NJAIR
New Jersey Association for Institutional Research

Mission

The mission of NJAIR (New Jersey Association for Institutional Research) is to promote communication and cooperation among higher education researchers in New Jersey. The goals of NJAIR include:

promoting professional development (sharing information, information technology, research methods, etc.),

facilitating information/data sharing,

identifying and analyzing the emerging issues in higher education,

facilitating networking among colleagues.

Constitution

Article I Name

The name of the organization will be the New Jersey Association for Institutional Research (also to be known as NJAIR).

Article II Purpose

NJAIR will be an association of individuals from higher education and related organizations in the state of New Jersey who share an interest in Institutional Research. The purpose of NJAIR will be to promote the interests of Institutional Research in the state through professional development and contacts, information exchange, and analysis of emerging issues. Members of the Association will be invited to an Annual Conference, which will be held on topics of general interest to the members of NJAIR.

Article III Membership

Membership will be open to all individuals who are interested in postsecondary education research in New Jersey. Such individuals will become members by payment of annual dues. Membership fees will be determined by the Steering Committee. Membership will be by calendar year, January through December.

Article IV Steering Committee

The Steering Committee will consist of nine elected members. Each of three sectors — public four-year colleges and universities, private four-year colleges and universities, and community colleges — will elect three members to the Steering Committee. At least one member in each sector must have preciously served on the steering committee. A Chair, Secretary and Treasurer will be elected by the Steering Committee from among its members. A Local Arrangements Coordinator will also be elected by the Steering Committee. If not already an elected member of the Steering Committee, the Local Arrangements Coordinator will serve as an ex officio member.

The term of each officer will be one year. Nominees for Chair must have served on the Steering Committee for at least one year.

Article V Duties of Officers

The duties of the Chair, Secretary, Treasurer and Local Arrangements Coordinator will be as follows: The Chair will call, plan and chair meetings of the Steering Committee. The Treasurer will manage NJAIR’s accounts, maintain proper financial records, collect membership dues, and prepare annual financial reports and tax returns. The Secretary will record minutes of Steering Committee meetings and serve as External Groups Liaison. The Local Arrangements Coordinator will assist the Steering Committee in planning the Annual Conference and will host the Conference.

Article VI Fiscal Year

The fiscal year of NJAIR will be January 1 through December 31.

Article VII Calendar

Membership renewal materials will be sent to members during the month of January. The Annual Conference program will be announced to the members at least thirty (30) days prior to the scheduled meeting date. The Annual Business Meeting will be held during the Annual Conference.

Article VIII Conference Site

The site for the following year's Conference will be announced during each Annual Conference. The site will normally rotate between higher education sectors.

Article IX Website and Listserv

The NJAIR website and listserv will be administered by members who volunteer for these tasks. It is understood that, by agreeing to administer the website or listserv, volunteers have sought and received approval from their institutions to host that service. Responsibility for the content on the website, as well as responsibility for developing listserv user policies, rest with the NJAIR Steering Committee as a whole. No set term will be established for administering the website and listserv. If volunteers can no longer administer one of these services, they will give the NJAIR Steering Committee a minimum of three months advance notice.

Article X Adoption and Amendments

This constitution must be mailed to the membership thirty (30) days before the next Annual Business Meeting following approval by the Steering Committee and must be adopted by a two-thirds majority vote during the Annual Business Meeting. The constitution may be amended by a two-thirds majority vote of the members present at the Annual Business Meeting. Members must be notified in writing thirty (30) days prior to any vote on an amendment.

History

NJAIR began with a breakfast gathering of New Jersey institutional researchers attending the NEAIR conference in Baltimore in 1994. The breakfast meeting was called for the purpose of generating interest in forming an association that would bring together institutional researchers from all sectors of higher education in New Jersey. The group decided that the best way to move forward would be to hold a conference on topics of general interest to which institutional researchers from all the colleges and universities in the state would be invited.

Georgian Court College hosted and subsidized the first annual meeting, held in March 1995. Restructuring of higher education in New Jersey, SPRE (remember that?), and the Student-Right-to-Know Act were the hot topics addressed at the meeting. After lunch, the idea in forming a multi-sector association was presented and approved by the group. The first steering committee was selected from volunteers interested in turning an idea into an organization.

For the first two years, the steering committee meetings were hosted by Rutgers University. Surveying members' interests, creating a database of NJ institutional researchers and their addresses, and organizing annual meetings were the main items of business initially.

By 1996, the time seemed right to begin to formalize NJAIR. A mission statement was written and the steering committee began to be structured. In 1997, NJAIR became an officially recognized affiliate of AIR. In fall 1997, the steering committee moved to incorporate as a nonprofit organization and to collect dues in order to upgrade the kind of services the association could offer. Besides the annual meeting, NJAIR now sponsors a list serve and this web page.