After studying everything from beer pong to sex to academics during the last 13 years, College statistician John Pryor will leave Dartmouth in October to direct national college surveys at the University of California Los Angeles' Higher Education Research Institute.
As associate director of the Higher Education Research Institute, Pryor will conduct studies involving over 600 postsecondary schools nationwide, developing surveys for individual schools and national education policy projects.
Currently the director of student affairs planning, evaluation and research at Dartmouth, Pryor oversees several student surveys each year with the aim of improving the Dartmouth experience. "The bulk of what my research does is it goes to people who are making decisions about the student experience so that they can make it better," Pryor said.
Pryor's current supervisor, Marcia Kelly, called him the College's "point person for doing research on our undergrads."
Kelly, associate dean of administration for the College, said Pryor is "someone who is completely dedicated to Dartmouth -- to making it a better place,"
Most of Pryor's survey work is used to improve student programs on campus, Kelly said.
"We really pore over that [survey] information a lot and use it a lot in depth to think about where we're going as we move forward," Kelly said.
Pryor's surveys include entrance polls for first-year students in which they are canvassed about their expectations for college, their pre-college experiences and their reasons for choosing Dartmouth. Graduating seniors also take an annual poll, the results of which are analyzed together with the surveys they completed as incoming freshmen.
HERI Director Sylvia Hurtado, who hired Pryor for the institute, said he "pioneered" Internet-based surveying and was highly recommended by colleagues in institutional research.
"I think John is going to be very helpful in kind of moving us entirely in that direction," Hurtado said.
Pryor, a member of the Class of 1984, used the lyrics of the College's Alma Mater to capture his sentiments upon leaving the College.
Leaving was difficult, he said, because of "the hill winds and all that, the granite in my brains -- it's just been a great place."
But the opportunity to direct higher-education research on the national level led him to submit his resignation approximately two weeks ago.
Since Health Services hired him in 1992 to research student alcohol consumption and substance abuse, Pryor has observed a number of changes in student behavior, including a shift away from the cocaine use that characterized the 1980s and an increase in female drinking.
Kelly said the Dean of the College's office will begin a national search for Pryor's replacement, but fewer than 500 professionals work in the field of higher-education survey research.
In addition to his studies for the Dean of the College's office, Pryor serves as a mentor to undergraduate researchers in the Women in Science Program and as an adviser to Sigma Nu fraternity, a role that helped land him a cameo in The Dartmouth's "Roomies" comic strip. Pryor said he inspired the character "Stats Man" in the comic by Kevin Pedersen '05.
