You are speaking and we are listening. The UCSD Alumni Association recently conducted three surveys of alumni and we thought you would be interested in some of our findings.

A stunning 95 percent of respondents claim that it was a good or excellent decision to attend UCSD. And, 93 percent describe your overall current opinion of the University as good or excellent. So, although we often hear that UCSD lacks a certain esprit de corps, it appears that you hold your alma mater in high regard. Interestingly, more than half of you feel your strongest allegiance is to UCSD as a whole, with your academic department listed as 30 percent and undergraduate college as 8 percent.

You tell us that you are generally aware of, and impressed with, the Alumni Association’s events and programs. Yet, 70 percent of you say you are too busy to participate. That’s why a number of our volunteer opportunities, like providing career advice or advocating in Sacramento, are now online so you can stay involved on your own time. And while we have successful alumni groups in 15 regional areas across the nation, 49 percent say distance and geography prevent attendance. One way we responded was to launch UCSD Near You, a lecture series that travels the country, bringing outstanding faculty close to your home. If you have any other ideas on how we can better serve you in these areas, please do contact us.

We asked what services you thought you could offer the University and you listed identifying job opportunities for graduates, mentoring students, providing the University with feedback, serving as UC ambassadors, and providing financial support. Great! We need your help in each of these areas.
Of those alumni who recently made use of UCSD’s Career Service Center, we discovered that 75 percent used the online job posting service, 45 percent made appointments with career counselors and 29 percent attended a career-networking event. You list actual job placement, mid-career assessment and business networking as critical improvements that are needed.

And you like @UCSD magazine, you really do. Eight five percent of you read it, and you tell us your favorite sections are Campus Currents, Features, Class Notes and Alumni Tidings. Don’t tell our wonderful student-athletes, but sports topics are the least read. Most of you don’t read the magazine in one sitting, but flip through it from time to time. While 71 percent think we adequately cover stories about alumni, there are 42 percent who think more such stories are needed. Almost half want more of the short pithy stories about campus happenings and discoveries.
CampusLoop, our e-newsletter, is emailed monthly and 88 percent say you read or scan it and that Friday is when you prefer to receive it. The most popular “click-thrus” are UCSD news and the alumni calendar. CampusLoop seems to be our best way to keep you informed of timely news and events.

For a more detailed look at these survey results and all of UCSD’s alumni programs, check out the related links in the right side column.

What do you think about these results? What suggestions do you have for how we can be responsive? As you see, we are listening.

JOHN VALVA
Executive Director, UCSD Alumni Association MEET OUR STAFF