New registrar Paul Viau talks about his background and goals for the college
This year, Keene State College welcomed Dr. Paul Viau as the new Registrar. Viau has a long history of experience such as Associate University Registrar for the University of Central Florida and serving as its Director of Veterans Academic Resource Center. Viau also spent some time at Texas A&M as an Academic Advisor, as Assistant Director of Student Activities at Rollins College, and as Resident Coordinator at Slippery Rock University.
Dr. Paul Viau has over 35 years of experience with both the traditional academic affairs and students’ affairs sides of the institution, Viau is here to help the KSC community by being our registrar while also thinking about each student’s success.
“I just left the University of Central Florida where I was the Associate Registrar for 15 years and before that I was the assistant director of first year advising, which was our freshmen year advising office. I have been working at colleges and universities for many, many years,” said Viau.
Viau also spent two-and-a-half years as an assistant of the dean at University of Maryland’s Munich Germany campus where they lived on an army base. It was a two-year school for students with guardians in the military living in Europe. Viau said his time on that campus was “A great experience.”
“I have been doing this for quite a while and I am glad to be back in New England and at Keene state,” Viau said.
As the registrar, Viau “Oversees the office that oversees records and registration.” Viau also sees students’ academic records, like the classes they are taking, any courses they may be transferring in transcripts when they finish and start their new career, and graduate careers or job careers when students need transcripts. He also audits graduation, so it is certain that a year out from graduation students are able to graduate in an efficient and effective manner.
Viau said that his past work experiences have given him a “Holistic view of the student experience,” since he has lived in residence halls, been involved with student activities and some student athletics, and has worked with first-year students to make sure they are on track. “I think all of that has given me the opportunity to be able to really see the registrar position from a ten-thousand-foot view.”
Viau said he wanted to take the job at Keene State because he wanted to get back in New England and work at a smaller institution. “I wanted to get back to my small college roots and have the opportunity to work closer with individual students”.
The impact that Viau hopes to have on the Keene State community is, “Well I hope we can look at the processes that students are used to right now, for registration, being able to look at their records, transcripts and to see where any changes are needed. I think with COVID and having to step back off campus for a while, Keene State has looked at the processes that needed to be more online and be able to do a magnificent job at making that transition. I want to see where we can make any adjustments to that, make any tweaks to the processes so that students can do what they need to do 24/7, 365.”
“I am a first generation student myself and I feel that’s the same profile as a lot of students here at Keene,” Viau said.
