Positives, Pitfalls & Possibilities: Charting a New Course for Alumni Engagement-Recording

Video Transcription

Video Summary

In this District 4 webinar, Mary Kay Cooper (Texas A&M University San Antonio) and Andrea Cavazos (UT San Antonio) discuss strategies for building and revitalizing alumni engagement programs, particularly in newer or merging institutions. Mary Kay shares her experience starting a one-person alumni office with a limited budget at a young university, emphasizing the importance of establishing a solid alumni database before outreach. She highlights creative, affordable engagement tactics such as campus tours, themed reunions, personalized birthday emails, and leveraging iconic faculty to draw alumni attendance. Andrea discusses alumni engagement amid UT San Antonio's recent merger with UT Health San Antonio, focusing on rebuilding alumni councils using data-driven selection of members and close collaboration with academic deans. She underscores the role of technology tools for managing events, communications, and engagement scoring, and the need to recognize varied alumni affinities by school or region. Both acknowledge challenges like event no-shows and evolving pandemic impacts but stress adaptability, the value of virtual programming, and fostering a sense of family among first-generation and diverse alumni. They recommend harnessing partnerships across campus and carefully evaluating event models to fit their unique alumni communities. The session also addresses practical questions on starting engagement with minimal budgets, event planning, and leveraging data for strategic outreach.

Keywords

alumni engagement

District 4 webinar

Mary Kay Cooper

Andrea Cavazos

Texas A&M University San Antonio

UT San Antonio merger

alumni database

event planning

virtual programming