Message from the COSR Chair

Greetings from the chair of the Committee on Student Records

Welcome to the Group on Student Affairs (GSA) Committee on Student Records (COSR) page on the AAMC website!

The role of the Registrar at any educational institution is extremely important. We are charged with being the official custodians of every student's academic record, applying academic policy to enrollment processes and procedures, ensuring completion of degree requirements, data reporting to external and internal organizations, administering the registration and grading processes, verifying degrees and enrollment, MAStering numerous student information systems - all with a cordial and professional demeanor! Ours is not a simple task!

The Group on Student Affairs (GSA) Committee on Student Records (COSR) represents, and provides opportunities for professional development for, medical school student records administrators (also referred to as Registrars), whether they are based within the medical school itself or elsewhere in the parent institution. The primary role of the school of medicine Registrar is to maintain the permanent records and documents that pertain to each matriculated student's progress through medical school.

Initially created as the ad hoc GSA Committee on Medical Licensure in 1996, the renamed GSA Committee on Student Records was elevated to a regular standing committee of the GSA in 1998. Membership on the COSR consists of:

• the chair
• one representative from each of the four GSA regional organizations (Northeast, Central, Southern, and Western)
• a OSR student representative
  
• a representative from the GSA-Minority Affairs Section and
• the Immediate Past GSA National Chair.

COSR reports, through its chair, to the GSA Steering Committee, which acts as an Executive Committee for the GSA. COSR's recommendations for approval or modification of GSA-generated guidelines or for policy development are first considered by the GSA Steering Committee. If approved by the Steering Committee, these recommendations are then referred to policy-making components of the AAMC through the Council of Deans liaison on the Steering Committee.

Since its inception, COSR has been an extremely active committee. We were instrumental in leading the call for the development of the Visiting Student Application Service (VSAS), which will begin its pilot year in early 2008. We are currently working on a revised Handbook for Student Records Administrators, which will include effective practices for the administration of combined, dual and joint degree programs.

With the advent of new technologies, the role of the Registrar is ever evolving and changing. Electronic records and signatures, criminal background checks, expanding class sizes, changing curriculums, and the overall climate of higher education require us to be flexible and knowledgeable in several areas.

We hope that our activities will meet the needs of Registrars across the nation, provide leadership and insight to the AAMC on national issues relevant to Registrars, and foster collaborative relationships with the other GSA Committees.

On behalf of the members of COSR: Chris Meiers (Central), Joan Monahan (Northeast), Forrest Page (Southern), Vicki Fields (Western), Sonia Beasley (MAS), and Dwight Davis (Immediate Past GSA National Chair), we are here to serve you and welcome your feedback.

Karen A. Lewis
Assistant Vice President for Enrollment Management,
Student Services & Registrar
Meharry Medical College
Chair, GSA National Committee on Student Records