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Alumni Board President shares engagement survey results, Day of Giving follow-up

In the last newsletter, I requested your participation in the first-ever alumni engagement survey to evaluate current alumni engagement activities and to support the development of future activities. I’d like to thank the 200-plus alumni who took the time to complete the survey. I’m happy to share some interesting outcomes and insights from our alumni responses.


Below are some tidbits pulled from the survey results:

DEMOGRAPHICS

I am happy to report that we had respondents across all age groups and decades participate. While 45% of the respondents were 65 years of age or older, there were also numerous respondents from across all other age groups.

Most of the respondents live in West Virginia (45%) and the surrounding states of Maryland (10%), Pennsylvania (10%), and Virginia (8%). However, respondents as far away as Alaska also participated.

ENGAGEMENT

In the past, PSC Alumni have not been a very engaged group, with at least half never or rarely attending an alumni event, visiting the Alumni Association website, sharing its Facebook posts or visiting campus. The greatest deterrents to past participation have been other commitments and/or distance from the campus. However, 20% of the respondents also acknowledged not knowing how to get involved with alumni activities.

Given that, I am truly heartened by how many alumni still care deeply about the College. The vast majority want the Alumni Association to help promote the College (91%), connect graduates with career/networking opportunities (81%), recruit students (80%), provide scholarships for students (77%), and support the campus through beautification activities (63%).

Our alumni are also willing to volunteer. When asked in what capacity they’d like to volunteer, respondents stepped up indicating their top five interests would be to help with mentoring students (51%), helping with alumni job fairs (27%), networking events (26%), serving on a committee (26%), and local student recruitment events (25%). Other interests include serving on the Alumni Association Board of Directors (21%) and to help organize an online event (21%).

MOVING FORWARD

The Alumni Association has room to improve, but we also have much to be proud of as we work together toward the future. This survey and you, our respondents, have given us a pathway.

Whether you have previously responded to the survey or not, if you have any comments, suggestions, or questions, please feel free to email us at psc-alumni@wvu.edu or leave us a message at 304-788-6840. The Alumni Association now directly monitors both email and phone and will respond.

DAY OF GIVING FOLLOW-UP

I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank the alumni who participated in WVU’s Day of Giving that was held Wednesday, March 9, 2022. This 24-hour, online event raised a total of $5,000 for the College of which $1,210 was directed to the PSC Alumni Association to help support our continuing efforts to engage alumni and promote and assist the College.