We are the Swarthmore College Office of Institutional Research.\u00a0 We decided to begin this blog as an attempt to personalize our office and our work, and as a way to share information quickly and informally.\u00a0 Since we are involved with many different projects that touch different areas of the College separately, many people are unaware of our office’s overall mission, our skills and interests as researchers, or the full scope of our work.\u00a0 We hope that by sharing our observations about our work, profession, and the higher education environment, our colleagues will come to know and understand us better, and will call on us when they are in need of institutional research.<\/p>\n
We each have different styles of blogging. \u00a0Robin tends to focus on institutional research, assessment, and\u00a0higher education in general, while Alex’s focus tends to be more on some of the data analysis tools used in\u00a0institutional research as well as ways to visualize higher ed data.<\/p>\n
We\u2019d love to hear from you!\u00a0 You can always reach us\u00a0using our office contact info<\/a> or feel free to participate in\u00a0the comments.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I received a PhD in Social Psychology in …\u00a0 well, it was a LOT of years ago!\u00a0 I wanted to work in an applied field, and my first job was as “Coordinator of Market Research” at the worldwide continuing education arm of a large research university.\u00a0 The position was part of an institutional research office, and I ended up doing a lot more institutional research than market research!\u00a0 After that I continued in IR in a range of settings:\u00a0 a system headquarters, a mid-sized public research university, and since 1999, here at a private liberal arts college.\u00a0 So I’ve covered a lot of ground, learned a few things, and look forward to learning a lot more.<\/p>\n What is most enjoyable about working in Institutional Research is the people.\u00a0 My natural inclination is to hole up in my office and plug away at projects.\u00a0 But the nature of IR work brings me in contact with really wonderful people at all levels and across all areas of the college, as well as with people outside the college – my counterparts at other colleges and universities, people who work at agencies and consortia, and others.\u00a0 I’m fascinated to learn about what other people do, to explore the ways that IR can support their work, and to discover the implications of our research.\u00a0 It’s a fun profession!<\/p>\n Alex is now the Director of Institutional Research<\/a> at Drew University.\u00a0\u00a0 He was a member of Swarthmore’s IR office from 2008 to 2013, and his posts remain a part of our blog.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Below is his introduction.<\/p>\n Before joining the office in December 2008, I worked as a graduate research assistant at the New York State Office of Mental Health<\/a> during my studies as doctoral student in sociology at SUNY Albany. \u00a0My doctoral dissertation focuses on how cultural taste differs by place (more info<\/a>). \u00a0<\/span>I am originally from that land of limbo up the thruway from NYC known as “the Hudson Valley.” \u00a0It is this area of NY the world has to thank for such exports as Snooki, Armand Assante, and the Teutuls. \u00a0When I’m not trumpeting the wonders of the Hudson Valley or making I hope to use this space to share\/learn about some of the tools of data analysis, management, and visualization. \u00a0While many of my favorite blogs already do this, they don’t do so in a higher ed context. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We are the Swarthmore College Office of Institutional Research.\u00a0 We decided to begin this blog as an attempt to personalize our office and our work, and as a way to share information quickly and informally.\u00a0 Since we are involved with many different projects that touch different areas of the College separately, many people are unaware … Continue reading About us<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/40"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/40\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1327,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/40\/revisions\/1327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Robin Huntington Shores<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Alex McClung<\/strong><\/h3>\n
pie charts<\/del>\u00a0dot plots, I enjoy cooking, hiking, and reading detective fiction. \u00a0I also have several on-again, off-again, love-hate relationships with NY sports teams and the teams of Italian calcio.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"