Heather Alderfer

Heather Alderfer is a member of the editorial collective at University of Venus, and is an Associate Registrar at Yale Law School.

She briefly studied the intersection of people, technology, and society at the School of Information at the University of Michigan while exploring the intricacies of degree requirements at the Office of the Registrar. Prior to Michigan, Heather was an Associate Registrar at Northeastern University and an Assistant Registrar at Wesleyan University. She received a BA in English and International Relations in 2002 and a Master’s of Arts in Liberal Studies from Wesleyan in 2007, and a Master’s in Education with a focus on Higher Education Administration from Northeastern University in 2010. Heather is also a registered yoga teacher, and has a dedicated Forrest Yoga and Transcendental Meditation practice. She was raised in Fairfield, Iowa, and attended a conscious-based high school.

She can be found on twitter @hettyplatt and reached by email at halderfer@gmail.com

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Most Recent Articles

February 19, 2012
Building Momentum: An Introvert’s Story
My word of the year was going to be “joy” but after a month of reflection, what I really want to focus on is building momentum. How do I build momentum while not changing my job, my location, or returning to school?
December 5, 2011
The Nature of Research
When I first started working in academia as full-time staff, I was 24 years old, and had graduated only 18 months earlier. I envisioned myself still a student, and technically, since I was enrolled in a part-time graduate program, I was. My friends were still students, some undergraduate, some had moved on to graduate programs. I thought I was able to offer the “older” staff relevant opinions on what students would or would not like, which I hope was partly true.
September 22, 2011
Hello, My Name is Heather, and I'm a Piler
Monday afternoon, after a particularly brutal, yet uneventful day, a large stack of papers fell from my desk to the floor. My organizational system of piles was faltering. Hello, my name is Heather, and I am a piler. I have piles at work, and piles at home. I know exactly what is in each pile, (ahem, almost) and approximately how old each pile is. For the most part, this organization (or lack thereof) works for me. It doesn’t always work for those around me.
August 2, 2011
Imaginative Transcripts
June 19, 2011
Starting Strong: Your First Days on Campus
In the span of approximately three years, I started three new jobs at new institutions. So when my fellow UVenus writer Meg Palladino told me she would be taking a new position and switching insitutions, I started compiling a list of advice for administrators who are starting new ventures on new campuses. Although my experience is with administrative jobs, I imagine full-time faculty and adjuncts may have similar experiences.   1. Learn the culture.  
May 22, 2011
Data Ambassadors
Regular readers of my contributions to this blog know I’m fiercely proud of the institution and role of the registrar in academia. I know the job has connotations of cranky women behind glass windows, churning out transcripts and denying students who try creative math with their degree requirements, but I see signs the role is changing.
April 24, 2011
Emotional Gate-Keeping
This week is admitted student weekend across many campuses and I’ve been thinking about the relationship between Admissions and the Registrar’s Office.
March 27, 2011
Conference 101
I love conferences; they allow me to be a registrar geek, among over 2,000 people, vendors, university representatives, and governmental policy makers. I was lucky to be in Seattle last week, amongst many other registrars, attending conference sessions on curriculum work flow and classroom scheduling at the annual meeting of the American Association of College Registrars and Admissions Officers. I have been working in the registrar field (if I can call it that) for about seven years now, a few years longer than entry level jobs require.
February 22, 2011
Messy Lives
A big part of what I like about being a Registrar is bringing order to chaos. Whether it is tackling room scheduling for dozens of classes for an entire semester or de-mystifying degree audits, I can usually bring my experience and framework of advice from trusted colleagues to offer solutions.
January 25, 2011
Do Less
My motto for 2011 is simple: do less. By doing less, I’m hoping to accomplish more. No, it’s not an oxymoron. I try to do too much, so by cutting back on what I’m doing, both at work and at home, my goal is to do whatever task I’m working on more thoroughly, more mindfully, and more completely.

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