The office of Alumni Affairs appointed a new director this summer, Sandra Carroll, who now presides over planning events for and keeping the College in touch with its former students.
Carroll spent 16 years in director-level alumni affairs, most recently at Drew University. There she helped get alumni connected with undergraduates, and increased the alumni affair program's online aspects.
This is one aspect that she has already begun trying to improve in the College's own Alumni Affairs program. One of Carroll's main goals is to create a community between the current and past students, in order for them to help each other.
Getting to know alumni who are currently working in their fields will provide mentors for students, talking about the field, and giving them advice on how to get a job after they have graduated.
Alumni get to see the ways in which their alma mater has changed and learn what students are learning in their chosen fields of study.
The community would be based through the Internet. Students and alumni will be able to contact each other through the College's Web site, making the connection convenient and easily accessible to all involved.
Both sides will benefit from contact with each other, Carroll said, which is one of the reasons that she is setting the program up, as she did at Drew University. Strong connections between students, past and present, she said, will improve those who have attended the College as a whole.
The online community will also help connect alumni with one other. Roommates and old friends will be able to contact each other much more easily through e-mail, without having to search for new addresses.
By increasing the office's use of the Internet, it will be easier for the College to stay in touch with alumni, and for them, in turn, to stay in touch with the College.
Using e-mail as well as standard mail invitations, it will be much easier to remind alumni that events are approaching, and the College will be able to receive and respond to any questions immediately.
Carroll is refraining from making any sizeable changes in the way Alumni Affairs works at the moment, waiting until she has been working with the College for a time, and therefore more acquainted with the program and the alumni.
There will be extra events planned out for both students and alumni to attend in accordance with the Sesquicentennial celebration. As director for Alumni Affairs, Carroll will be a major influence on the inclusion of alumni in the upcoming events for the College's anniversary.
