ATHENS, Ohio -- Ohio University's Office of Registrar is under new leadership this fall, after Bill Jones and Debra Benton each accepted new positions effective Sept. 1. Jones, university registrar since 1995, was promoted to assistant vice president for academic services. Benton, associate registrar since 1996, replaces Jones as university registrar.

In his new position, Jones will codify the policies and procedures that relate to the Registrar's Office and address academic services provided to the university's academic departments as requested by Vice President for Administration Gary North.

Employed at Ohio University since 1965, Jones has served the university in many capacities. Before becoming registrar, Jones worked as associate registrar and previous to that was assistant registrar and project coordinator for the Degree Audit Reporting System. In the College of Arts and Sciences, he served as assistant dean and director of student affairs from 1969 to 1988 and assistant to the dean from 1966 to 1969. He began his professional career at Ohio University in 1965 as a human relations instructor.

During this period, Jones also directed several special projects at the request of the provost's office, including developing a trend-setting system for dealing with transfer credit, developing a university-wide faculty academic advising system and implementing the Post Secondary Enrollment Opportunity Program.

Jones also served as the representative of the academic colleges and departments on the Student Information System Task Force, which led to the implementation of the degree audit reporting system (DARS), as well as several other applications designed to help deans' offices and academic departments. Jones, a native of Waynesville, Ohio, earned a bachelor's degree from Ohio University in English language and literature in 1963.

As university registrar, Benton will oversee an office responsible for academic reporting, athletic eligibility certification, class scheduling and curriculum file management, degree audit, graduation, re-enrollment processing, registration, Student Information System security and management, student records, transcript processing, tuition and course fee assessment and veterans education certification.

In 2000, she received the Linus J. Ryland Award from the Ohio Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers for her distinguished service to the profession. Professionally, she serves on the Records Management, Credentials Fraud and Security Committee for the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO).

A native of Yellow Springs, Ohio, Benton began her professional career at Ohio University in 1993 as assistant registrar after receiving a master's degree in education leadership and college student personnel earlier that year. She also earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics with a minor is computer science from Ohio University in 1991.