By Alex Donchak
If you were asked who our registrar at this college was, would you know?
Behind the registrar’s desk lies a world of passion embodied by Jeannette Rork, who began here in the fall of 2021, and has been working hard ever since.
Supported by her coworkers, she comes to work every morning with her scarf around her neck ready to attack the day, willing to learn more so she can help students reach their goal. She always makes sure to say hello to everyone as she enters her office each day.
Her journey to this position was quite different from your typical registrar. Growing up, she did not see herself becoming a registrar, because who really does?
She graduated from the University of North Carolina Greensboro and Wake Forest, not with a degree in higher education, but religion.
“Nobody ever grows up saying they want to be a registrar,” Rork said.
While living in North Carolina, she started working at Wake Forest, doing administrative work, but due to her database background, the registrar offered her a job in the office. This registrar would continue to mentor Rork throughout her time at Wake Forest.
“I’ve really enjoyed it, and I think I have a knack for it, so it was just luck,” she added.
In North Carolina, she was able to hone her skills in higher education before starting at Susquehanna University.
“I kind of worked my way up through the ranks at the registrar’s office at Wake and had an opportunity to move into a registrar position in Winston-Salem. I have a niece who lives in State College, so Pennsylvania seemed like a good state to kind of target, and when I found the job listing for Susquehanna, it just felt like a really good fit,” she said.
Many students are left wondering, what exactly does the registrar do?
“We kind of think of the registrar’s office as the gatekeepers of student information. We do grades, we do transcripts, we set up registration, we help students with registration issues, we work with them to get into independent studies. We also,, something that gets left off that list sometimes but is a major part do what we do, is tracking students’ progress toward degree, making sure the courses that they’re taking are going to get them to the goal,” she said.
“We are in contact with almost every department across campus on a daily basis while doing a lot of behind– the– scenes work like course-building, graduation requirements, transcript evaluations, etc.,” said Ryan Redfern, assistant registrar.
“When you take all of that as a package, there’s a lot of data in there, so the students’ personal information, the students’ academic information. It’s up to us to manage it, so we also make sure that access to records is compliant with FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) restrictions,” Rork added.
This is where her database background comes into play.
“We supply a lot of data under FERPA, we do a lot of reporting, we provide data internally to campus constituents if they’re looking to do a program review or they want to know how many graduates they have in a particular major, we also provide a lot of data externally,” she said.
Once arriving at Susquehanna, she made many key changes.
“When I got here, we were on EAB Navigate for registration, and we since moved registration to colleague self-service, and that is a huge project,” she said.
Rork was able to offer some guidance to make the registration process as smooth as possible for students.
“Meet with your advisor, meet with them as early as you can if you have questions, so plan ahead. Utilize the Hawk Hub, send us an email, we are all here to help and support, so make sure you are reaching out when you need assistance so we can get that problem resolved as quickly as possible,” she advised.
Rork takes immense pride in her work and wants the best for all her students.
“We all kind of work together to get the students through and seeing them walk across the stage at commencement. It’s very gratifying to see the students graduate, so we’re pretty united in our goal to get students through the process,” she said.
Her coworkers are proud of her too. Though it’s a small office, they seem to be a strong and supportive team.
“I enjoy working with Jeannette. She is a good leader. She supports her team. She works for the best interests of the students. She’s very interested in streamlining our processes to benefit the university,” said Bonnie Rice, associate registrar.
Rork also makes her office laugh, with her unique and random sayings, some of which are inspired from growing up in the south.
“We are a team, we support each other, personally and professionally. She is very supportive. She’s given me a lot more responsibilities, she trusts us with responsibility and isn’t a micromanager,.” said administrative assistant Torri Stark.
Stark added that she has “the best sayings,” such as, “Bob’s your uncle.”
A saying like that can definitely be random, as you’d probably never heard about it before.
When asked what it meant, Jeannette burst into laughter.
“‘Bob’s your uncle’ is just an expression that means you do all the things, and it gets resolved. I actually looked it up and thought, ‘Why do we say that?’” she said.
Redfern added not only what it is like to work with Rork, but also what he enjoys about working for the office.
“I enjoy having contact with almost every constituency on campus. Jeannette has always set clear expectations and trusts her team members to do their jobs without micromanaging,” he said.
Outside of work, she finds peace with hiking and driving around the area.
“I love driving or hiking in this area, it’s so beautiful here, I never get tired of finding new places to explore,” she said with a bright smile.
She is also a dog lover who enjoys knitting, reading and watching movies.
“I have a very eclectic taste in books. It can range from science fiction, to horror, to mystery. As long as its got a good story, and the characters are really strong,” she commented.
With great excitement, she also added that she is a “Walking Dead” fan.
In a nutshell, Rork hopes to make the college years for students go by as smooth as possible. Rork’s kindness and hard work, has brought together a staff that wants to see students succeed and walk across that stage to receive their diploma.
If you are interested in stopping by the office for any assistance, they are located in Seibert Hall, lower level, and their hours are 8:15 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday during the academic year.
There are additional resources and information on their website, such as requesting a transcript, calculating your GPA, final exam schedules, and enrollment verification.
You can also find documents such as change of major and minor forms, independent study forms, course overload forms, and much more on your myNest.
You can reach Rork at rork@susqu.edu.
You can reach the registrar’s office at regoffice@susqu.edu.
