Strategic Plan
Alumni Association Strategic Plan
The Alumni Association is constantly looking for new and innovative ways to bring our mission forward into the lives of current students and alumni.
Mission
The mission of the Alumni Association is to foster the lifelong involvement of alumni with the University in support of its mission to be a top-tier national Catholic research university in the Marianist tradition.
Value Proposition
The alumni association board is working to define the value of an education at UD and the value of being an alum. To support this work we’ve brainstormed 5 key areas that would add value and focused our work on the following initiatives.
Career Connections
This committee’s focus is on connecting alumni to students for internship and job opportunities. The short term goal will be to pilot programs in three geographic areas based on job growth and market trends. In the long term, we strive to connect students and alumni in meaningful ways as they enter the job market or change careers.
- Connections were made with potential employers in Chicago, New York and Denver to enhance relationships for further growth.
- Career Services retired Hire A Flyer and moved to a new job search platform, Handshake, to better serve students and employers. They are also partnering with Big Interview which allows users to create custom mock interviews as well as provides other resources to help prepare for an interview — this is available to alumni.
Education for Life
This committee is focused on researching other institutions; determine best practice and topics, or series of topics, to provide to UD alumni. Committee members will strive to use the expertise of alumni to support this initiative and provide something for each life stage. Decisions will be made on how these programs will be delivered and promoted.
- Continual promotion and support of current opportunities for Education for Life: Center for Leadership (Columbus event March 2017), Osher Lifelong Learning (partnering with an alum to bring a half-day workshop on reinventing retirement in Oct. 2017) and launched Financial Avenue for young alums (to help build personal financial knowledge).
- Additional Education for Life offerings will be a grassroots effort to distinguish UD from others and utilize the expertise of alums through TED talk type programs.
Enrollment Connections
The focus for this committee is to explore opportunities to involve alumni in the recruitment process. Conversations with Enrollment staff are well underway and the process has been outlined. The committee will need to research other institutions for best practices and work with Enrollment to find what works at UD. The goals of this committee will be determined after more conversation and will need to be aligned with the goals of the Vice President of Enrollment.
- An alumni and admitted student event was successful in Dayton with a 40% increase in deposits following the event. In 2018 events will take place in Dayton, Cleveland, Chicago and Indianapolis. Alumni testimonial: “My experience at UD was life changing for me. It can be life changing for others too and if a potential student is on the fence about committing to UD, talking about what it has done for me and even some of my fellow Flyers personally and professionally is a great sales tool!”
- Committee will continue to work with enrollment to look at best practice programs in which alumni connect with prospective students. Work towards building a robust and sustainable program that has shared ownership and is authentic to the UD experience, the realities of our admission and alumni relations practices and that align with our needs and goals.
Life After College
This committee reviewed the life after college handbook produced by Cap & Compass (used by other institutions), discussed options for UD and determined a digital resource would be best for our alumni. The concept of “city guides” was presented and in collaboration with the Welcome to Alumni Communities committee produced updated alumni community webpages.
- Committee decided not to move forward with a hard copy of a Life After College Handbook. Instead, an online resource, or city guide, was created and lives on the alumni community website pages. Creating an online resource ensures it can be updated on a regular basis with minimal budget impact.
- In collaboration with the Welcome to Alumni Communities Ad-Hoc Committee, the same survey information was utilized to create the city guides. Alumni can also add recommendations on the webpage.
Welcome to Alumni Communities
This committee created a process to welcome alumni into the alumni communities. They considered recent graduates and those alumni who move from one community to another. It was determined that an automated email with specific information related to the community is the best plan of action.
- A welcome email for each alumni community will be sent to an alum when they move into an alumni community with information about the city.
- To gather information needed for the email content, a survey was conducted and continually updated. If you want to add your favorite places, click here.