SAIR 2019 will be held September 28 – October 1 in Greenville, SC at Hyatt Regency. In order to ensure conference rates, use the code G-SAIR. Hyatt Regency Greenville offers guests the perfect balance of Southern hospitality and modern amenities. Located in the trendy downtown area of Greenville, it is near the area’s best dining, shopping, and entertainment.
This year’s theme is Tools for Transformation. This theme is important for various historic and tactical reasons. Greenville, our host city, is gaining recognition as a jewel of the new South with a vibrant feel, fueled by investments they made when they were still a center for textile production. Before that industry collapsed, they had already invested with foreign partners and companies like BMW and Michelin to replace the tens of thousands of jobs they eventually lost in textiles. They now boast the greatest international investment per capita of any city in the U.S partnering with 250 firms from 26 nations. Pretty impressive and strategic for a failing textile town.
Higher Education is poised, or being pushed, into transformations as well. As the value proposition of a college degree gets challenged and more schools are put at risk, we are uniquely positioned to help transform our universities by transforming ourselves. We have an opportunity to redefine Institutional Research from a compliance reporting office into a data-empowerment office, as many of us have already done. Similarly, many Assessment and Institutional Effectiveness operations have moved from checking boxes on completion of annual objectives to leveraging these mechanisms toward a goal of continuous improvement. Those of us in Planning Offices are emphasizing the Strategic Planning driven by measurable outcomes and accountability metrics. Many of our office and roles are being reimagined to gain additional synergies that will benefit our institutions.
The focus of our Annual Conference will be to identify the tools that are at our disposal to address this transformation. We have new data sources, new measurement and analytic tools, and demands for new skills to address them. What are the best practices that are being used or pursued in our various professions? What are the organizational changes that are facilitating this paradigm shift? How do we leverage these opportunities without being overwhelmed or marginalized? How do we keep up with the compliance aspects of our jobs while we pursue these new insights? How can you get additional resources? How do you take advantage of these opportunities to advance our own careers while advancing our institutions
Help us answer these questions by joining us in Greenville in late September. We will have two days of workshops that will be half-day deep dives on these topics. This is a great way to become familiar with new tools and new approaches. Our regular conference program will feature tracks on executive and transformational leadership in addition to sessions dedicated to the craft of institutional research, effectiveness and planning.
Plan to present or learn about best practices in these areas. We will also be putting additional emphasis on tools and methods that make us more efficient or provide greater insights for student success, faculty contributions, program effectiveness, and operational efficiencies. Whereas the SAIR Annual Conference has always been noted for networking opportunities and valuable sessions, our goal is to focus on these new opportunities as we all become more familiar with our Tools for Transformation.
