general
education in order to be prepared to continue to develop, learn, and adapt
throughout their lifetimes.
Finally, Jack Dunn, former president of NEAIR and Dean College (and a recent
SCUP lifetime achievement award winner), shared with us his thoughts from
the perspective of a strong proponent of institutional planning. Dunn examined
a variety of educational issues against a backdrop of economic, demographic,
sociologic and governmental forces, and encouraged us to question whether
our individual and collective institutions were prepared to respond to meet
the needs of the future. He argued that without adaptation certain segments
of higher education might find themselves and their missions obsolete. Dunn
suggested that the value of institutional research professionals will increase
if we can develop our abilities to help our institutions look toward and
adapt for the future. Unless institutional researchers are willing to become
change agents, he suggested, we, too, may find ourselves obsolete.
This session provided a strong close to an excellent conference. From my
perspective, it was refreshing to have the opportunity to think about our
work in a broader context. It seems to me that far too often we get bogged
down in the day-to-day technological aspects of our jobs and, in turn, possibly
"fail to see the forest for the trees." Whether or not one agreed
with opinions offered at this session, I believe few found the session less
than thought provoking. In a sense, the session provided a complementary
bookend to a conference which began with George Gallup, Jr. addressing the
potential use of survey research to empower social change. Our thanks go
out to outgoing NEAIR president Ellen Armstrong Kanarek, conference program
chair Barbara Palmer, local arrangements chair Eleanor Swanson, and plenary
session moderator Sandy Johnson for facilitating the conference's capstone
event.
[TOP]
NEAIR Research Grants Program
The purpose of the Research Grants Program is to support professional development
opportunities for NEAIR members either through 1) attendance and participation
at international IR meetings or domestic professional meetings of related
non-IR disciplines; or 2) collaborative research with colleagues from other
countries, or research in this country on important IR issues that are under-represented
in meeting programs, literature, or because of institutional resource constraints.
The grants, which range from a maximum of $800 for an individual conference
grant to $1000 for an individual research grant, are awarded based on their
merit and value to NEAIR and to the profession.
Grant recipients are required to report on their findings to NEAIR members.
Accordingly, at the NEAIR conference in Princeton this past fall Fred Volkwein
presented the findings of his study, The Dynamics of State Regulation and
Administrative Flexibility. The most recent recipient, Mike McGuire, describes
his experience elsewhere in this Newsletter. It is important to note that
ALL ACTIVE NEAIR members are eligible for this program. All applicants should
submit a proposal by September 1, 1997 to:
Peter Murray
Executive Director and CIO Center for Planning and Info.Technology
200 Leahy Hall
The Catholic University of America
Cardinal Station Post Office
Washington, D.C. 20064
Also note that there are two proposal review periods and two submission
deadlines each year. They are March 1 and September 1. This
grants program is an opportunity for any member of NEAIR to have his or
her research or conference attendance supported by NEAIR. The Research Grants
Committee encourages those of you who are interested in having your research
or conference attendance supported by NEAIR to submit a proposal. Please
contact Peter Murray (murraryp@cua.edu) if you have any questions about
this program.
--Peter Murray
[TOP]
NEAIR Mailing List Update
NEAIR-L, the mailing list of the NorthEast Association for Institutional
Research, has had a change in hardware and software platforms. All current
subscribers were automatically moved; no action needs to be taken to rejoin.
But for those who have yet to join their colleagues on this discussion forum,
here are the instructions on how to join:
To join NEAIR-L, simply send an e-mail message to LISTPROC@LISTS.NYU.EDU
The subject line of the message should be blank, and the message should
contain a single line
SUBSCRIBE NEAIR-L your name
where you substitute your first and last names for "your name".
Once you have joined the list, to send a message to the other list members
simply send an e-mail message to:
NEAIR-L@LISTS.NYU.EDU.
Please do NOT send subscription requests to the NEAIR-L address.
[TOP]
From the Internet: Top 10 Signs That You Have Overdosed
on the World Wide We
10. Your opening line is: "So, what's your homepage address?"
9. You see a beautiful sunset, and you expect to see "Enhanced for
Netscape" on one of the clouds.
8. You are overcome with disbelief, anger, and finally depressed acceptance
when you encounter a webpage with no links.
7. You felt driven to consult the "Cool Page of the Day" on your
wedding day.
6. One of your best friends is Mirsky, and you've never met him.
5. You are driving on a dark and rainy night when you hydroplane on a puddle,
sending your car careening towards the flimsy guardrail that separates you
from the precipice of a rocky cliff and certain death, and you desperately
look for the "Back" button.
4. You visit "The Really Big Button That Doesn't Do Anything"
again and again and again.
3. Your dog has his own webpage.
2. So does your hamster.
And the number one sign that you have overdosed on the World Wide Web: 1.
When you read a magazine, you have an irresistible urge to click on the
underlined passages.
[TOP]
|
Conference Dates |
|
1997 |
November 1 - 4 |
Hartford, CT |
1998 |
November 14 - 17 |
Philadelphia, PA |
Plans Are Being Made for NEAIRs 1997 Conference
- And We Want to Include YOU!!
Program Chair - Denise Krallman
The 1997 NEAIR Conference is looking for 'more than a few' good IRs!!! Do
you have an idea for a workshop? A workshare? An interesting research question?
Now is the time to begin formulating these ideas into possible presentations
for the 1997 NEAIR Conference. The Call for Proposals is enclosed with your
Newsletter! Deadline is June 30.
The Conference theme this year is Accountability and Institutional Research:
So Many Wants ,So Many Rules What is the Solution? If you have any suggestions
or ideas on ways to add to the high quality of our yearly program please
drop Denise Krallman a line or two (krallmda@muohio.edu). ALL IDEAS ARE
WELCOME!!!!!
Local Arrangements Chair Bob Yanckello
As Spring grudgingly comes to New England and the plants start to bloom
we begin our planning for the 1997 conference. We have reviewed your evaluations
and appreciate the thoughtful comments we received.
Our 1997 host, the Sheraton Hartford Hotel, is conveniently located
beside the Civic Center Mall, and is just a few steps away from the Bushnell
Theater, the old State House, and the Wadsworth Atheneum museum. Other points
of interest include the Mark Twain House, the Harriet Beecher Stowe residence,
and the Hartford Stage.
Hartford is a good convention location, easily reached by trains, planes
and automobiles, and we hope that you will mark your calendars right now
for what is expected to be one of the friendliest and most useful regional
IR meetings. Anyone wishing to volunteer to help with local arrangements
should contact Bob Yanckello at yanckello@ccsu.edu, or by phone at (860)
832-1782.
Coming Attraction! 1997 NEAIR Hartford Conference Web Site! Look for the
URL in the next edition of the Newsletter!
[TOP]
The Internet Corner: Let Your Agent Handle It...
With the Internet doubling in size several times a year, it is difficult
for anyone to determine what resources among this enormous glut of information
are worth using. I'll use this space in future issues of the NEAIR newsletter
to try to point out some of the best resources available on the web. Let's
begin by talking about a few new tools that automate the process of resource
discovery.
One of the most useful trends in the past year has been the arrival of "personal
agents". Internet agents are web pages and software tools which allow
you to customize the way you view the Internet. Agents act as intelligent
filters that sort through the web and suggest for your review only those
items which may interest you. You simply call up the agent software or web
page, tell it about your particular interests, and the agent does the work
of searching the web and collecting just the news and items that suit your
needs. The software scans the internet for any items that meet your criteria,
and gathers them together in the manner of your choosing. You can decide
to visit the home page of your agent, have the agent send you e-mail alerts
or web pages to browse, or you can have a constant stream of news projected
across your computer monitor.
Here are a few of the best, with a short summary of features. For best results,
use your web browser to check them out directly.
CRAYON. Among the oldest of personal agents, CRAYON
stands for "CReAte Your Own Newspaper". You select from a menu
of possible news services, choose the order in which you want them to appear,
give the paper a name, and CRAYON generates a custom newspaper which presents
you each day with just the news you wish to view. You can save your daily
newspaper as a bookmark in your web browser or as a link on your personal
web page. For example, I can choose to read headlines of USA Today, then
hop over and listen to an audio feed of the latest "All Things Considered"
from National Public Radio, and finish by scanning my favorite stocks, sports
scores, and comic strips. (Actually, the paper itself does not change; CRAYON
sends you a list of personalized hyperlinks to your favorite sites. Selecting
a link provides a direct connection to the most recent update of that news
source, anywhere on the planet.)
Mercury Mail. Too busy to reach out on the net for
news? Then have it delivered to you. Mercury Mail sends the news features
you select directly to your email box. While messages are only plain text
and lack the multimedia glitz of web pages, the service offers a wide variety
of news, sports, local weather, stocks, and TV and entertainment reports.
There's even a reminder service, and you get to choose when your paper is
delivered. I have the local weather report delivered several times a day.
In-box Direct. In-box direct
is similar to Mercury Mail, but instead of text, it sends browsable web
pages directly to your mailbox, according to your instructions. These pages
may include pictures, video, audio, Java, animation, etc. (You must be using
the Netscape Navigator browser to use this service.)
The Informant. The Informant saves your
favorite keyword queries and addresses of your favorite web pages, checks
them periodically, and sends you email whenever there are new or updated
web pages. Want to know whenever a new Institutional Research page appears
on the web? Need to know each time Al Gore adds a link to his web site?
The Informant is the right tool.
My Yahoo!. Yahoo!, one of the most popular internet
search engines, has a growing number of spin-off pages, including the My
Yahoo! personal search engine. Using a simple point and click system, you
can set up personal page that stores 12 direct links to your favorite Yahoo!
subject menus. The agent also provides a page where you can store a collection
of 12 personalized key word searches and a collection of links to your favorite
web sites. In effect, you can create your own subject menu. I've set up
buttons which do searches for information about my institution and for new
links that would match my tastes for obscure Celtic music groups. My Yahoo!
also allows you to switch among custom pages which contain your favorite
links to news services, financial information, book reviews, and software.
Firefly. The My Yahoo! pages provide a direct link
to Firefly, which is a service that asks you a series of questions about
your favorite entertainers and performers. The more you tell the agent,
the more it learns about your preferences. It quickly starts making excellent
recommendations about other movies and music you will enjoy, and offers
to let you listen to sound clips from albums. Whenever you favorite groups
put out a new CD, Firefly sends you a message (and then offers to sell you
the disk.) Firefly also provides each user with a small private home page,
and there is a chat area where members can talk online others with similar
tastes. Firefly also recommends web pages that may be of interest.
Pointcast and AfterDark Online. .
Finally, your personal agent can even take control of your desktop computer.
Software which can be downloaded from Pointcast and AfterDark Online acts
as a screensaver when installed. When your computer monitor is inactive
for a period time the screen blanks out, and the software takes over the
screen to display a steady stream of scrolling and animated news items.
Features include a stock ticker, weather maps, USA Today, financial news,
sports scores, and more. The information you select is downloaded from the
internet to your machine several times a day or as frequently as you want.
Pointcast and AfterDark Online are among the most attractive and advanced
personal agents, but if configured improperly, they may put a heavy load
on the campus network.
A word of caution. While most popular internet agents are free of charge,
they do not necessary come without strings attached. Most ask you to provide
some basic personal information as you register. (You may be asked to supply
a private username and password so that only you can have access to your
private area.) Some agents guarantee that any information will be kept absolutely
private. Many agents earn income by sending a stream of advertisements across
your screen. Some are more aggressive and make money by keeping a record
of the kinds of information you like to view, the types of ads you scan,
and your network access habits. You may notice that the ads you see are
also being aimed at your personal tastes. This information can be collected
in a database which can be sold to other marketers. Let the buyer beware.
by Jim Fergerson jfergers@abacus.bates.edu
Institutional Research web site: http://www.bates.edu/IR/IR.html
[TOP]
Current Membership Statistics:
| |
1995 |
1996 |
| Conference attendees |
162 |
179 |
| First-time attendees |
60 |
50 |
| Total members |
286 |
288 |
| Public Institution |
122 |
125 |
| Private Institution |
152 |
150 |
| Agency/Consulant/Company |
12 |
13 |
| New York |
65 |
75 |
| Pennsylvania |
66 |
58 |
| Massachusetts |
48 |
39 |
| New Jersey |
23 |
38 |
| Connecticut |
21 |
18 |
| Maryland |
17 |
12 |
| District of Columbia |
10 |
12 |
| Rhode Island |
7 |
9 |
| New Hampshire |
9 |
8 |
| Delaware |
5 |
4 |
| Vermont |
2 |
4 |
| Ohio |
3 |
3 |
| Texas |
1 |
2 |
| Maine |
2 |
1 |
| Minnesota |
2 |
1 |
| Louisiana |
0 |
1 |
| Michigan |
0 |
1 |
| Virginia |
1 |
0 |
| Ontario |
4 |
1 |
| Guam |
0 |
1 |
submitted by Brenda Bretz
[TOP]
NEAIR Web Site
NEAIR now has a small, but growing home on the web! Although the web site
is still very much under development, you may reach it at:
http://www.bates.edu/IR/NEAIR/
A web working group was appointed at the Steering Committee meeting held
after the Princeton conference last November. Corby Coperthwaite, Jim Fergerson,
Peter Murray, and Bob Yanckello are members. Jim Fergerson did the initial
design, and Bates College is generously hosting the site. The web working
group will continue to develop the site, add more NEAIR documents and publications,
and write a policy for web site administration.
The site includes a list of past NEAIR conferences, and information on NEAIR
governance and policies. You may now send mail to any member of the 1996-97
Steering Committee through the links at:
http://www.bates.edu/IR/NEAIR/governance.96.97.html.
The Membership page contains pointers for contacting our membership secretary,
and for posting directly to the neair-l discussion list. The NEAIR Newsletter
is also available.
The Resources for Institutional Research section provides a gateway to institutional
research offices and factbooks throughout the country, and to John Milams
excellent Electronic Resources for Institutional Research page. A search
form links you to a variety of Internet search engines. The Toolbox for
Institutional Researchers page contains a growing collection of handy links
dealing with Internet helps, spreadsheet assistance, and personal agents.
The site also includes direct links to the Association for Institutional
Research and sixteen other regional institutional research bodies.
Information about the upcoming Hartford conference will be posted as it
becomes available.
Please visit the site, check it out, and contact any member of the web working
group with your suggestions!
[TOP]
Confessions of an NEAIR Conference Grant Recipient Mike
McGuire
In March I had the good fortune to attend the 10th Annual Meeting of the
Britain and Ireland Association for Institutional Research (BI-AIR) in Blagdon,
a small village about 20 miles south of Bristol, England. This happy experience
was made possible by an NEAIR Conference Grant, one of the most valuable
if least used of the professional development opportunities offered by our
association. If you have the interest and can find the time, I strongly
encourage you to apply for one of these grants.
BI-AIR is a relatively new and small organization, but they put on a great
conference. Colleagues from England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland
were in attendance. I was the only Yank there but was not persecuted for
this in spite of my frequent references to how badly King George screwed
things up in the 1770;s. My Redcoat jokes (e.g., How many Redcoats does
it take to screw in a lightbulb?) were met by tight but polite smiles, just
one example of the many courtesies I was shown over there.
The theme of the conference was Gearing up for Dearing, a reference to the
National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education chaired by Sir Ron Dearing.
The Dearing Commission, as it is known, may in fact send shock waves through
further and higher education in the U.K. when the Commission announces its
findings and recommendations this summer. Conference attendees did not seem
overly concerned, however, as their institutions already appear to be in
a constant state of reform, renewal, and budgetary distress. Life after
Dearing cant get much more interesting than it currently is.
There are many similarities between contemporary higher education in the
U.S. and the U.K., upon which I will elaborate at the 1997 NEAIR annual
meeting in Hartford. Certainly one of the strongest themes of the BI-AIR
conference was the collaboration between Further Education or FE (similar
to our community colleges, with which Sir Ron is apparently enamored) and
Higher Education or HE (similar to our four-year sectors, especially our
regional public universities). Access to post-secondary (or post-compulsory,
in British terminology) education has expanded enormously since the Second
World War, prior to which higher education had been dominated by a few highly
selective universities. In modern times institutions are attempting to establish,
often with a great deal of success, collaborative programs on a regional
basis. Eliminating duplicative programs, promoting the efficient use of
resources, and managing the progression of students over time and programs
(i.e., maximizing student retention and facilitating lifelong learning)
are common goals, as is the development of distance learning and other technology-enhanced
delivery systems. Sound familiar? Institutional research is viewed as an
important player in the support of strategic planning and management, program
review, and resource allocation. Most of the conference attendees were not
in IR per se, but many of their duties had a distinctly IR flavor. Their
titles included Assistant Principal, Deputy Principal, Vice Principal, Higher
Education and Access Manager, Senior Curriculum Manager, and Inspector.
In summary, the Conference Grant experience was extremely rewarding. If
you would like to learn more about BI-AIR and FE/HE in the U.K. (in the
world of acronyms, the U.S. is definitely an underdeveloped nation), please
get in touch with me or check out my paper at NEAIR in November. Finally,
many thanks to the Grants Review Committee and Steering Committee of NEAIR
for making my BI-AIR attendance possible.
[TOP]
NEAIR Distinguished Service Award
The NEAIR Distinguished Service Award is a meaningful recognition bestowed
only on those persons who have made significant and substantial contributions
to the field of institutional research, to the professional development
of NEAIR colleagues, and to the vitality and success of NEAIR as an organization
over a period of years. The Distinguished Service Award is to be made no
more than once a year. The award is not required to be given annually. The
award is honorary, and shall be presented during the annual meeting of the
Association. The Distinguished Service Award is not to be used simply to
recognize persons retiring from active service in institutional research.
Emeritus Membership status is the more appropriate recognition of service
in this case.
Criteria for Award:
The candidate should have been an active member of NEAIR for 10 or more
years, not necessarily continuously. Significant and substantial contributions
may include, but are not limited to: NEAIR Steering Committee membership,
elected office, and other governance appointments (e.g., task force and/or
advisory group service); regular paper and/or panel presentations at the
NEAIR annual meeting; author and/or editor responsibilities for NEAIR publications;
and significant involvement in mentorship/ collegial activities. The sum
of the recipient's relevant accomplishments in the Association shall be
judged by the Steering Committee to have made highly meaningful contributions
to the professional development of NEAIR members and to the advancement
of the field of institutional research and its knowledge base over a significant
period of years.
Procedures for Selection:
Members of NEAIR will submit nominations to the President of the Association
by February 1, using the official nomination form and providing supporting
documentation as requested. The President of designee will obtain whatever
additional information on the nominee is necessary and prepare materials
for distribution to the Steering Committee. The Steering Committee will
review the nominations and vote to select one or none of them each year.
Selection requires an affirmative vote by two-thirds of the Steering Committee
members officially convened in person at the spring meeting. Notification
will be sent to the individual selected and to the persons who nominated
them by the President or designee within two weeks of the Steering Committee
meeting. If necessary, notice will also be sent by the President or designee
to nominees who are not selected, congratulating them on their nomination
and noting that they can be re-nominated in subsequent years. The President,
the Program Chair, and the Local Arrangements Chair will work out an appropriate
time for the award ceremony during the Annual Meeting. Nominators may be
asked to help in presenting the award. The recipient of the Distinguished
Service Award will receive lifetime membership in the Association, and an
engraved plaque.
The next deadline for nominations for this award will be February 1,
1998. It is not too soon to start collecting information in support
of the nominees who sprang to mind as you read this article!
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Calling All Pack Rats:
Have you been collecting NEAIR Newsletters since they were created on an
electric typewriter? Do you have pictures of karaoke participants that ought
to be kept under lock and key (the pictures, not the participants)? Do you
have copies of miscellaneous NEAIR "Calls", letters, surveys,
registration forms, etc. whose existence would save some poor Program Chair
from having to retype the wheel? Brenda Bretz, NEAIR's incomparable Membership
Secretary, has recently added NEAIR Archivist to her collection of hats,
and is eager to have materials to archive. PLEASE check your files and send
her anything related to NEAIR that you have. You don't even have to worry
about evaluating its worth; Brenda will do that. Note that the 1988 conference
in Philadelphia will be our 25th, so some of these materials may be suitable
for an interesting historical display.
Brenda will take the materials in any format, paper or electronic. Contact
her at bretz@dickinson.edu to let her know what you have.
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This URL: http://www.bates.edu/IR/NEAIR/news/newsletter.summer97.html
rev. 7/1/97 JCF