Seize the Day: AIR Board of Directors Updates

Summer passed by way too quickly!

With many warm feelings remaining from the AIR Forum in June, we now gear up for a new academic year. As we move toward closing the pandemic (perhaps a wishful hope?), it is even clearer that we must plan for the future of IR. Members of the AIR Board of Directors are busy with many important tasks that seek to strengthen IR and our association.

The pandemic has presented an even greater need for data-informed decision making, and IR officials have the relevant combination of skills and knowledge of their institutions and trends in higher education to offer contextualized information that can provide excellent decision support. I believe that IR professionals have a unique opportunity to seize the day! Access to data is only part of the equation—interpreting data within the proper context is essential, and IR professionals know how to do this well!

Seizing the day means thinking about how you can offer effective decision support in your work role, and it also means considering the efficient and effective governance of AIR. The AIR Board of Directors is recommending changes to the AIR Constitution and Bylaws, AIR’s governing documents, to help the organization grow and better serve its members and stakeholders. The Board hosted a Coffee Chat in early October to discuss these recommendations. Members of the Board Structure for Accountability and Effectiveness Ad Hoc Subcommittee had the opportunity to provide greater clarity around the recommendations and discuss how the proposed changes could diversify leadership, provide continuity, and develop an even more productive AIR Board of Directors and Nominations & Elections Committee (NEC). More information about the recommendations and process, as well as a recording of the informational Coffee Chat has been posted at www.airweb.org/motion. We hope that you will stay connected and engaged in the process!

Seizing the day also means planning for the future. To this end, the AIR Board of Directors has recently re-engaged a committee on the Future of Institutional Research in Higher Education. Chaired by Dr. Laura Palucki Blake, this committee will spend the fall brainstorming ideas and issues and attempt to organize a summarized list of topics that will be shared with other Board members in early 2023. I’m deeply indebted to Laura and other committee members for engaging in this important discussion for our profession.

The Board is busy with numerous other tasks that we hope will enable AIR to support its members, and I will share more in subsequent editions of eAIR. Knowledgeable, savvy, and capable IR leaders will move our profession forward. Do you want to tread water or do you want to seize the day? Let AIR help you seize the day!

Warmly,
KLW