Provides advice on how to instill the giving habit in recent graduates and how to encourage them to take an active part in alumni issues. Development officers need to keep track of recent alumni, use telephone and electronic mail rather than letters to contact young alumni, and develop special programs to encourage giving by recent graduates. (MDM)

Presents findings from the "2003 Graduating Student & Alumni Survey," conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Results reveal that most students: view the economy as the greatest job-search obstacle; are realistic about what they expect of the job market; and were realistic in their salary expectations. (GCP)

Dartmouth Medical School has developed two career planning programs using graduates, decreasing the specialty practice information gap commonly facing medical students. One is a series of non-credit mini-elective courses providing one to three days' experience in a practitioner's office. The other is a career day for first- and second-year…

Sophisticated computers and statistical software offer expanded opportunities for elaborate data analysis but also require careful preparation of data and thoughtful selection of analytical techniques. Data preparation, organization of data analysis, and dissemination of the results are discussed. (MLW)

A campus community needs a shared institutional vision--a set of common "positioning" themes for student recruitment, public relations, and fund-raising. Positioning themes are used to help match what students or donors look for in an institution, fill a niche in the marketplace, and package itself attractively. (MLW)

A communications audit, analyzed programs and publications at St. Lawrence University, audience by audience, message by message, and month by month. The ways St. Lawrence integrated themes into major projects as well as into small details is discussed. (MLW)

A study that was conducted to look at possible relationships between a student's developmental level and his/her interest and involvement in a mentoring relationship is discussed. Implications for future research and implementation issues in developing formal mentoring programs are described. (MLW)

Ways in which college alumni officers are using emerging technology to enhance regional programming and distance communication are described, including World Wide Web sites, electronic mail, and satellite and video technologies. Suggestions are made for getting started: defining goals, doing research, offering inexpensive connections, and…

Techniques for college and university administrators and alumni to use in garnering support for or against state legislation include: gathering diverse experts; selecting a defense and/or offense; remaining flexible; flooding legislative offices with communications; meeting with local newspaper editors and legislators; distributing fact sheets to…

Six college and university alumni and development professionals comment on problems and potential of computer software for program administration. They look at current problems with software, discuss capabilities they would like to have, and make predictions for the future of software abilities, hardware uses, sales, and other issues. (MSE)

A directory lists computer software vendors offering software useful in administering college alumni and development programs. Listings include client/server system vendors and minicomputer and mainframe system vendors. Each listing contains the vendor name and address, contact person, software title(s), cost, hardware requirements, and client…

This article provides ideas on how to conduct alumni telephone surveys: (1) use the information gathered; (2) implement a survey; (3) develop appropriate questions; (4) test a survey instrument; (5) train interviewers; (6) collect the data; (7) analyze the results; (8) report the results; and (9) use the results to take action. (MDM)

This article provides advice on how to plan and conduct an alumni census through the mail, drawing on the experiences of Stonehill College in North Easton, Massachusetts, which undertook such a survey in 1992. It focuses on costs, information needs, questionnaire design, mailing considerations, reporting the results, and expected response rates.…

Compared outcomes of college as perceived by African-American and white alumni in the affective or personal growth categories. An analysis of responses to an alumni survey revealed that, for affective growth variables, proportionally more African Americans than whites indicated that college had influenced their growth "very much." (Author/NB)

College alumni editors can cooperate with development officers without compromising their professional principles by concentrating on publication quality, encouraging reader interaction and involvement, publishing research only when of broad interest and rewritten for the audience, supporting fund raising with legitimate news stories and features,…