Tammy Weaver, registrar at Arkansas Tech University, is the 2023 recipient of the ATU Faculty Senate Choice Award.
According to documentation provided by ATU Faculty Senate, the annual award is designed to “honor an ATU administrator who, in the opinion of the senate, has exhibited exemplary support of the academic mission at the university’s core.”
Weaver has served at ATU since 1984. After beginning her career working in the bookstore, the post office and the news bureau, she invested 10 years of her career in the ATU Office of Admissions. She moved to the ATU Office of the Registrar in 1996 and has been there ever since, including the last 22 years as registrar.
“I love working with our faculty,” said Weaver. “We serve the students, but one of our key constituencies is the faculty. I provide lots of information for them and work with the undergraduate curriculum. I help the curriculum committee get the proposals together. It’s a great home, and it’s my family. That’s how I feel about our staff and across campus.”
That familiarity is aided by the fact that several prominent leaders at ATU cut their teeth in the Office of the Registrar.
“We bring people in as student workers, and then many of them become full-time staff,” said Weaver. “Probably half of our office staff started as student workers. Some go elsewhere on campus. Marika Lederman (ATU associate dean for advising and career services), Amy Pennington (ATU associate vice president of student affairs, dean of students and Title IX officer) and Scott Tomlin (coordinator of ATU Learning Center) all worked in our office and were part of our team. You learn so much when you work in the registrar’s office and it prepares you. So many people over the years have been in the registrar’s office, and we have registrars across the state who worked in our office and now they’re in positions all across Arkansas.”
Weaver earned her associate, bachelor’s and master’s degrees from ATU. She counts helping students on the path to graduation as the greatest satisfaction in her job, and an integral aspect of that is serving as a resource for ATU faculty members.
“I’m very happy the faculty recognized the hard work of the registrar’s office,” said Weaver when asked about receiving a faculty-chosen recognition. “This award is representative of everyone in our office and the ultimate customer service we try to provide. Anytime the faculty call us, we drop everything and try to take care of them. I hope we can make a faculty member’s job easier so they can accomplish all the things they need to get done.”
