| Pacific Association of Collegiate Registrars & Admissions Officers |
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Dear ,
Welcome to the Winter 2025 edition of the PACRAO Newsletter! This edition has a great mix of both celebrating what we have done and looking ahead to the future.
It feels...well, weird to be the one writing this newsletter message. I still occasionally can't believe I'm here as your president. But then I see my emails and to-do items on my calendar, and believe me, I believe!!
Things have been busy behind the scenes -- we've signed a partnership agreement with AACRAO, updated to a new online banking interface (which was not fun), and held the Winter Board Meeting (and conference site tour) in Spokane at the end of January.
From that meeting, I can say two things with confidence: Spokane is a really fun place to visit; and your PACRAO Board, Conference Chairs, and Conference committees are amazing! The creativity, practicality, enthusiasm, and just plain hard work put in over the weekend as we both planned the upcoming conference and handled the "business" of PACRAO was impressive. A key focus of the Board this year is looking at how to set the organization on a path toward a sustainable financial future, and I think some great seeds toward that goal were planted at the meeting.
One item that came out of that meeting was a membership survey that we are going to be sending out shortly to all PACRAO members. Please -- help us gather a vibrant bouquet of your thoughts by completing the survey when it arrives in your in-box. I promise -- it's not too long! (And yes...I will be making plant and flower-based references throughout the year. Our 2025 Conference theme is Bloom! I'm obligated.)
With that, I'll leave you with the first of many...Spokane Fun Facts!
Tina Miller PACRAO President
Senior Associate Registrar / University of Washington
P.S. There's another Spokane Fun Fact in Sue's "From the Archives" article. |
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Spokane Fun Fact 1: Spokane has a Garbage Goat! This sculpture in the Riverfront Park (right by the conference center and hotel) will suck a piece of trash right out of your hand! |
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Honorary Member Todd McCollum
Emerging Leader Christine Lee PACRAO Impact Award Marc Booker |
ACCESS THE CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS |
Thank you to our fabulous conference presenters! Materials are available for the membership to review/utilize on the PACRAO website. |
| A Special Thank You to our 2024 Conference SPONSORS!! Platinum: CourseLeaf · Paradigm Inc · Parchment
Gold: CollegeNET, Inc · CollegeSource, Inc · Coursedog · HighPoint Technology Solutions · International Education Evaluations · National Student Clearinghouse · Softdocs Silver:
Educational Credential Evaluators · The Grad Team · Infosilem | Berger-Levrault · Stellic · Workday
Active:
BMI Imaging Systems |
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2025 Conference Save the Date:
November 9-12, 2025 |
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Come bloom with your colleagues in Spokane, Washington during four days of learning, sharing, and connecting! |
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Meet your 2025 Conference Chairs |
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Michael Pastore 2025 Local Arrangements Chair University of Puget Sound LAC@pacrao.org |
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Have a great idea for a PACRAO 2025 session? Submit it early and save $60! Session proposals for P24 will open on March 5, 2025! The first 25 presenters with accepted sessions will receive a discount of $60 from the annual meeting registration! |
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Diversity Development Committee Updates |
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At the conference, PACRAO Gives Back supported Rainier Scholars; the organization supports students most underrepresented on college campuses: Multi-Generational African American, African immigrant, Hispanic/Latinx, Asian, Pacific Islander and Native American students who have the greatest number of barriers to achieving a college degree. Approximately 90% of their program participants are from families who qualify as low-income. 90% of their program participants are from households without a four-year college degree.
We are pleased to announce that PACRAO raised $1,000 for this great organization, and PACRAO members wrote 55 letters of support to the scholars that the organization supports! |
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SUPPORTING STUDENTS AMID THE NEW ADMINISTRATION |
Are there any resources that you have found helpful as you are navigating through the changes with the new administration? Please feel free to send them our way: .
The Diversity Development Committee is devoted to helping you support our most at-risk students. The DDC found several articles that may help you to understand the issues your students and institutions may be facing, and may help to provide insight on how to navigate the waters moving forward:
vp-dd@pacrao.org
In addition to the resources shared above, we want to remind you of the PACRAO Diversity & Inclusion Resources Page. The Diversity & Inclusion Resources page provides recommendations for books, articles, podcasts, videos/films, websites, and more to help our membership stay informed on various diversity, equity, and inclusion issues and topics.
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In the past the Diversity Development Committee has hosted a book club session at the annual conference. This past year, Sarah Pishny-Foster and Laura Schonberger hosted a discussion on He/She/They by Schuyler Bailar. The session was well-attended and generated a lot of great discussion.
This led the committee to have a conversation about increasing the number of books we read each year, and having sessions between conferences. By making the DDC Book Club year-round, we are hoping to provide more opportunities for our members to be able to participate in content. Having three different books each year means that there are more potential opportunities for individuals to find content that they are interested in engaging with (we anticipate reading fiction and non-fiction throughout the year). We also plan to give away a limited number of books ahead of each session to ensure a larger number of members can read the book and participate. As with all of our previous book clubs, the recommendation is that you have read the book, but it is not a requirement. Stay tuned for more information on how to get involved!
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JOIN THE DIVERSITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE |
Are you interested in helping to make PACRAO more equitable? Are you passionate about issues and activities relevant to equity, diversity and inclusion?
Email VP-DD@pacrao.org to get involved! |
| SUBMIT DIVERSITY, EQUITY, & INCLUSION TOPICS |
As we kick-off our work for the year, we want to hear from you! What diversity, equity, and inclusion topics do you want to see at the upcoming conference? What about in webinars throughout the year? Are there any speakers you would like to hear from in the upcoming Diversity Luncheon in Spokane? Are there topics that you wish you knew more about? Please take a moment to fill out this survey to help our committee with planning relevant content for the year: https://forms.gle/aw81Cmo6dpxsL5g19 |
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Professional Development Updates |
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SAVE THE DATE FOR PACRAO WEBINARS! |
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Did you miss out on the 2024 Conference? Or maybe you know someone who did? Or perhaps you couldn’t catch a session because there were just too many fabulous choices? Fear not! We’re bringing you the crème de la crème of PACRAO sessions in a webinar format. Grab your lunch and join us for a delightful hour! |
| March 19, 2025 at 12 PM PST | April 30, 2025 at 12 PM PST |
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Navigating Changes to Federal Policies and Student Privacy: A Town Hall
Presented by Kristin Benson from Oregon State University and Helen Garrett from the University of Washington. | Open Your Heart: Using Story to Connect and Manage Your Career in the Process
Presented by Kristen Labrecque from the University of Washington Bothell. |
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Did you miss our first webinar of 2025? The End of Burnout Culture: Part 3 of the Burnout Series presented by Chelsea Peoples from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas? No worries! You can find that gem and more on the PACRAO website under the Professional Development section in Webinars. You will need to log in to access the videos. Not sure if you have a member login? No problemo! There’s a super helpful video on how to add yourself (and your pals) to the current institution membership under the “Apply for Membership” in the Members drop-down.
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| Want to be a shining star as a presenter for an upcoming webinar? Or have a burning topic you’d love to hear about? Shoot an email to vp-pd@pacrao.org! |
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Alex Underwood N&E Chair PACRAO Past-President |
| Gaby Asamsama-Acuna N&E Vice Chair |
| The 2024 Nominations & Elections Committee successfully met at the conclusion of PACRAO 2024 and selected the Slate of Officers for vote by membership in 2025 in Spokane, Washington! |
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2025-2026 Slate of Candidates
Executive Board |
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President-Elect STEVE DOWNING Bellevue College |
| Vice President for Communications & Information Technology MICHAEL DAVENPORT The University of Arizona |
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Vice President for Professional Development HELENA BABISKI Coconino Community College |
| Treasurer-Elect STEVEN P. STUBBS North Idaho College |
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Additionally, the N&E recommended to President Miller Dominic Laureano from Cal-Tech to serve as the Audit Committee Secretary. |
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Audit Committee Secretary DOMINIC LAUREANO California Institute of Technology |
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Nominations & Elections Committee |
Later this Spring, the membership will be asked to vote for the 2025 Nominations & Elections Committee which will select the Slate of Officers for 2026!
The Nominees for the 2025 Committee, as selected by the 2024 N&E Committee are: - Chantell Black | Spokane Community College
- Peyton Coronas | University of Nevada, Las Vegas
- Tori Crumrine | Oregon State University
- Bracken Dailey | University of California Riverside
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Liz Johnson | University of Utah
- Maxwell Kwenda | Gonzaga University
- Regina Miller | Riverside City College
- Cynthia Rojas-Soloroio | UCLA
- Jaclyn Pryor | The University of Arizona
- Maggie Ramirez | The University of Arizona
- Jill Rodgers-Lash | University of the Pacific
- Mayra Segura Roseman | University of Health Sciences
- Ronald Venegas | La Sierra University
The elected members will select the 2026 slate, which include the positions of: - President-Elect
- Vice President for Membership
- Vice President for Diversity Development
- Secretary
- Business Partner Liaison-Elect (a first for an N&E committee!)
Congratulations to the outstanding members selected for these leadership roles and be on the lookout for the N&E ballot this Spring! |
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Coming to Seattle for AACRAO 2025? Be sure to join your PACRAO Pals for a fun evening of networking and celebration on Tuesday night.
~Location and details to come~ |
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From your VP for Membership |
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A Friendly Reminder -- PACRAO 2024-2025 Membership Overdue Notices |
If you have an outstanding balance for your 2024-2025 (7/1/2024-7/1/2025) membership dues, this is a friendly reminder that a follow-up invoice will be sent out in February. We kindly ask that all unpaid memberships be brought current by March 15. Any account not paid in full by this date will be deactivated, and access to PACRAO resources—including the website—will be temporarily suspended. We value your membership and want to ensure uninterrupted access to the many benefits PACRAO provides. If you have any questions or need assistance with your renewal, please reach out to us at (vp-membership@pacrao.org, Shelly Hsu, 657-278-7603).
Thank you for your prompt attention and continued support of PACRAO. |
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PACRAO in Spokane, Washington To date, Spokane has hosted PACRAO three times in its nearly 100 years of annual meetings. The first time was in 1956 when Donald D. DuSault, Registrar from the University of Idaho, presided. There is not much in the PACRAO archives about that meeting. The next time PACRAO was in Spokane was in 1978. B. Eugene Omey, Registrar at Western Washington University was the PACRAO President; the theme of the meeting was “Getting to the Core of the Issue.” The meeting was held at the Sheraton Hotel, Nov 5-8, 1978.
This edition of the From the Archives will focus on the 1994 PACRAO conference. It was PACRAO’s 68th meeting and was held from Nov 6-9, 1994 at the Louis Davenport Hotel in Spokane, WA (the original Davenport Hotel). PACRAO President Christine Kerlin, Director of Admissions and Records at Central Oregon Community College presided over the meeting. The theme of the meeting was “Along the Centennial Trail.”
A bit about the hotel itself: Llewellyn Marks “Louis” Davenport was an American businessman best known for establishing the Davenport Hotel in downtown Spokane, Washington. He was born in 1868 and raised in Nebraska. He moved to Spokane as a young man and worked in his uncle’s restaurant until it burned down in 1889. Louis salvaged some of the furniture and set up some tents nearby and went into business as a restauranteur. Eventually, he built dining rooms and ballrooms and was a very successful businessman. In 1906, some investors decided it would be a good idea to have a grand hotel in Spokane and asked Mr. Davenport to build the hotel and oversee it upon its completion. The hotel was built adjacent to the Davenport restaurant at a cost of nearly $2,000,000 and it opened in 1914. The property was widely considered to be one of the grandest hotels in the United States.
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In 1945, Mr. Davenport sold the property but remained living with his wife on the 11th floor of the hotel until his death in 1951. The hotel closed in 1985 and was reopened under new ownership and management in 2001.
Fun Fact: Louis Davenport is sometime said to be the creator of the Crab Louis Salad (sometimes Crab Louie Salad). |
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Of note, the 1994 Local Arrangement Chair (or Conference Chair as it was called then) was Kirk Koenig, of North Idaho College and the 1994 Program Chair was Dannette Sullivan from Seattle University. Marilyn Grey gave the Keynote Address about using laughter to reduce stress. She later returned to PACRAO to a later conference to give another keynote address.
A total of 40 sessions were offered during the 1994 meeting. Interesting Sessions included those covering EDI, SPEEDE, articulation agreements, automated degree audit systems, touchtone registration systems, computerized applications for admissions, and NCAA requirements. Among the more interesting session titles were “Internet 101,” “I Smell a Rat: Investigating Fraudulent Records,” and “Mini Computers: How to Select One in Action.” |
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Dues in 1978 were $50 per institution. A total of 639 people attended the 1994 conference, of which 110 were first time attendees and six were past-presidents. The 1993 Constitution and By-Laws, which had been amended at the 1993 Annual Business Meeting, were published in the 1994 Proceedings following the conference. The last time PACRAO met in Spokane was in 2017. The conference theme was “Shining a Light in Innovation.” The President that year was James Miller, Director of Admissions from the University of Washington – Bothell. |
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A highlight of the conference was PACRAO’s first ever “Ed Talks;” several members of PACRAO relayed their PACRAO journeys and offered advice to the membership. Sue Eveland
PACRAO Archivist
Please contact me at seveland@uoregon.edu if you have any PACRAO materials! |
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Find your next opportunity and the best talent in the region! |
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2024 - 2025 PACRAO Executive Board |
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Tina Miller
President The University of Washington |
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Erin Collins President Elect Pomona College |
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Alex Underwood Past President
The University of Arizona |
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Helena Babiski
Vice President, Professional Development Coconino Community College |
| Shelly Hsu Vice President, Membership California State University - Fullerton |
| Michael Davenport Vice President, Communications & Information Technology
The University of Arizona |
| Laura Schonberger Vice President, Diversity Development University of Phoenix |
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Omar Saucedo Secretary University of California - San Francisco |
| Josh Reinhold Treasurer University of California - Merced |
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Chelsea Peoples Business Partner Liaison University of Nevada Las Vegas |
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