University names Griffin new registrar

Polly Winfrey Griffin, the current registrar of Dartmouth College, has been named Princeton's new registrar. She will begin her duties Aug. 1, 2006.

Griffin follows Joseph Greenberg GS '77, who died of brain cancer on Nov. 7, 2005. Greenberg had worked in the registrar's office for 27 years — six of which he spent heading the office. Since Greenberg's death, Jed Marsh, vice provost for institutional research, has filled in for the position, overseeing the day-today management of the office.

"Basically my role has been to maintain continuity in the office while we searching for a new candidate," Marsh said.

Marsh was confident in the University's selection of Griffin. "An excellent choice,' he said. "She was the strongest candidate from a very strong pool."

Griffin said she had been friends with Greenberg and had gained insight into University life through their relationship.

"From his work and the thoughtful nature of his work and the way he described it and the students at Princeton, I have a sense of the culture," Griffin said.

Griffin expressed excitement at joining the University. "The people I've met have been wonderfully inviting and professional and explained exciting opportunities," she said. "Princeton tends to think about some very basic and important functions of higher ed., such as grading and scheduling. It has long had a significant, thoughtful, respectful relationship with undergraduates. I am looking forward to being a part of that."

Griffin graduated cum laude from Westhampton College at the University of Richmond in 1973 in psychology. She went on to get her master's degree in counseling and rehabilitation at West Virginia University in 1975.

Her career as a university administrator began in 1976 at Wingate College, where she was first assistant to the president and then the registrar and director of international programs.

Before moving to Dartmouth in October 1999, Griffin worked at Davidson College. At Dartmouth, Griffin has performed similar duties to those she will have at Princeton.

"I describe myself as an armchair social scientist," Griffin said. "My job is understanding what the university needs from my work and understanding how to accomplish that within the institutional culture. Things are done similarly from one institution to another, but how you accomplish it is different. That is one aspect of my job that I find fascinating."

During his tenure, Greenberg spearheaded the effort to provide online course information, registration and better access to academic records. Similarly, Griffin worked to improve Dartmouth's online academic services for the college.

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Marsh said he sees the registrar's office becoming even more user-friendly in the future. "The office will continue to develop new functionality and services that are possible with the implementation of the new PeopleSoft Student Administration System."

Griffin said she will continue to work with PeopleSoft to put forth services for students and faculty. "The goal for the registrar's office is to help University accomplish its mission," she said. "It does that by providing academic services. The work of the registrar's office will be the work of the University in so far as we create processes to help students do their work and create processes to help faculty with their administrative work."

She also emphasized the role students will play by offering feedback. "I look forward to connecting to students so I can get a pulse on the types of things students are worried about and so the registrar's office can help them," Griffin said.