President

President’s Comments from 2025 Annual Meeting

I am so incredibly honored and thrilled to be serving as your IACRAO President! This position means so much to me and I hope you will see that through my work this year. I am excited to get to know all of you, to work with you, and to provide direction for us during uncertain times.

My goal this year is to bring us together, to celebrate the resilience that carries us through uncertainty, and to honor both the journey we’ve taken and the paths those before us have traveled. When external forces leave us feeling powerless, I want us to remember this truth: we shape the future of higher education. Every single one of us is responsible for what this profession becomes in the next five years.

Since Harvard's founding in 1636, higher education in the United States has evolved alongside the forces that shape our nation. Whether driven by politics, faith, technology, or the ever-changing needs of the communities we serve, we have continued to adapt. We often hear about the quagmire of rules enforced by Registrar and Admissions offices across our universities. The rules attributed to our offices do not exist in a vacuum; we navigate an endless stream of directives from beyond our campus walls. This year alone, Indiana's legislature has considered over two dozen education-related bills. In conversations across our state, I hear the same emotions echoing: anxiety, helplessness, numbness, fragility.

But beneath it all, something else persists. Hope.

It's there in every conversation, quiet but unmistakable: a shared confidence that no matter what comes, we have each other. This is what we've built together. Not simply a professional network of people doing similar work, but a genuine community united by our commitment to helping one another, our students, and the community.

I won't pretend that responsibility doesn't feel daunting. But it also fills me with profound pride. Because when I look around at who we are and what we've already weathered together, I know we're equal to what lies ahead.

Elizabeth Campbell

2025