The search for Simpson’s next registrar is nearly complete as the three finalists for the position arrived on campus during the past two weeks to speak with faculty.

The search, which is intended to find a permanent replacement for former registrar and current Assistant Professor of Religion John Bolen, has been going on since late summer. The ad for the position was initially released in August and released again in September.

“We want to take our time and we want to find the very best person,” said Steve Griffith, senior vice president and dean for academic affairs. “We decided we wanted to see a wider group of applicants, so we put the ad out again.”

Bolen, who had served as registrar since 1998, stepped down from his position during the summer.

“He decided to retire at the end of this year and go and teach more,” Griffith said. “He’s been teaching all along, but he wanted to do more teaching. We found a way that he could do that this year and brought in an interim registrar for the fall.”

The last of the three candidates came to campus prior to Thanksgiving break to speak with faculty. Now, according to Griffith, the search committee will meet to discuss which of the candidates will be offered the position at Simpson.

“Hopefully we’ll have someone hired and onboard in early January so we can make a smooth transition from the interim registrar to the full-time permanent registrar,” Griffith said.

Griffith said that the registrar position is one of the most important positions at Simpson and other colleges.

“The registrar is in charge of all the academic records of the college going back 150 years,” Griffith said. “It’s really important that the records be taken care of, are kept safe and are accurate. We’ve got to make sure that you can come back 25 to 50 years from now and those records will be there for you, and they are accurate.”

Sophomore Steve Wyatt said it is important to find somebody who knows what they are doing.

“I hope they find somebody qualified,” Wyatt said. “I feel like it’ll really affect me.”

Sophomore Austin Roy said Bolen’s reasons for leaving the registrar office were interesting.

“That’s cool that he’s returning to full-time teaching,” Roy said.

Griffith said that the biggest challenge for the new registrar will be the different curriculum implementation.

“We’ve got some really good candidates and we’re really excited about bringing them to campus to help us with the transition,” Griffith said. “We’re in this big transition to the engaged citizenship curriculum and we’re looking forward to working with the new registrar to complete that process.”

Griffith said another challenge will be learning how to use Simpson’s software, especially if they are inexperienced with it.

“We use an operating system called Datatel, so if the person doesn’t have experience with it they’ll have to learn that quickly and get on board with that,” Griffith said.

An announcement of the new registrar will be made in late December or early January.