Kay Schmidt graduated from Bethel in 1988 with a degree in home economics. But for the next 27 years, her life—as Bethel’s associate registrar—was all about numbers.
This is the view that many generations of students had of Kay Schmidt, associate registrar for 27 years, greeting them with a smile at the registrar’s office window.An Indiana native, Schmidt went one year to Ball State University in Muncie before marrying John Schmidt ’70. She went to Bethel for a year and after that stayed home to raise their three children while John farmed.
The farm crisis in the ’80s was the incentive for her to go back to school, with the help of Bethel’s response to Willie Nelson’s Farm Aid, offering free tuition to people leaving farming. As she was finishing her degree, Diana Torline, then registrar, was advertising for the associate position.
It started out as a nine-month contract, but Schmidt never left—until this spring, when she and John decided to move to Kansas City to be closer to their family, daughter Alison ’99 and Gilberto Flores ’00 and son Ian Schmidt ’04 and Jasmine Titus and especially three small grandchildren, Mateo and Marco Flores and Lorelei Titus Schmidt.
Certainly the biggest change Schmidt has seen in almost three decades has been “the evolution of technology.”
One big piece of her job was sending out transcripts. “It used to be when we got a request, I would photocopy the transcripts, attach a grade key, sign it and date it, put on the official Bethel seal, then type the envelope and mail it. Since 2010, it’s been electronic—you can request and receive your transcript online and it hardly takes any time at all.”
She recalled registration days each semester when there would be a long line of students at her window, snaking out into the Ad Building lobby. Now they or their advisers can do it all online.
Students still did come to her window occasionally, though. One of her favorite stories remains the time one stopped in to ask for “the intercourse schedule.” (He meant to say “interterm.”)An Indiana native, Schmidt went one year to Ball State University in Muncie before marrying John Schmidt ’70. She went to Bethel for a year and after that stayed home to raise their three children while John farmed.
The farm crisis in the ’80s was the incentive for her to go back to school, with the help of Bethel’s response to Willie Nelson’s Farm Aid, offering free tuition to people leaving farming. As she was finishing her degree, Diana Torline, then registrar, was advertising for the associate position.
It started out as a nine-month contract, but Schmidt never left—until this spring, when she and John decided to move to Kansas City to be closer to their family, daughter Alison ’99 and Gilberto Flores ’00 and son Ian Schmidt ’04 and Jasmine Titus and especially three small grandchildren, Mateo and Marco Flores and Lorelei Titus Schmidt.
Certainly the biggest change Schmidt has seen in almost three decades has been “the evolution of technology.”
One big piece of her job was sending out transcripts. “It used to be when we got a request, I would photocopy the transcripts, attach a grade key, sign it and date it, put on the official Bethel seal, then type the envelope and mail it. Since 2010, it’s been electronic—you can request and receive your transcript online and it hardly takes any time at all.”
She recalled registration days each semester when there would be a long line of students at her window, snaking out into the Ad Building lobby. Now they or their advisers can do it all online.
Students still did come to her window occasionally, though. One of her favorite stories remains the time one stopped in to ask for “the intercourse schedule.” (He meant to say “interterm.”)Here is a sampling of “Kay by the numbers”:
- Head counts compiled—fulltime, part-time, full-time equivalent (also included demographics, e.g., male, female, states, counties)*
- 4 times annually x 27 = 108
- NAIA eligibility certification completed—freshmen have one set of academic requirements; continuing students and transfer students another
- 200-300 annually x 27 = 5,400-6,300
- Transcript requests filled
- approx. 1,000 annually = approx. 27,000
- Course catalogs compiled
- 27
- Course schedule booklets compiled
- 3 times annually x 27 = 81
- Degrees verified
- impossible to say
- Retention rates tracked
- at least 54 (2 times annually, spring and fall)
*Asked who needed head counts, Schmidt said: “IPEDS [Integrated Post-Secondary Education System, a federal tracking system], Admissions, U.S. News & World Report, the State of Kansas, Mennonite Education Agency, Peterson’s [college guide], Forbes.com, anybody who asked.”