From the Publisher

What’s Important?

When we asked alumni to rank their priorities and score our performance in those areas, two strong themes emerged. The first relates to our communications mission, reaffirming our mandate to provide you with trusted information from Grounds and news about alumni and also to represent your independent voice to the University. The second speaks to our role in connecting alumni to the University and to each other. Here are your top priorities for us, and how we’re doing:

The takeaways

• You’ve validated two core tenets of our mission: our role as your communication channel and your UVA connection.
• We need to invest in providing you with optimal channels to share news from Grounds and have your voices heard by the administration, including expanded use of social media.
• We continue to expand coverage of alumni, as you’ll discover inside the magazine and across all our media platforms.

Advancing Education

Our alumni see the Alumni Association as a vehicle for advancing educational excellence at the University. Out of 12 choices, four of the top five reasons for giving to the Alumni Association relate to that priority. Another must-have is transparency in how we put your gifts to work.

The takeaways

• We want to build on our current academic excellence initiatives, including our array of academic scholarships, the Jefferson Trust grants we award to support educational enrichment, the Mead Endowment we manage to foster professor-student mentorship and more.
• One innovation includes helping alumni create experiential learning opportunities for students, the subject of my letter in Virginia Magazine’s Summer 2018 issue.
• To aid transparency, we’re developing an annual report that will show exactly how we deploy your philanthropy.

Focusing Our Efforts

When we asked alumni to choose two initiatives for us to focus on in the next five years, the top vote-getters were expanding our alumni careers services and creating a digital hub to serve as your central connection point to UVA.

40% prioritized broadening career services and networking opportunities for and among alumni

34% prioritized creating an inspiring and welcoming digital hub for alumni to connect and engage with each other and the University digitally

The takeaways

• We’re expanding career services, including adding staff to build out professional and workplace networks and partnering with schools and units to offer career-based regional programming.
• We’re investing in our digital infrastructure, including developing a new online portal to serve as a digital hub for alumni.
• We’re exploring ways to make Alumni Hall a more inviting and inspiring connection point for alumni, a physical hub to complement our digital one.

Connectedness

UVA outshines other schools when alumni rate their student and alumni experiences, but that doesn’t carry over to a sense of connectedness to the institution.

Student Experience
73% rate their student experience as Excellent, while 57% of surveyed alumni of comparable schools said the same
97% rate their student experience as Good or Excellent

Alumni Experience
34% rate their alumni experience as Excellent, while 25% of surveyed alumni of comparable schools said the same
85% rate their alumni experience as Good or Excellent

Alumni Connection
However, only 39 percent of UVA alumni reported feeling very connected to UVA, while 53 percent of alumni from comparable schools reported the same.

The takeaways

• We need to know what helps you feel connected so we can do more of it. In fact, tell us how you connect with UVA, with your letters to the editor or online using the hashtag #UVAAlumni.
• We are looking for ways to develop and promote more opportunities for alumni to get involved across Grounds, including mentoring students, guest lecturing and providing career support.
• We are investing in regional programming and events that connect you to the academic and student experience.