UNCP Registrar retires and takes new position

By Jennifer Casper
Staff Writer

Sara Brackin worked as the UNCP Registrar for 15 years assisting the University and its students, but she recently retired from that position and accepted a new position as the Director of International Programs.

The Registrar is one of the most respected jobs in any University, and Brackin impacted many students’ lives.

Brackin worked with many students over the years.

She saw them grow as individuals from the first day they attended the University to the very last day when they graduated.

“The best memories are the students who come back and make a point to see me or call me to let me know how they’re doing and what is going on in their life,” Brackin said.

Brackin said that it is a great honor to have had such a personal relationship with the students and to have seen them from the beginning and to know that when they graduate that their lives are just beginning and their education is starting all over again.

Students aren’t the only ones whom Brackin will miss working with in the Registrar’s office. She calls her close staff her family.

“We have a saying in the office. We’re family, and we’re together more than we are with our own family,” she said.

Even though Brackin won’t be working in the same office with her second family, she will continue to see them and they will still be a part of who she is in her future.

Many people around the University campus have given Brackin credit as one of the main people who assisted with the development and growth of UNCP in recent years.

On Feb. 6 the Faculty Senate passed a Commendation for Sara Brackin for her patience, diligence and persistence because without her help, UNCP would not have been able to achieve the significant changes to the campus.

“It is such an honor to work with students, faculty and staff and to know that people have credited me for the development of UNCP, but I don’t think that it’s true,” Brackin said.

Even though Brackin has retired from being Registrar, UNCP is still in her heart and she has accepted a new position as the Director of International Programs.

“Too much of my heart is here at UNCP and the love for faculty, students and staff,” she said. “It would be like leaving my family for the first time and I’m not ready to go off to college,” she continued.

This position is another way for Brackin to continue building relationships and strengths with the people she loves most, the students.

“This is another step forward and for me a challenge and a way to develop, learn and challenge in other ways,” she added.