IR Princess

"The Mrs" here. Nathan mentioned to me that I might want to explain my IR Princess nickname, as I work in a unique, specialized, often unheard of field, and many people may not be familiar with IR.

IR = Institutional Research. I work at a small, private, liberal arts university. At the University, I work in the Institutional Research office, which is charged with creating all of the surveys that we give to students, faculty, and staff, compiling and warehousing the data that we get from those surveys, and doing statistical analysis of that data for internal and external monitoring of the University. While this quantitative data analysis (from the surveys) takes up the majority of our time, we also do some qualitative research when trying to assist various individuals and departments in changing or forming policy.

So, that is sort of what I do. I always have a difficult time explaining my job. I do statistics. And as I am the asst. director, my friend Rex has given me the title "IR princess".

That's the story. I hope you enjoyed it and I taught you a little about what I do. If nothing else, I'm sure that Nathan might have learned something :)