Sharpest Scalpel Interview with Andreh Khachaturians, Executive Director of Development and Alumni Relations
What are some of the primary challenges in establishing or re-establishing a sustained relationship with CDU alums?
First, I want to articulate the four pillars of engagement we have established for short- and long-term growth. Specifically, these four pillars culminate into goals set in the University strategic plan.
The first pillar is growth of our alumni council. Some folks may not know but we have an alumni council led currently by seven alumni from all the colleges. The goal of the council is to help the University connect with and maintain ongoing relationships with our graduates, in addition to programmatic components to engage alumni. Our plan under this pillar is to diversify the council to at least 10-13 leaders. We want this process to be inclusive and to open leadership opportunities to those who are interested in serving our students and community.
The second pillar has to do with building specific alumni networks or affinity groups of various University programs. Alumni networks provide a natural support system amongst alumni with similar interests and identities. It has been my experience that alumni who participate in networks become powerful ambassadors for their programs and the University. For instance, we can build an alumni network for individuals who are interested in nursing. Those who get involved don’ t necessarily have to be nursing alumni but are alumni who have an interest in the nursing profession. This model can be replicated in other programs as well.
The third pillar is alumni programming. These programs are intended to serve alumni in various capacities like networking, social empowerment, learning, service, and more. Each program we have put out in the last year or so has been purposeful in its approach.
The final pillar is philanthropy. Philanthropy is an interesting word. Many people equate philanthropy with large multi-milliondollar donations, but most of us practice philanthropy every day. Whether it be a $ 50 donation to the Cancer Society or volunteering at the local food bank, those are all acts of philanthropy. When we ask alumni to give, all we are asking for is an investment regardless of amount. Because even $ 100, multiplied by the thousands of alumni, can help the University increase its capacity to provide health professions education with the goal of ending healthcare disparities. By the way, these four pillars are all related and webbed together because we won’ t be successful in philanthropy if we do not have engagement and leadership. We cannot succeed in building our alumni council without alumni who truly feel part of the CDU family.
There are a variety of challenges in establishing or re-establishing connections with alumni. For us, there are a few unique challenges that we are actively working to resolve or at least respond to. One is technical and it relates to the quality of our alumni data and information. Normally, your alma mater is the last place you’ ll think of contacting to update your new personal or professional information. The recent government census revealed that Americans move about 10-11 times in their lifetime. That’ s a lot of addresses and life changes that seldom gets reported to us. One way we are addressing this item is by“ cleaning” our data through the national change of address service provided by the US postal service. It is something we must do by law anyway, so the strategy is to consistently perform this service which we hope will result in better and up-to-date information to reach our alumni.
The other main way we contact alumni is through email or social media like LinkedIn. Some figures I’ ve read state that one in three Americans change their emails once a year for various reasons. Again, that’ s a lot of changes that we need to manage that can make it difficult when you have limited resources. With social media, our strategy has been to post much more interactive and
CDU College of Medicine | PG. 29