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LETTER FROM THE FORUM CHAIRDear AIR Friends and Colleagues,To start this welcome, I’m tempted to paraphrase a popular aphorism, “No matter where you’ve come from, here you are.” However, it does matter where you’ve come from, or at least that you’ve come from an incredibly diverse array of regions and organizations to share with colleagues your knowledge and experiences regarding the use of information and analyses to understand, evaluate, and improve higher education systems, institutions, and programs throughout the world. It also matters that you are here in Toronto, a city that reflects well the diversity and level of sophistication that our profession has reached in its 42nd year of holding these conferences. I wish I could welcome and thank you all personally for investing your time and resources in this event. I also wish I could express my appreciation adequately to the hundreds of individuals who worked hard to bring this Forum together. The best I can do in this short welcoming letter is to offer you the fruits of these labors. The pages of this program list the hundreds of sessions and events that promise to make this a memorable Forum. This body of work represents the current state of our profession. We have come a long way during the past 40 plus years, especially given the more recent explosion of technology and tools that have fundamentally changed the way we can gather, analyze, and disseminate information. However, we retain the core principles and practices that have guided our profession since its nascent days: the responsible use of appropriate research designs and analytic methods on valid and reliable information sources. These core values and the tools and technologies that allow us to apply them in increasingly timely and sophisticated ways, makes this an exciting time to be in our profession With a firm sense of our profession’s roots, its short but rich history, and the promise of a bright future, I welcome you to explore new frontiers, as guided by the pages of this program. Godspeed,
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