PACRAO Review
http://www.pacrao.org
Volume 2, Number 1
August 2012
Unusual Encounters in Admissions and Registrar Offices:
The Lessons Learned
Amy Flint
Assistant Registrar
Oregon State University
Unusual encounters can be frustrating, stressful, and on occasion even a little
entertaining. This article presumes that there is an inherent educational value as well in
the unusual. By their very hyperbolic nature the unusual encounters of those in our
profession are illustrative of the challenges we face, the innovative solutions we employ,
and in some cases are indicators of the future trajectory of our industry.
Whether you have worked in an Admissions
or Registrar’s office for a short while or a
lengthy career, you have likely encountered
unexpected situations that taxed your
knowledge and resourcefulness in ways that
you had never anticipated. If you have not
yet had such an unusual encounter, we can
say with confidence that given enough time,
you will. Institutions of higher learning
serve a broad spectrum of the population, all
of whom have their own challenges, goals,
and perspectives that shape their interactions
with your institutions. Given the right set of
circumstances these factors can collide in
such a way as to create a perfect storm of
oddity, in which we often find ourselves
embroiled.
Unusual encounters can be frustrating,
stressful, and on occasion even a little
entertaining. This article presumes that
there is an inherent educational value as well
in the unusual. By their very hyperbolic
nature the unusual encounters of those in our
profession are illustrative of the challenges
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we face, the innovative solutions we
employ, and in some cases are indicators of
the future trajectory of our industry.
Thank you to those individuals that
contributed to this article by sharing their
experiences for our edification. We will
evaluate these events, their outcomes, and
what they illustrate about the customers we
serve, the challenges we collectively face in
our profession, and how we might better
manage our interactions. If all else fails, sit
back and enjoy the drama, the mystery, the
comedy, and in some cases, the just plain
baffling experiences of your colleagues.
Case #1: Public records release &
accuracy: Involvement of record keepers
in public debates.
Description of the Incident: We
experienced an incident wherein one of our
students, a famous singer overseas, was the
target of falsehoods being spread by the
owner of an internet café. Amongst the
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Volume 2, Number 1
August 2012
allegations was that the student had not
graduated from our institution, which he
had. The public was inclined to believe this
allegation and it was incumbent upon the
university to assert the truth on behalf of our
student. The event became more
contentious and dramatic when his
detractors called the documents used to
verify his degree, including our electronic
transcript, into question. The student even
published his electronic transcript on the
web to prove his accomplishments. Even in
the face of these documents and direct
statements of support from the institution
many members of the public persisted in
denying the students accomplishments.
Resolution/End Result: This particular
incident may never be fully resolved as long
as people continue to question the academic
integrity of the student and the accuracy of
the university and its officials. However, by
means of support from the university,
documentation, and media coverage the
student has been strongly supported in his
efforts to assert the truth of the situation,
which we can only hope has vindicated him
in the eyes of those that are willing to listen.
Lessons Learned: At first glance it would
appear to be difficult to glean any
overarching lessons from this particularly
unusual situation, but although extreme in
nature this situation highlights several
challenges that we face as stewards of
student data. The accuracy of our data is of
the highest importance, particularly in light
of our responsibility to be able to produce
and stand behind that data in the interest of
our students and the community at large. It
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is equally our duty to refute false claims, as
it is to staunchly defend that which we know
to be true.
Case #2: Parents & FERPA
Description of the Incident: A true to form
uber-helicopter mother began her “phone
campaign” on behalf of her son by starting
each conversation with, “my son is disabled,
he has ADHAD.” She started with the
advising staff, asking them if there was
someone who could wake her son up each
morning, program his phone, escort him to
class, help him do his homework, and “Oh
yes, he also wants to try out for the baseball
team.” Mind you we are NAIA champions
with a coach and team whose standards are
far beyond this boy’s athletic abilities.
Needless to say, when she didn’t get the
response she was looking for (a full-time
babysitter for her 20-year-old son), she
continued her campaign by calling all the
other student services offices. My staff got
to the point where they took turns taking the
mother’s call. If a new work-study started
in the office, guess who got to take the call?
Surprisingly enough, the son was enrolled
yet we continued to hear only from the
mother. Her son was failing this class; her
son was not going to class; who would be in
charge of making her son go to college and
succeed? No one in Student Services EVER
actually saw the student in question, and we
soon began to wonder if this student even
existed.
Resolution/End Result: By the end of the
son’s first year, he ended up failing his
courses and being academically suspended.
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Volume 2, Number 1
August 2012
The institution tried to contact him to offer
resources and support (advising, counseling,
disability services, etc.) but the student
never made contact. The mother started
calling again, this time to try to find out how
her son could transfer to another institution.
We knew that his chances of being admitted
to another institution with such low GPA
would be slim; however, we walked the
mother through the process. Each time we
spoke to the mother we tried to convince her
that her son was the one who needed to take
action. Short of telling her that SHE was the
problem, we did what we could to offer
quality customer service.
Lessons Learned: Stick to the standards
and protocol of the institution. Provide
quality customer service, but beware of the
parents or spouses who try to take over their
loved one’s education. Know FERPA front
and back and try to get the student to take
responsibility for their own educational
success. If you get an over-involved parent
or spouse who likes to call everyone in the
directory, make your colleagues aware of
this person and try to transfer their calls to
one person who knows how, and is willing
to deal with the individual.
Case #3: Back to basics: Record keeping
& retrieval
Description of the Incident: This was early
in my career while serving as Associate
Registrar at UNLV, which was still using
hard-copy transcripts at the time. A student
requested a transcript and we were unable to
locate it under the name provided. Of
course we asked the standard follow-up
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question: Any former or other names? The
student provided a second name, but we
were still unable to locate the transcript. We
repeated the process a couple of more times,
and each time the student provided a
different name. After the fourth name we
initiated an office wide search looking for
misfiled, misplaced or other crossreferenced items that we could use.
Resolution/End Result: Finally we located
a transcript that included some of the names
provided, but that was actually filed under
yet a different name. In fact, this transcript
had seven different names (only in Las
Vegas?) and the student’s response when we
located the transcript was, “I didn’t think I
married him.”
Lessons Learned: Don’t under estimate the
importance of proper tracking and crossreferencing of name changes (be it on paper
or electronic). I’m not sure that even with
today’s systems we would track six name
changes very well. An even more
challenging question to ponder from this
encounter, is how you find them if the
student doesn’t even remember them all.
Case #4: Marketing/Appreciation: Fraud
detection?
Description of the Incident: A few years
ago we began sending out thank you letters
to people who submitted letters of
recommendation on behalf of applicants to
our programs. The idea was to keep our
school on their radar, and to further promote
what we do. These letters typically go out
right after the admissions decisions have
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August 2012
been made. Two years ago I received a real
surprise – emails from not one but two
recipients of our letter, contacting me to say
that they had not written any such
recommendation.
Resolution/End Result: Further
investigation revealed that two applicants
(who had been accepted into the program)
had submitted forged or doctored letters.
Their acceptances were withdrawn.
Lessons Learned: Sometimes you can
create a goodwill gesture and a policing
mechanism in the same effort.
Case #5: Denial & Parents: Journey to
the truth
Description of the Incident: A student and
her parents came to my office to discuss
their concerns over the grades their daughter
had received, which is not an unusual event,
however in this instance the student denied
having ever enrolled in or attended any of
the courses on her record. As the
conversation progressed the student
doggedly insisted that she didn’t know how
she had gotten registered in “those” classes
and that she didn’t earn “those” grades
(needless to say they were not good grades).
The parents of the student insisted that our
system must have been hacked because their
daughter would not lie. I was certain that
the student was being dishonest and was
desperate to hide the truth from her parents
and I provided her with several opportunities
to come clean. However, she and her parents
continued to be adamant in their denial.
There was no point in continuing what had
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become a circular conversation, so I told the
family that I would conduct a thorough
investigation and contact them with the
results. Once the family departed I decided
to fill in the university Registrar on the
situation. He recommended that I complete
the investigation including showing her
picture to instructors to get confirmation that
she was in fact in attendance in the courses
she was enrolled in. As expected, the
investigation revealed that she was
recognized by her instructors, had attend the
courses, turned in some assignments, and
had earned the grades she received. Upon
sharing this with the Registrar he decided to
meet with the family himself. The student
signed a release form to allow her parents to
speak with us. The Registrar began by
speaking with the student’s parents
separately first and convincing them not
only of the truth of the situation, but also of
the daughter’s desperate desire not to
disappoint or worry them. After convincing
the parents of the truth, the daughter was
brought into the conversation and although
she initially continued her denial she did
finally admit the truth of the situation. They
left our office determined to take their
daughter home and do whatever was
necessary to help her work through this and
move forward.
Resolution/End Result: Having faced the
situation the parents were appreciative of
our efforts and supportive of their daughters
need for assistance. Several weeks later the
student called to apologize for putting us
through the ordeal. She indicated that she
and her family were working to get her back
on the right track. It was gratifying to learn
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Volume 2, Number 1
August 2012
that our intervention had helped this student
and her family come together, face the truth,
and move forward together.
Lessons Learned: Going the extra mile to
track down the facts is vital when preparing
to have a difficult or contentious
conversation. Also, it is important to take a
holistic approach to the individual(s)
involved (or family in this case). By
emphasizing to the parents that their
daughter’s behavior was a misguided
manifestation of her love and caring for
them, the Registrar was able to drive the
conversation in a direction that emphasized
the bond of the family, which was critical to
mitigating their reaction and providing a
positive focus for the situation. We were
satisfied with the role we played because we
were able to temper our need to serve the
needs and integrity of the institution, with
our desire to serve the overarching
emotional and academic needs of this
student and her family.
Thank you to the following individuals for
submitting their stories in support of this
article and for the edification of their
colleagues:
Thomas C. Black, Associate Vice Provost
for Student Affairs & University Registrar,
Stanford University, CA
Amy Flint, Assistant Registrar, Oregon
State University, OR
JJ Jackman, Admissions Director, SCIArc, CA
Kent Kuo, Director of Enterprise
Computing, Oregon State University, OR
Nikol Luther, Director of
Admission/Registrar, Lewis-Clark State
College, OR
Steve Neiheisel, Assistant VP Enrollment
Management, University of Idaho, ID
Amy Flint is an Assistant Registrar of Operations at Oregon State University
(Corvallis, OR). Previously, Amy was also the Veterans Certifying Official and
Team Lead for the Office of the Registrar at Oregon State University. She has
been a PACRAO member for three years and serves on the PACRAO Review
Editorial Board. She holds a bachelors degree in History from Oregon State
University. She is the parent of two wonderful teenage children (Jason and
Kimberly).
© 2012 Amy Flint. The text of this article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0
License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
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