Denise DeBlasio has spent the summer wearing two hats -- her usual one as registrar and a new one as interim director of Undergraduate Admissions. DeBlasio, who has been at Montclair State 22 years, serving the past eight as registrar, will pass the Admissions hat this week to its new director, Dennis Craig.

For nine weeks DeBlasio stepped up to the plate to take over the Admissions operation while maintaining her responsibilities as registrar. She literally hit the ground -- between College and Russ halls -- running.

"One of the key components to the institution's growth and President Cole's goal for 18,000 students by 2008 is a formal strategic enrollment management plan," DeBlasio said. "And a sound enrollment management plan necessitates a University-wide commitment and involvement from key offices, with Admissions and the Registrar being two of them.

"The University's growth will be the result of increasing the applicant and admit pools while maintaining the quality of new students as well as increasing retention," she said. "It all goes hand in hand."

DeBlasio, who has met several times with Craig, said the new director "has a lot of innovative ideas for admissions. I think it will be a fun and exciting time for the entire staff."

Back in the Registrar's Office, DeBlasio has some plans of her own. This semester is the first time the entire schedule of courses, including times, dates and locations, is available on the Web, and she plans to make headway on a project that will allow students to register via the Internet as well as view transcripts and run their degree audits. Prospective students also would be able to check on the status of their applications. In addition, she is investigating a software package that assists in classroom scheduling. "This would make it easier for academic departments to allocate rooms and times to the courses they offer," she said.

DeBlasio said the Registrar's Office will continue to play its part in the retention effort. "Every student must deal with our office," she said. "And all the experiences students go through should be positive ones."

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