Professional: Bernadette Morris, Records and Registration
First published in March/April 2013 edition of The Bullhorn. The original publication can be found here.
Registrar Bernadette Morris invited me into her office behind the Records and Registration cubicles with a vibrant energy. To this day, through numerous events across campus, she shares her history to inspire students. “I’m a high school drop-out. I taught at a Tier 2 institution and multiple colleges. I have multiple degrees. If I could do it, you can do it!”
After raising a family as a single mother, she continued her education, because she always wanted to go back to school, fully aware of education as a powerful tool of self-empowerment. “If you know that you should do something to your fullest capacity, explore some inner ability you have, to read and research, you owe it to yourself to do that. You can’t get uneducated. That is yours forever. That’s why I think education is so important: it’s the one thing in life that can’t be taken away from you.”
Bernadette Morris proudly declares she is “SUNY-bred,” first starting her undergraduate education at SUNY Ulster. Later she earned her Bachelor’s in Communication & Media from SUNY New Paltz and her Master’s from SUNY Albany, but “SUNY New Paltz was something special for me.” Such sentiments frequently reoccur among faculty and staff who previously attended the institution as an undergraduate and/or graduate student. Even with a full scholarship, teaching assistantship and great friends at SUNY Albany, she seized the opportunity to return to New Paltz when Patricia Sullivan, then the Department Chair for Communication & Media, asked if she could teach a section of Public Speaking. After graduation, she received another request from the department as a major advisor. She balanced teaching as an adjunct with part-time advising, which evolved into a full-time position under then Provost David Lavallee.
After a brief interlude away from New Paltz, Bernadette filled in an open position in Academic Advising. She continued teaching as an adjunct, including a Theories of Persuasion course at Russell Sage, until promoted to senior academic advisor. After a year and a half, she moved over to Records and Registration as the Associate Registrar. In 2007, when SUNY New Paltz moved to the Banner software system, Bernadette experienced a “baptism by fire” as the newly-installed Registrar. She credits the network of Registrars across SUNY for helping her ease into the new software and major system change. The Office of Records and Registration, which the Registrar supervises, functions behind the scenes to keep all the crucial systems operating smoothly. “Unless something out of the usual happens, you won’t have to see us.”
For Bernadette, her research evolved from her academic writings on non-verbal communication to consistently updating her knowledge on the latest degree software. Most recently, her research includes DegreeWorks. Adopted by CUNY Baruch and SUNY Cobleskill, the system includes features such as the “What If” function. This allows students interested in changing their major to see how their already completed courses could fit into graduation requirements, before they decide to switch.
As part of her Registrar duties, Bernadette frequently discusses campus policies with the Associate Deans, Vice Presidents, the Provost and other administrators, “always planning the next step.” While one might assume that system functions hardly affect a college’s image to prospective students, Bernadette views the big picture and encourages her staff to follow suit. “If I make processes easier, then the word gets out, and the College gets better. We don’t just help with graduation; we help from the beginning. We have to take ownership of that, because if we don’t, then we put the whole institution at peril.”
While most of her work focuses on student needs, she aids faculty in navigating the system from time to time. As a former faculty member and close friend of many current faculty members, Bernadette understands that struggling through scheduling and degree systems is the last burden they need. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for faculty. They have so much invisible work. The students have some tough questions and they’re looking at you to be the expert. Professors constantly need to be reading to keep up in their academic areas.”
From her diverse range of experiences at the institution, Bernadette gained “a really good idea of what SUNY New Paltz is all about. Having served in the academic side, I really understand what it is to teach, and I know the pressures. Having been a student and an administrator, I can bring all of those experiences to the table. I try to represent all of them, yet it’s very apparent that we’re here because of the students.” She extends herself on numerous occasions outside of her duties as Registrar, conducting communications-oriented programs in the residence halls, with EOP and through Orientation, in part because she “didn’t have those experiences as a commuter student.” She also assists Honors Program theses from time to time, despite no longer working as an adjunct, with her knowledge on non-verbal communication.
During her years affiliated with SUNY New Paltz as student, faculty and staff, Bernadette Morris has developed a strong group of friends. She frequently meets up with her former professors and current colleagues Pat Sullivan, Shelly Wright, Nancy Kassop and Lynn Spangler. “We’re regular girlfriends, and girlfriends are very important. We don’t have to talk about academe, we can talk about our own lives. We rally around each other for support, and they’re the most supportive friends I can have.”
If any environment demonstrates Bernadette’s passionate interest in education as a vital tool, it would be Tanzania. For three weeks in 2010, she volunteered at the base of Kilimanjaro with the grassroots women’s organization Women’s Education and Economic Centre (WEECE). She gave a campus lecture on her experience in Tanzania (http://www.newpaltz.edu/wmnstudies/fall2010webnewletter.pdf). “I’ve been to the Bahamas, Bermuda, Ireland, England, Italy and Canada, but I’ve never done any volunteer work. Every place else is just touristy; you don’t really know the land.” She observed the harsh realities of a truly misogynistic third-world country, struggling against rampant diseases, water shortage and short life expectancy. Yet, she fell in love with the beauty of the people and their “different way of being.”
On the one hand, a harsh societal patriarchy and a horrible rape culture toughen the female survivors. Bernadette recalls how she started crying after listening to one woman talk about her countless rapes, but was told, “You must stop that now. There is no time to cry. You cry, you are weak, and people hurt you.” Young women must develop a hard shell to survive. Learning English is no longer education for knowledge sake: “They know English is their way to achieve. They are much harsher with teaching because it’s life and death.”
On the other hand, amidst poor living conditions, Bernadette witnessed great kindness and community. When visiting the Maasai village on a free weekend, Bernadette found a “soul charm” among the semi-nomads. Even with absolutely nothing, their cow dung-and-mud huts crawling with bugs, the people graciously took care of Bernadette, who had fallen ill. Back at the base of Kilimanjaro, the women sewed a traditional dress, green with yellow giraffes, and a small head wrap as a going away present. Although she doubts she could wear the outfit to work, as the women hoped, she donned her garments for the lecture on the experience in the fall.
Summing up her experience in Tanzania, Bernadette Morris remarked that “it was there that I learned that we all have an obligation towards each other. The world is not about doing it all on your own. If I can help more people, I will.” Someday soon, she hopes to volunteer at Queens Galley, a soup kitchen in Kingston. Although she knows she will be instantly gratified by working as a server, she also hopes to utilize her professional skills to attract more donations. “Every time you start feeling down about yourself, you need to be devoting more of your attention to other people.”
After raising a family as a single mother, she continued her education, because she always wanted to go back to school, fully aware of education as a powerful tool of self-empowerment. “If you know that you should do something to your fullest capacity, explore some inner ability you have, to read and research, you owe it to yourself to do that. You can’t get uneducated. That is yours forever. That’s why I think education is so important: it’s the one thing in life that can’t be taken away from you.”
Bernadette Morris proudly declares she is “SUNY-bred,” first starting her undergraduate education at SUNY Ulster. Later she earned her Bachelor’s in Communication & Media from SUNY New Paltz and her Master’s from SUNY Albany, but “SUNY New Paltz was something special for me.” Such sentiments frequently reoccur among faculty and staff who previously attended the institution as an undergraduate and/or graduate student. Even with a full scholarship, teaching assistantship and great friends at SUNY Albany, she seized the opportunity to return to New Paltz when Patricia Sullivan, then the Department Chair for Communication & Media, asked if she could teach a section of Public Speaking. After graduation, she received another request from the department as a major advisor. She balanced teaching as an adjunct with part-time advising, which evolved into a full-time position under then Provost David Lavallee.
After a brief interlude away from New Paltz, Bernadette filled in an open position in Academic Advising. She continued teaching as an adjunct, including a Theories of Persuasion course at Russell Sage, until promoted to senior academic advisor. After a year and a half, she moved over to Records and Registration as the Associate Registrar. In 2007, when SUNY New Paltz moved to the Banner software system, Bernadette experienced a “baptism by fire” as the newly-installed Registrar. She credits the network of Registrars across SUNY for helping her ease into the new software and major system change. The Office of Records and Registration, which the Registrar supervises, functions behind the scenes to keep all the crucial systems operating smoothly. “Unless something out of the usual happens, you won’t have to see us.”
For Bernadette, her research evolved from her academic writings on non-verbal communication to consistently updating her knowledge on the latest degree software. Most recently, her research includes DegreeWorks. Adopted by CUNY Baruch and SUNY Cobleskill, the system includes features such as the “What If” function. This allows students interested in changing their major to see how their already completed courses could fit into graduation requirements, before they decide to switch.
As part of her Registrar duties, Bernadette frequently discusses campus policies with the Associate Deans, Vice Presidents, the Provost and other administrators, “always planning the next step.” While one might assume that system functions hardly affect a college’s image to prospective students, Bernadette views the big picture and encourages her staff to follow suit. “If I make processes easier, then the word gets out, and the College gets better. We don’t just help with graduation; we help from the beginning. We have to take ownership of that, because if we don’t, then we put the whole institution at peril.”
While most of her work focuses on student needs, she aids faculty in navigating the system from time to time. As a former faculty member and close friend of many current faculty members, Bernadette understands that struggling through scheduling and degree systems is the last burden they need. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for faculty. They have so much invisible work. The students have some tough questions and they’re looking at you to be the expert. Professors constantly need to be reading to keep up in their academic areas.”
From her diverse range of experiences at the institution, Bernadette gained “a really good idea of what SUNY New Paltz is all about. Having served in the academic side, I really understand what it is to teach, and I know the pressures. Having been a student and an administrator, I can bring all of those experiences to the table. I try to represent all of them, yet it’s very apparent that we’re here because of the students.” She extends herself on numerous occasions outside of her duties as Registrar, conducting communications-oriented programs in the residence halls, with EOP and through Orientation, in part because she “didn’t have those experiences as a commuter student.” She also assists Honors Program theses from time to time, despite no longer working as an adjunct, with her knowledge on non-verbal communication.
During her years affiliated with SUNY New Paltz as student, faculty and staff, Bernadette Morris has developed a strong group of friends. She frequently meets up with her former professors and current colleagues Pat Sullivan, Shelly Wright, Nancy Kassop and Lynn Spangler. “We’re regular girlfriends, and girlfriends are very important. We don’t have to talk about academe, we can talk about our own lives. We rally around each other for support, and they’re the most supportive friends I can have.”
If any environment demonstrates Bernadette’s passionate interest in education as a vital tool, it would be Tanzania. For three weeks in 2010, she volunteered at the base of Kilimanjaro with the grassroots women’s organization Women’s Education and Economic Centre (WEECE). She gave a campus lecture on her experience in Tanzania (http://www.newpaltz.edu/wmnstudies/fall2010webnewletter.pdf). “I’ve been to the Bahamas, Bermuda, Ireland, England, Italy and Canada, but I’ve never done any volunteer work. Every place else is just touristy; you don’t really know the land.” She observed the harsh realities of a truly misogynistic third-world country, struggling against rampant diseases, water shortage and short life expectancy. Yet, she fell in love with the beauty of the people and their “different way of being.”
On the one hand, a harsh societal patriarchy and a horrible rape culture toughen the female survivors. Bernadette recalls how she started crying after listening to one woman talk about her countless rapes, but was told, “You must stop that now. There is no time to cry. You cry, you are weak, and people hurt you.” Young women must develop a hard shell to survive. Learning English is no longer education for knowledge sake: “They know English is their way to achieve. They are much harsher with teaching because it’s life and death.”
On the other hand, amidst poor living conditions, Bernadette witnessed great kindness and community. When visiting the Maasai village on a free weekend, Bernadette found a “soul charm” among the semi-nomads. Even with absolutely nothing, their cow dung-and-mud huts crawling with bugs, the people graciously took care of Bernadette, who had fallen ill. Back at the base of Kilimanjaro, the women sewed a traditional dress, green with yellow giraffes, and a small head wrap as a going away present. Although she doubts she could wear the outfit to work, as the women hoped, she donned her garments for the lecture on the experience in the fall.
Summing up her experience in Tanzania, Bernadette Morris remarked that “it was there that I learned that we all have an obligation towards each other. The world is not about doing it all on your own. If I can help more people, I will.” Someday soon, she hopes to volunteer at Queens Galley, a soup kitchen in Kingston. Although she knows she will be instantly gratified by working as a server, she also hopes to utilize her professional skills to attract more donations. “Every time you start feeling down about yourself, you need to be devoting more of your attention to other people.”
