In our work presenting alumni attitudinal research and in conversations with advancement professionals around the country, we find overwhelming agreement about the importance of alumni feedback for the future success of the institution. What is surprising, however, is the amount of interest and agreement that is received from other areas/departments across campus once this information is made available to them.  This seems to be especially true for the President’s office, student groups and department leaders.

We expect advancement leaders, who regularly work with alumni, to recognize the value of knowing what motivates alumni to become engaged in such ways as reading the magazine, attending events, or giving to the institution.  Although now, more than ever, the impact of this information is making its way across campus and institutions are able to form a more uniform agenda towards alumni-related efforts.  Many of the institution’s leaders from all departments are becoming involved in future engagement efforts and thus helping meet the needs that the alumni stated in the research conducted.

Once this information is presented on campus, general discussions from many different types of institutions have led us to conclude that the information’s primary application fell into one of five categories.

1. Perception
2. The future
3. Continuity
4. Recruiting
5. Advancement

In the next several newsletters i will be talking about each of these in more detail.  To get things started, I would like to explain what I mean by Perception.

Perception: One of the most important influencers people have of a university is based on interactions with its alumni.  What type of person graduates from this institution?  How smart are they?  How successful are they?  Are they proud of their alma mater?  These questions roll through our mind as someone tells us about where they attended college.  Organizations are always measured by their product and alumni are one of the most important “products” of a university or college.

The relationship between alumni and the perception of a university or college is pretty obvious.  Less obvious, however, is how this information is received and processed by different groups around campus.   The leadership on campus is often surprised to learn that 87% of alumni (this is a national average and can be in the high 90% range for some universities)  believe that value and respect for their degree either significantly or critically impacts their opinion of their alma mater.  Further 75% say it is also about the accomplishments of students and 72% tie it to the accomplishments of faculty.

If alumni attitude is tied to things like value and respect for degree, student accomplishments, and accomplishments of faculty then it is very important to make sure these talking points are included in as much communication about the institution as possible.  These are national averages and some institution’s alumni are more focused on other areas like history and tradition or campus aesthetics but for each university or college something percolates to the top and oftentimes it is different for alumni from different eras.   After doing this work with more that 130 universities and colleges from all parts on the nation, we find that “Value and respect for degree” is almost always one of the top ways alumni are impacted by their alma mater.  In my various presentations at CASE conferences I refer to this as part of the “Equity of Degree” argument.  Alumni want to know how the equity or value of their degree is greater today than when they graduated, and they want to know what the university/college is doing to make sure that the equity (value) of their degree will be even greater in the future.  The trick is in knowing exactly how the alumni at your institution define “equity” and how that definition varies between generations or eras of graduation.

While the specifics vary, I am always impressed at how interested different groups on campus are about learning about the high impact items for alumni from their campus and how they can use this information to structure their communications and programs for alumni.

For many of our clients, The Alumni Attitude Study© project provides scientifically gathered information about alumni opinions that is, for the first time, translated into actionable results.  While we are usually working with the staff from advancement, many others on campus work with alumni in a variety of different ways; however, they have never seen the value in coordinating their efforts with other groups on campus.  Once they are presented detailed information about alumni attitudes and start to understand the overriding issues for alumni in general and how those issues pertain to alumni from their department or organization on campus, new alliances begin to form.  Everyone agrees that alumni are the outward representation of the university but they often need to be reminded that the representation is not static.

Alumni opinion changes and is heavily influenced by specific factors.  When alumni are communicated with in a way and that is targeted to their needs alumni attitudes begin to shift.  When someone asks an alumnus/a about their opinion and then clearly and demonstrably uses that opinion in various communications and programs, attitudes begin to shift.  And finally, when campus-wide approaches to alumni engagement become more focused, alumni get more engaged.

Related posts:

1. Equity of Degree
2. Age and Ethnic Distinctions in Alumni Attitudes
3. Building a Campus Coalition by Sharing Critical Alumni Feedback Data