‘THE FIRST STEP’

Registrar’s office moves downtown

East Carolina University’s Office of the Registrar celebrated its re-opening less than a block from campus on Feb. 12.

The office relocated from the Whichard Building to a leased 8,062-square-foot space at 207 E. 5th Street. Formerly a nightclub, the renovated building features large windows, reclaimed hardwood floors and exposed brick walls.

“The entire uptown community has been very welcoming,” said Angela Anderson, university registrar.

The registrar’s office is the first of several that the university plans to relocate downtown, said Dr. Rick Niswander, vice chancellor for administration and finance. A few including financial services and information technology are already located off campus.

Angela Anderson, university registrar, and Dr. Rick Niswander, vice chancellor for administration and finance, tour the new registrar’s office in downtown Greenville.

“This is the first step in a multi-step process,” he said. In the next two years, the cashier’s office, financial aid, admissions and related student services are expected to move downtown to free up needed space on main campus, Niswander said. “The concept is it’s a one-stop shop.”

Twenty-nine staff members in the registrar’s office are responsible for student records, class registration for students, assigning classroom space, issuing grades and transcripts, certifying degree requirements, mailing diplomas to graduates, and maintaining a computerized student database.

Students, prospective students and parents will be able to park near the building or take an ECU Transit bus that has a stop nearby. Most functions can be handled electronically, which eliminates the long lines of students that used to wrap around the Whichard Building during registration, Anderson said.

“They can do many things online but a lot of students still want to come in and see somebody,” Anderson said. “The fact that we’re adjacent to campus is a very good thing.”

The office is in the process of digitizing all records dating back to the first students who enrolled in 1909. “Those were done in pencil and on very thin paper,” Anderson said.

Officials are planning uses for the vacated space in the Whichard Building, Niswander said.

For more information, visit http://www.ecu.edu/registrar or email regis@ecu.edu or call 252-328-6524.