Welcome! About IR Us - Adventures in Institutional Research

Welcome to IR Us! Ever wonder what your college's Institutional Research office does? Are you new to the field of Institutional Research and don't know what IPEDS is? How about NSSE? A CIRP survey? Never fear, your Curious Institutional Research & Budget Analyst at Rhode Island School of Design (that's ME!) has created this blog in order to explore these and many other mysteries in the world of Higher Ed.

I joined the office of Institutional Research at RISD in June of this year (2011.)  In July, my two supervisors sent me off to the Association for Institutional Research (AIR) Foundations I Institute, where I learned a LOT, but the information being so comprehensive, have been unable (until now) to find an outlet to talk about all of the things I learned there and continue to learn in my new role at RISD.  On top of all that, I decided after many years to go back to school to pursue a BS in Information Science at Johnson & Wales.  I know, right? Call me crazy, but I am actually seeing a connection here.  When polled (and isn't that what we do best?) at Foundations Institute, a majority of those asked told me that they had a background in Information Science.  It appears I chose the right major!

So bear with me here.  This blog is mental exercise, school assignment (FIT1012), and career and work log (we'll be looking at how IR works in the college - both public and private institutions, how IR offices are set up, what kinds of things we study, and more!)

Thanks for reading!
Anj