RMACRAO 2026 Annual Meeting
July 15 -17, 2026
Session Descriptions
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Presenter
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Title
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Session Description
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Jamie Yarbrough
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Banner Student Information System Roundtable
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Join fellow users of the Banner Student Information System for a collaborative roundtable discussion focused on the challenges and opportunities we face today. Whether you have tips and tricks to share, questions about Banner SaaS or Experience, or you're navigating how to implement new campus initiatives, this is the space to connect and learn from one another.
Whether you have tips and tricks to share, questions about Banner SaaS or Experience, or you're navigating how to implement new campus initiatives, this is the space to connect and learn from one another. Bring your questions, your insights, and your curiosity to this session is all about peer-to-peer support and shared problem-solving.
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Sarah Sharsmith
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Transfer Roundtable
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This roundtable session will focus on credit transfer, where experts from all states can share updates, practical examples and best practices. Bring your questions and we can work together to find solutions to streamline transfer for students and staff.
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Logan Midgett
Paradigm
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The Credentialing Ecosystem: Paradigm’s Vision for a Fully Integrated Future
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Join Paradigm as we explore what’s next in academic credentialing—and how our integrated solutions are designed to reduce registrar workload, fight fraud, and help students succeed. With over 34 years of experience and 1,000+ trusted institutional partners, Paradigm is uniquely positioned to deliver a modern credentialing experience that combines tradition with innovation.
We’ll introduce the credentialing ecosystem: physical diplomas and covers, tamper-proof digital documents (CeDiploma®, CeCertificate®), SuretyLock verification, automated delivery (DirectShip™), and in-development innovations like ScholarRecord (CLR), MicroCredentials, ApostilleConnect, and next-gen transcripts.
Whether you're facing staffing shortages, increasing fraud risk, or managing multiple vendors—Paradigm offers a centralized, secure, and student-centered approach to credentialing.
? Plus: Attend our session for a chance to win our exclusive raffle prize!
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Lisa Potter
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Navigating the Hidden Curriculum: Understanding Barriers and Supporting Success for Students with Autism in Higher Education
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As more autistic students pursue higher education, colleges and universities must better understand the unique challenges they face. This session explores how the lack of awareness, the hidden curriculum, and institutional practices influence student success and offers evidence-based strategies to improve belonging, persistence, and graduation.
Attendees will gain a deeper understanding of Autism Spectrum Disorder and the unique strengths, challenges, and experiences autistic students bring to higher education. Through current research and real-world examples, participants will explore the factors contributing to lower persistence and graduation outcomes, including the transition from IDEA to ADA, executive functioning demands, self-advocacy expectations, social and sensory barriers, and the hidden curriculum. Participants will learn evidence-based strategies for making expectations more transparent, supporting self-determination, fostering belonging, and creating more accessible campus environments. Particular attention will be given to the role that admissions, registrar, advising, and student affairs professionals play in helping students navigate institutional systems and successfully transition into higher education.
Participants will leave with practical tools and actionable approaches that can be implemented across campus to better support autistic students and improve student success outcomes for all learners.
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John Maly
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FERPA Compliance and Student Privacy
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Come join a roundtable discussion on FERPA concerns facing your institution, as well as other student privacy and compliance challenges you are navigating. Whether you would like to discuss concerns or just listen to others share, all are welcome to sit and chat.
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Mark Holte
Tina Faulkner
Matt Glenocki
Workday
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Reshaping Higher Ed: AI Agents in Workday Student
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Ready to move past the AI hype and see real campus impact? This session introduces the new AI agents available for Workday Student. Learn how these tools are eliminating friction from student administrative lifecycles and supercharging staff productivity. Plus, a brief fireside chat with a Workday peer institution to get an honest look at their implementation strategy, real-world outcomes, and vision for an agent-empowered institution.
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Rey Santos
Jacque Gaines
Instructure
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Parchment Does That Too? Streamlining Admin Workflows from Admissions to Credentials
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Tired of juggling disconnected tools and outdated processes? In this session, explore how forward-thinking institutions are using Parchment by Instructure beyond transcripts. From streamlining staff workflows to supporting learner mobility, see how one comprehensive platform and trusted partner can help you connect your Admissions, Registrar, and professional learning initiatives in more efficient, learner-centered ways.
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Tyler Bowen
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No More Shutouts: How Connected Course Data Gets Students to Graduation
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When your catalog and scheduling data live in separate silos, students can face unnecessary barriers to enrollment, progress, and completion. This session explores how connecting catalog and scheduling processes creates a more seamless student experience while improving institutional efficiency and data accuracy. Learn practical strategies for aligning academic information across systems so students can find the courses they need, when they need them, and stay on track to graduation.
When your catalog and scheduling data live in separate silos, students can face unnecessary barriers to enrollment, progress, and completion. This session explores how connecting catalog and scheduling processes creates a more seamless student experience while improving institutional efficiency and data accuracy. Learn practical strategies for aligning academic information across systems so students can find the courses they need, when they need them, and stay on track to graduation.
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Courney Tartaglia
Robert McTighe
National Student Clearinghouse
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Seeing What No Single Campus Can: A Network Approach to Stopping Student Aid Fraud
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Student loan fraud no longer happens one application or one campus at a time—coordinated fraud rings now operate across multiple institutions, and the warning signs are easy to miss until the funds are already gone. In this session, we'll introduce Sentinel 360℠, a cross-institutional fraud-intelligence layer powered by the National Student Clearinghouse network covering 97% of currently enrolled postsecondary students.
You'll see why identity verification alone stops short, how Sentinel 360 surfaces risk signals before aid is disbursed, and how it fits into real admissions, registrar, and financial aid workflows without disrupting compliance or student access. We'll close with what participation looks like and how earlier, network-informed visibility helps your team move from reactive cleanup to proactive review.
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Kristy Berg
Quinn Cunningham
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Communication 9-1-1: Registrar and the Faculty
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Is your program struggling with enrollment? Do you get resistance from faculty not wanting to utilize your degree audit system? Do students have a hard time making their way through your curriculum? Do you and your faculty/department find it difficult to make changes and update your program requirements? Do you need help with degree audit scribing? If you answered YES to any of these questions, we could be the answer you have been looking for.
Is your program struggling with enrollment? Do you get resistance from faculty not wanting to utilize your degree audit system? Do students have a hard time making their way through your curriculum? Do you and your faculty/department find it difficult to make changes and update your program requirements? Do you need help with degree audit scribing? If you answered YES to any of these questions, we could be the answer you have been looking for. This session will help you: articulate the faculty perspective (i.e., common priorities and constraints faculty navigate in course development and implementation); recognize friction points in shared academic workflows (e.g., where communication breaks down and why these gaps occur; i.e., catalog edits, course descriptions, prerequisites, program requirements); learn proactive communication strategies for initiating clear and timely communication with faculty (i.e., practical approaches for initiating clear and timely communication with faculty before communication breakdowns occur); reframe your role as a collaborative partner (i.e., shift from a transactional service mindset to a relationship-oriented one - partnerships that lead to success); and you will be able to draft at least one concrete action step towards improving communication on your campus(i.e., one specific, personally relevant commitment to improve a communication touchpoint in the audience™s day-to-day work with faculty).
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Scott Johns
CollegeSource
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A Simpler Way: Letting Students Know How Their Courses Transfer
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Do you find yourself repeating how courses will transfer to your institution? Reduce your email and call volume by giving students the ability to easily enter coursework (as well as exams, military credit, and other learning experiences) to see how their courses will transfer to or from your institution.
Transferology® was created by the same company that makes TES and gives institutions a nationwide presence for recruiting students and publicizing transfer information. With staff-facing tools like the Popular Courses and Unknown Equivalency reports, schools can proactively build transfer rules and use real data to make decisions, rather than guessing which courses need evaluation and wasting precious time. Advisors, recruiters, and transfer specialists can all use this web-based application to improve their daily workflows. With over 400 institutions, 33 million equivalencies, and just over 2 million student users, see what Transferology can do for you!
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Andrew DuBeau
Stacy Sharp
Stellic
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So You Need a New Degree Audit Tool: A Registrar's Real-World Guide
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In this fireside chat, Stacy Sharp, Director of Registration & Records Compliance and Processes at Aims Community College, talks with the Stellic team about how Aims evaluated their options, what mattered most in the decision, and how they are preparing the campus for a new way of working
Selecting and implementing a new degree audit and planning system is one of the bigger decisions a registrar's office makes, with a lot of moving parts and stakeholders to bring along. In this fireside chat, Stacy Sharp, Director of Registration & Records Compliance and Processes at Aims Community College, talks with the Stellic team about how Aims evaluated their options, what mattered most in the decision, and how they are preparing the campus for a new way of working. Attendees will leave with a practical framework for running their own evaluation, questions to ask vendors along the way, and early lessons on getting campus ready for change.
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Jeff Relue
Ellucian
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 Strategic Pathways to Student Success: Harnessing Ellucian's Smart Planning and Credential Discovery
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With Ellucian's acquisition of EduNav, institutions now have access to groundbreaking solutions designed to drive student progression, maximize credential attainment, and streamline transfer. In this dynamic session, Jeff Relue will explore how Ellucian’s enhanced Student Success Suite powers colleges and universities.
With Ellucian's acquisition of EduNav, institutions now have access to groundbreaking solutions designed to drive student progression, maximize credential attainment, and streamline transfer. In this dynamic session, Jeff Relue will explore how Ellucian's enhanced Student Success Suite featuring Smart Planning and Credential Discovery empowers colleges and universities to automate degree planning with personalized, self-healing pathways, optimize class scheduling to align with student demand and reduce time-to-degree, and uncover and award earned credentials to boost completion rates and reengage stop-outs.
Jeff will share insights from real-world implementations, addressing common challenges, and showcasing tangible benefits such as increased completion rates and improved equity outcomes.
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Kristi Wold-McCormick
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Micro-credentials and Digital Badges: The Role of Registrars and Enrollment Managers
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The landscape and evolution of micro-credential initiatives and digital badge issuance is rapidly evolving with many higher-ed institutions now offering or planning to offer innovative credentials. This session will focus on CU Boulder's journey, including the many considerations for a campus strategic plan.
It will also highlight AACRAO's prioritization on learning mobility and recognition as well as the important roles of registrars and other enrollment management professionals in successful campus initiatives.
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Raeanna Anglen
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Degree Analyst and Graduation Pathway Roundtable
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A roundtable for those who work on the graduation and completion end of the student experience. Topics discussed: degree audits and graduation application processes, student support in their final year, awarding processes, challenges faced and more. This is an open forum, but there will be a examples discussed and shown.
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Adam Davy
Inceptia
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Common Institutional Challenges Personalized Outreach Can Help Solve
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This session will explore common institutional challenges where personalized outreach can influence student action and improve outcomes.
Higher education institutions are not lacking data. They know which students started an application but never enrolled. They know which students stopped attending and may be candidates for re-enrollment. They know which populations face barriers to financial aid completion, registration, persistence, or repayment. The challenge is rarely identifying students who need support. The challenge is having the time, expertise and outreach capacity to consistently engage them while balancing competing priorities and limited staff resources. At the same time, student expectations continue to evolve. Today's students expect personalized communication, timely guidance and meaningful human connection throughout their educational journey. Yet many institutions struggle to deliver that level of engagement at scale. This session will explore common institutional challenges where personalized outreach can influence student action and improve outcomes.
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D. Scott Heath
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Smart Plan: A new Registration and Planning Tool in SaaS
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An overview of the Smart Plan tool that Colorado School of Mines implemented to help with student registration and planning. Smart Plan is a 'self-correcting' plan that guides students on the most efficient path toward graduation. We will demonstrate and cover what we've found from both the administrative and user experiences. Targeted for schools that use or are exploring the Ellucian Banner/SaaS platform.
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Miori Jackson Gidley
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Tuition Classification Roundtable
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This roundtable session will focus on tuition classification, where experts from all states can share updates, practical examples and best practices. Bring your questions and we can work together to find solutions to this complex topic.
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Stacy Sharp
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A Proactive Approach to Fraud: Lessons from a Community College
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As a public, open-enrollment institution with no application fee, Aims Community College has become a target for fraudulent student activity. Learn how Aims uses proactive, front-end strategies to identify and stop fraud before students register for courses.
We will discuss common fraud indicators, tools, and processes used to prevent abuse, and lessons learned along the way. The session concludes with a discussion of best practices and emerging fraud trends in higher education.
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Presenter
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Title
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Session Description
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Amanda Lewis
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Implementing S.A.F.E. Fraud Software: Tales from the Trenches
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Drowning in fraud applications, Arapahoe Community College (along with the Colorado Community College System) launched S.A.F.E. fraud software this past Spring. As with all implementations, there were bumps in the road and growing pains for staff. We will discuss being in the trenches implementing the new S.A.F.E. software, including what worked/what did not, change management with staff, and was it worth it.
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Amber Ovaska
Sarah Sharsmith
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Workday Roundable: From Interest to Implementation (and After!)
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This is your opportunity to talk about the Workday implementation process at your school! Led by representatives from schools which are in the beginning, middle, and end of the implementation process, we hope to share tips, best practices, and have a great conversation about what is involved in an SIS implementation.
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Sarah Beal
Meredith Husk
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Bringing Microcredentials to CU Denver
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Within the past year, CU Denver began accepting proposals for microcredentials, working with Courseleaf to create a form that would serve as an intake for these types of credentials/badges. Working off of the Courseleaf Session we presented some months back, we will go over best practices, lessons learned, and future goals.
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Miori Jackson Gidley
Alyssa Wells
Amber Ovaska
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Hot Topics in Higher Education
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Join us for an interactive roundtable discussion about issues facing higher education. This facilitated conversation will provide a platform for attendees to share perspectives, ask questions, and collaborate on solutions to key challenges and hot topics facing higher education. Whether you're looking to share insights or simply listen and learn, this session is designed to foster meaningful exchange and actionable takeaways.
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Ashley Hildebrandt
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Leveling Up Student Employment
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Simply clocking in and clocking out won’t help your student employees stay engaged with school and develop marketable skills for future jobs. Instead, help them grow by enhancing your student employee job with leadership opportunities, performance reviews, recognition, and clear expectations. Bring your experience to share what works for engaging your student employees. Session attendees will leave with ideas for improving student employment in their office.
Our student employees might choose to work for our offices for a variety of different reasons: to help pay for school, work in a convenient location, and even get experience working in an office. At the base level, student employment helps retain students through degree completion. Beyond that, as professionals in higher education, we can help students apply what they are learning in class to their work. In this way, students can develop skills valuable for their future careers while supporting the work in our offices. This session will highlight why student employment engagement is important to institutions and for students’ futures, opportunities to enhance the student employee experience, and provide an opportunity to exchange ideas for improving how we work with student employees.
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Carrie Reinecke
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VA Questions, Comments, Concerns Round Table
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Program Description: This roundtable session provides an opportunity for VA certifying officials and staff to engage in peer discussion, raise questions, and share comments and concerns related to certification processes, regulatory requirements, and best practices.
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Noemi Hernandez
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Shadows in the System Investigating "Ghost Students" (Bad Actors)
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In recent years, CNM has seen a rise in fraudulent admissions and financial aid applications (Ghost Students). This session will briefly outline our fraud detection approach, highlight key patterns, and share practical response strategies. We’ll also encourage collaboration and discussion to exchange best practices for preventing and addressing fraud across institutions.
In recent years, CNM has continued to experience a significant increase in fraudulent applications for both admissions and financial aid. This session will provide a brief overview of our institution’s approach to fraud detection, highlight key patterns identified over time, and share practical strategies that have helped us respond effectively and how they've evolved over the last year.
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Tim Johnson
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Using Modern Reports & Dashboards to Improve Student Success & Organizational Effectiveness
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Opportunities exist for IHEs to increase successful outcomes for students by utilizing features of modern reports and dashboards to reveal insights from IHE data not easily discovered. Using these features can enable staff to be more effective (focused on doing the right tasks) and equip them to be more efficient (completing tasks the best possible way) as they view data from various perspectives which helps guide them to relevant action. This breakout session will be demonstration-based.
Using modern reports and dashboards can help transform your IHE by enabling you to answer questions like the following with speed and accuracy. How can we reach out to students to prompt them to register for the next term if we don't know which ones to contact? How can we identify trends about students who withdrew from our institution but can't locate the details without sizable investment in research time? What courses have we offered in the past, what was each one's enrollment count, and what changes have occurred over time that point to the need for targeted action? What activities should I direct staff to focus on so as to provide my institution with the greatest return on time spent?
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