Susan McKinney, CRM
Director, Records & Information Management
University of Minnesota
502 Morrill Hall
100 Church St. SE
I have this need to get into this discussion.  First of all, this is my
opinion and not any opinion of anyone else, any organization I belong to
or any of my former employers.

I know and understand the issues associated with this discussion.  I
know that there are quite a number of people in our profession who do
not have degrees and who probably will never get degrees.  I know that
quite a number of these people are at the top of our profession and
certainly have achieved and should be thought of as leaders in RIM.

That being said, I personally believe that RIM positions, especially in
any sort of management position, need to have degree qualifications.
The reason for this is because I believe that if we are to succeed in
raising the level of our profession, it has to be looked at by Senior
Management as a viable profession and therefore a degree is necessary.
If we want people in our profession to move into Senior Management
positions, they need to have degrees behind them, no matter what that
degree is in.  Yes, we have many members who are in those positions
currently without degrees.  But we live in a different culture now, and
college degrees are more important in the business environment.  We have
to realize that, we have to plan for the future of our profession, and
we have to assist our staff members who want to move up through the
ranks of our profession or our organization.  

Again, this is my own personal opinion.  But I do believe that as a
profession, we have to look ahead, we have to think towards the future
and that the future of our profession is going to be more complicated,
more technological, and require training in many different areas.
College degrees are going to be a standard requirement in the future.  I
do not see why we should downplay the need for a degree just because
some in our profession do not currently have them.  We need to have that
requirement, because we want to be taken seriously as a profession.  

All for me on a Friday.  If I hadn't answered this question today, I
would have been up all night thinking about it.  

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Fondly, 
Susan 

Susan McKinney, CRM
University of Minnesota

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