alumni futures

Alumni Relations on the Radio

Alumni relations recently showed up somewhere you might not expect to see it - or rather, to hear it: on the airwaves.

Two chief alumni executives, Gary Olsen (Villanova) and Matt Borowick (Seton Hall) were interviewed on satellite radio as guests on the Martha Stewart Network's show Making A Living. The host of the show is Villanova alumna Maggie Mistal, a certified career coach, and the show was billed as:

The power of connection, how to use your alumni network to the fullest, with Big East Alumni Directors Gary Olsen and Matthew Borowick. 

Gary and Matt were on the air for about 30 minutes and the show was broadcast live from New York City - from the same building where Howard Stern broadcasts his show (although, says Gary, "we did not see Howard!").

As part of the program the two AR professionals discussed alumni association programs that help students and alumni develop their professional networks (e.g., networking events, online communities, and mentoring programs). They also discussed the importance and value of being engaged with one's alumni association. Finally, Matt and Gary talked about their respective career paths and how they each found their way into the alumni relations profession.

What's next? Podcasting about alumni relations? Web radio? A cable TV show? Some of us are doubtless that our office during the week before reunions would generate enough material for a reality show. However, in the absence of a public interest in whatever the rest of the world thinks we do in AR, it is likely we'll be seeing more news and information about corporate alumni networks.

But that's another topic for another blog posting.

One Day University: Follow Up

[Updated July 6, 2007 with link to Christian Science Monitor article at end of posting.]

Earlier, I wrote about a company called One Day University. Thanks to Google Alerts, the company's founder Steven Schragis popped in to comment on Alumni Futures. Earlier this month, I asked him for more information about the company, its offerings and its future.

Schragis said he was inspired in part by a professor of his own, a memorable history teacher at Tufts University. One Day U, meanwhile, has "taken off quickly" and was in seven US cities when we spoke, drawing 300 to 400 people per event. "We generally sell out," said Schragis (referring to attendance, not philosophy).

There's a nostalgia for college, the concept of college, being on a campus. It doesn't matter what the subjects are. These professors are the most interesting teachers. So we asked, "What if you ran a seminar with no practical value beyond education for its own sake?" But the hook is, you go to ten or twelve schools and find the one or two professors the students say are the most interesting, the best teachers on campus. Nevermind their age, their subject, tenure. Just focus on evaluations.

Schragis told me "it doesn't matter what school they come from," but his company's homepage only mentions "Harvard, Yale, Brown, Princeton, Dartmouth, Columbia, The University of Pennsylvania, Cornell...." Otherwise known as the Ivy League. If it really "doesn't matter" what school the speakers are from, One Day U might want to mention some public universities, for example.

Wherever they are from, Schragis just promises that the speakers "will be interesting and entertaining. I don't care if they get through their slides - it has to be fun."

The program started out at higher end hotel/conference center venues. Now they are on college campuses, with lunch in a dining hall. Schragis envisions expanding to 12 cities in the northeastern US, and California after that.

I asked whether there was a potential conflict if he recruited a top speaker "out from under" an alumni education program on a campus. He is not worried:

I am skeptical that it would cause any problem. A professor will do this program because he wants to, not because it's a better gig than doing it for free for the alumni office. We're talking apples and oranges, because this is a different product from yours, and a different [i.e., multi-school] audience.

"In the end, he says, "we're helping the schools by showing off their professors. And we know we're doing it right, because someone is already copying us."

Schragis has hit on something so simple it should have been obvious a while ago, but those of us dedicated to advancing our single institution are thinking inside a box. One Day U has no such limitation and can continue expanding for quite a while yet. As for being copied, we probably think they're copying us, but to hear Steven Schragis tell it, One Day U doesn't know it.

Click here to see the original posting about One Day University

Christian Science Monitor article about One Day U, June 2007

Alumni Travel Journals Online

The other day Penn State's Roxanne Shiels posted an interesting query to the Minary-L alumni education listserv, which read in part:

I was wondering if anyone had any good examples of day-by-day travel dispatches or blogs for any of your travel programs.  The editor of our alumni magazine is traveling to France and is willing to do this for us but wanted to get some sample formats and content.

There was also the question of privacy, and whether to include travelers' full names:

I always worry that including full names will say "Hey, all you burglars out there, Jane Smith from Florida will be in France for another 8 days. Come and clean her out!"  Yet, if we don't include last names, it loses some of its credibility. Thoughts?

Rob Fure of Washington & Lee University commented that

writing is the workshop of perception and a well-written account of a journey  brings it back vividly and lastingly for travelers and writers alike. I only wish only that more of our colleagues in this field would risk it.

And Nathan Stazewski of Swarthmore contributed this info:

Our Publications director went on our Vietnam trip and did the following blog, http://www.swarthmore.edu/alumni/vietnam/index.html

So one question is - why aren't more alumni travel directors encouraging or experimenting with this format? Seems like it would add depth and a new dynamic to the trips, while reaching the up-and-coming audience for these very programs...even without mentioning full names and home towns...

Will Postdocs Become the "New Alumni"?

Those of you with experience at research universities may be familiar with those shadowy figures sometimes seen outside the lab - but only rarely: post-doctoral fellows, or postdocs for short.

Postdocs are an unusual breed of campus citizen:

• They aren't students (they've completed their doctorates and are doing further research)
• They aren't faculty (as they don't have academic appointments)
• They are officially staff members (but live and work as researchers and academics)

In short, they occupy a seldom-charted academic Bermuda Triangle somewhere among students, faculty and staff.

On my campus the number of postdocs is comparable to the number of undergraduates. In recent years the postdocs have formed an official governance organization, the Postdoc Association, which has ex officio representation on the Alumni Association Board of Directors, alongside reps from the undergraduate and graduate student governments.

In fact, we invite current and former postdocs to join our membership-based alumni association with the same privileges as alumni members. Apparently this is radical, and has raised a few eyebrows (and caused some data management challenges). Nonetheless we feel it's a smart investment that will benefit the institution in the long run.

Five of the positives are:

• Many postdocs are on campus longer than undergraduates are, and form strong bonds of loyalty to the institution
• They are a networking resource for students, alumni, and other postdocs
• Postdocs can feel marginalized in terms of community and desire recognition as permanent members of the campus community
• Many postdocs attended overseas universities which do not engender the same loyalty as North American institutions do, so we can become de facto alma maters (pardon my Latin)
• Some unknown number will certainly be donors in the future

One officer in our Postdoc Association says he thinks this trend is a no-brainer for all parties and will benefit everyone in the long run. "It represents a sea-change in alumni relations" he says.

We're glad they support our efforts - but that's a bold claim he makes. Are we wrong to welcome postdocs into the lifelong campus community, as long as doing so does not detract from our ability to serve alumni? Or do they represent a new audience for advancement?

Guest blogging on mStoner

Many of you know (or know of) Michael Stoner, who consults in higher ed, and who periodically blogs on communications issues at mStonerblog.com. During the next four weeks, at Michael's kind invitation, I'll be a guest blogger on his site. My postings on Alumni Futures will be duplicated on mStonerblog.com for his regular readers who might otherwise not see them.

The first couple of entries in the guest blog, however, will not be duplicated from here - you will need to surf over to his site to read them. Michael sent me four questions asking for my views on technology in alumni relations and my answers to his questions will be posted in two parts, on Wednesday, March 14 (part I) and Thursday, March 15 (part II) .

Click here to read part I of my mini-interview on mStonerblog.com.

Michael was fast out of the starting gate when "new media" appeared on the scene many years ago, and immediately grasped the potential of electronic communication for higher education communications and marketing. I am pleased to link to his blog from this site.

Alumni Relations and the Greek Opportunity

No, this is not about alumni travel programs (although I'm sure we'll talk about that topic again soon). This is about special interest groups, specifically fraternities and sororities.

I received an interesting e-mail soon after starting Alumni Futures. It came from Bruce Hammond, Director of Alumni Relations for Delta Sigma Phi, a fraternity with chapters across the US. He talked about alumni relations efforts by Greek letter organizations and how they intersect with what general alumni associations do (as an aside, the Ohio State University's former long-time alumni executive Dan Heinlen is a Delta Sigma Phi alumnus).

Some alumni directors feel that special interest group associations compete with their efforts to tie alumni back to the institution as a whole. Bruce disagrees:

There is a great deal of opportunity for collaboration between general alumni associations and special interest efforts. This includes willingness to share address information, sharing alumni news and obituaries, putting each other on our publication subscription lists, etc. With collaborative efforts, alumni can feel affinity to both their alma mater and to the organizations in which they were involved as students. Joining the efforts of the Fraternity does not mean they stop being involved with their alma mater at all.

In fact, he points out, "remembering your Greek experience brings to mind your connection to the campus as a whole, in a way that matters to you" - not just to alumni and development staff.

There are differences in the Greek letter groups' efforts and those in "central." The staffing ratio, for example: there's just one Bruce Hammond for 70,000 Delta Sig alumni.

Here are some fundamentals I took away from the email exchange with Bruce:

• Let alumni choose the affiliation that matters most to them. You can't force people to love the class of '86 if their strongest link is to the Glee Club, their sorority, the School of Nursing, or the student government.
• Collaboration with other organizations is critical. Special interest groups have few office and staff resources but they have a lifeline to passionate supporters. University advancement shops have staff, data and sometimes even a little budget money. Used in harmony, these are powerful tools.
• These interest groups form part of the "brand community" I mentioned in an earlier post.
• Finally, every segment of the alumni body overlaps with many external, non-alumni networks. All of Ohio State's Delta Sigs are part of the Ohio State alumni network, but the rest of the Delta Sigs are not. The two networks overlap.

That last point keeps coming up when we talk about online networks - many alumni who identify with your school are also part of the Facebook community for example. But online networking is a big topic, so we'll tackle it in several future postings here.

Other Higher Education Administration Blogs?

The Chronicle says that universities are using blogs to show applicants and their parents that admission officers (to quote University of Virginia assistant dean Jeannine Lalonde) - are not "people in a room with a big 'Reject' stamp."

Even though they kind of are.

Anyway, here's the item, with links to several admissions-related blogs.

At Weblogs in Higher Education, Ken Smith (professor of English at Indiana University at South Bend) blogs about blogging in higher education and has been doing so for four years (today is the blog's birthday), which makes his site a very senior one. He was kind enough to mention Alumni Futures earlier this week.

There are certainly institutionally-hosted blogs in higher ed, but are there independent voices blogging about student affairs, fundraising, PR, admissions, financial aid, campus computing or governance? Yes, I have a blog, but until very recently I didn't make a practice of reading anyone else's.

Where are the interesting blogs from other parts of higher ed administration? And what else are you reading (on screen, or on paper)?

The $17.67 Newsletter

Last week's US mail included a sample monthly newsletter for alumni and development professionals. It contained twelve pages of large print about "managing your office," "engaging nontraditional students," and an article about a golf tournament for fundraising. Then I looked at the cost of a subscription:

$185 per year + $27 for "shipping and handling."

That's $212 per year. Divided by the the 12 issues, that comes out to $17.67 per issue. $1.47 a page. 

I had several thoughts about this. An advantage of getting a printed newsletter is that you can read it in the bathroom, or in-flight, before they allow you to use electronic devices at 10,000 feet or 10 minutes after take-off (by the way, if your plane hasn't reached 10,000 feet after ten minutes, tighten your seatbelt low and tight across your lap).

And maybe it's wrong-headed to measure the cost in dollars. Maybe I should measure the value to my program - it might be worthwhile. Might.

I don't subscribe to any printed newsletters. I get most of my information online, from professional organizations, listservs, traditional media outlets and other practitioners in higher education. As a member of CASE, I receive Currents magazine.

Before electronic communications, trade newsletters were useful. But I'm not convinced that anything this spare is worth $212 per year. (This newsletter's publisher delivers similar publications to many professions, including the "Death Care" industry - which I guess is sort of a logical counterpart to the "health care" industry - and that publication covers "memorialization and remembrance issues.")

The bottom line, for me, is that a useful newsletter's content ...

• should reflect trends, and must be up to date
• ought to provide -and stimulate - creative thinking and novel approaches
• must give readers information that is not already easily findable online
• will avoid the obvious (my sample newsletter told me that "[t]he Department of Labor forecasts a growing number of baby boomers retiring in the years to come....")
• has individual bylines (who writes it? what is their experience? their point of view?)

As for the sample...You can receive the newsletter electronically. To sign up for that service you just go to....your phone. They have a tollfree number. The editor told me via email that their circulation numbers are proprietary information, due to the competitiveness of the publishing field. The newsletter in question is entering its tenth year, and although a PDF version is available, she said most of their readers prefer hard copy. She didn't respond to my questions about subscription price or that "shipping and handling" factor.

Sounds like they are satisfying the needs of the non-electronic "analog audience," which is probably a viable approach for a few more years. It also explains why there is no mention of technology in the publication, other than "how to use your database."

Do you subscribe to print newsletters? If you do and you find it a worthwhile investment, tell us about the ones you read.