What is it that you really do?

Many folks have asked me, what exactly is your job. For while before I arrived, I would pick up the job description and read it to them. I then memorized it. When I got here, I learned that a lot changes occurred with the position. I think for the good. The title changed from Area Director to Regional Manager. The reason for the change was to not confuse people in thinking that the job was the same. I have a lot of responsibility on this job and it is quite a challenge, one that I welcome. I'm in the enrollment management department which means we have to make sure that our enrollment of students continues to grow. Everything that deals with the University of Md University College, falls under my department. There is the Associate VP for Enrollment management and I report directly to him. I oversee what the military refers to as "voluntary education", basically, classes that the military personnel choose to take by their own accord to gain college degrees. My main responsibility is to provide classes (scheduling) on all of the military bases (army, navy, airforce, marines) that are on the island, about 7 or so. I oversee faculty and staff in this department. When I first started working, I would ask if I could do xyz and the answer would be, you're the boss, you can do whatever. No one would tell me what that meant. I got that response a lot the first week so I just stopped asking the question and just do whatever needs to be done. I now know that I'm the boss and don't have to be reminded any longer.

I really enjoy the people that I work with, they are very welcoming and we function well as a team. So far so good. My biggest personnel challenges I expect will be the faculty. They are an interesting group but I have mad respect for them. That comes from my 9 years working in Higher Education. Many of them have been here for years and are used to doing things their way. Some of that may have to change and that might be hard to take for them. My goal is to establish a good rapport but make sure they know that I'm not some young push over. The first week I had to address the faculty, I made sure they knew of my 19 years of work experience because I had a feeling they were thinking I was too young for the job and I guessed right. People were shocked that I'm so seasoned. :-)

There are some other schools here that offer classes/degrees, University of Phoenix, Troy University and Central Texas College. So many folks know of U of Phoenix but I'm here to tell you that you can take online classes with the University of Md University College as well so for those of you who are considering on line education, do consider us!