The 2009 RMAIR conference, October 21-23, was held in beautiful Flagstaff, Arizona. Thanks to Steve Chambers and Patricia Haeuser for doing a wonderful job in organizing this successful conference.

Congratulations to Nicolas A. Valcik and Dawn Kenney for best paper New Directions for IR: IR and Homeland Security. RMAIR allocates $500 for best paper, to assist in the cost of the travel for the primary author/presenter. The 2009 conference had outstanding presentations and good attendance. There is always a concern that a conference will not be successful and in a year of economic uncertainty it was great that the conference happened to be in a state with travel restrictions outside of state boundaries. The support from Arizona was great and the planners did a good job of keeping costs as low as possible. The IPEDS workshop as a pre-conference workshop was filled and very successful at reaching a large group.

James Applegate from the Lumina Foundation was the 2009 Conference Keynote speaker. He talked about the foundation goal to increase the percentage of Americans who hold high-quality degrees and credentials to 60% by 2025. Applegate spoke of shining a spotlight on state aid programs that focus on the financial need of students and “incentivize focus on need-based aid with consequences for those who do not”. In addition Applegate spoke of a need for all states to create unit record data systems linking P-12, higher education and workforce data. Changing funding approaches to increase higher education productivity included the concepts of rewarding student completion especially for underserved and underprepared students and encouraging innovative technology.