Wednesday, December 5, 2012
OUR CAMPUS
Meet the... Vice provost and registrar by Alex Vickery | photo by Jocye Isleta
Shelby Stanfield Stanfield graduated from UT in 1988 with a B.S. in radio-television-film and has been involved in university affairs since. Appointed registrar in 2006, Stanfield was put in charge of overseeing not only the Office of the Registrar but also the Student Information Systems team, which is responsible for broad-based student services and the Office of Student Financial Services. He’s also been involved in collaborative efforts with campus information technology and automation initiatives that rely on student information. Stanfield met with Longhorn Life to discuss being an integral part of university life.
Longhorn Life: What exactly does your job entail? Shelby Stanfield: I’m responsible for the oversight and management administration of the registrar’s office. Most people don’t know the breadth of University operations that the registrar’s office is responsible for. They interact with the registrar’s office on one or two functions. Students will come to the office for questions about registration or to get a transcript, but what most people don’t know is we do everything from manage the university’s course inventory, publish the catalogs, write our own business software, manage university academic records, generate diplomas in-house, process grades, build semester course schedules and schedule classrooms.
LL: What’s a typical work day? SS: It’s a lot of meetings, and then I’m involved in several different university efforts on everything from information technology to information systems. Right now I’m really involved in different operations looking at increasing our four-year graduation rates. I spend a lot of time on personnel issues, office organization, resourcing and different initiatives the registrar’s office is involved with.
LL: What do you like most about working on the 40 acres? SS: One thing that has kept me here and what I love about being in the registrar’s office is that we are a central service agent for the institution. When we think about all the administrative and academic activities that are based upon university records, courses or student degrees it provides the opportunity to be involved in every literally every facet of university life. It’s a great place to be, every day is different, there is never a dull moment. I’m driven by the university’s slogan “What starts here changes the world.” It’s not what we do today we’re going to do it this way forever; that’s not our slogan. I’m really captivated by the entrepreneurial spirit the university has that not only is supportive of people coming up with creative and ingenious solutions but almost demands everyone to think in an innovative way.
LL: What is your favorite spot on campus? SS: I like the turtle pond. I like all the places to eat a lot, there’s a lot of good food.
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