Alums unite to promote College
How does a product – or a college – cut through the daily bombardment of media messages in this hyper-information age of symbols and associations? How does it carve its own niche and promote itself in a compelling, focused way?
That's the challenge facing 10 Union alumni, members of the Communications and Promotions (CAP) committee, who themselves reflect what makes Union so outstanding.
The CAP committee was established to define and build awareness of Union's strengths and to position the College where it needs to be for future success.
“We want people to be excited about Union,” says Trustee Philip Beuth '54, who co-chairs the committee with Trustee Mark Walsh '76. “To maintain our status as a great learning institution, we have to be on top of things, toot our horn to the world about the quality of Union College and its history.”
“We're promoting our product,” says Walsh. “Among colleges today, the pursuit of talented seniors has never been more competitive.”
In addition to Beuth and Walsh, CAP members include Robert Cummings '71, Frank Messa '73, Hans Black '74, Valerie Hoffman '75, Chuck Donofrio '77, John Kennedy '78, Alan White '85 and Douglass Karp '97 (see bios, pages 2-5).
They are committed to raising the profile of the College and aligning the reality of what makes Union special with an appropriate and powerful public perception. After all, who better to appreciate the value of a Union education than those who've leveraged it to power their own success?
“We want positive momentum to surround the brand,” stresses Walsh. “Union does great things every day – and people have to know it. To energize the Union brand is something the College will do more of now, or it will become very expensive to catch up. What better audience to reach out to than the people who bought the product?”
FROM GAP TO CAP
CAP was launched last year when Union's development committee recognized “a real gap between the perception of what Union was and the quality experience it delivers,” noted Walsh. “You got an amazing institution, the whole package was absolutely first rate. But the outside world might say, 'Where is it?' We needed to start the ship turning toward a positive reinforcement.”
To establish perception benchmarks, CAP members launched an online survey, hosted focus groups and participated in one-on-one interviews with alumni of various decades.
“We tried to find out everything we could about what people think about Union,” said Beuth.
Questions ran the gamut from terms abroad and undergraduate research to social and residential life at Union. Conducted last spring, this first comprehensive survey of alumni in 35 years found that 92 percent of those polled were satisfied with their overall Union experience.
“We got a tremendous response,” Walsh says. “Approximately 5,000 alumni provided some very robust feedback.”
Even before analysis of the survey data had been completed, Union increased the number of on- and off-campus events and enhanced print and electronic publications to engage alumni and friends more effectively with Union.
“We have so many wonderful stories, so many things that are happening on campus in terms of the whole esprit de corps,” says Beuth. “We have to tell Union's stories.”
That's the next chapter in CAP's book: externalizing the information gleaned in the internal research phase to shape a perception that is more closely aligned with the reality of Union's unique qualities and strengths as a distinguished institution and leader in many fields.
BUILDING PRIDE
The CAP team is dedicated to clearly articulating the unique characteristics and spirit of the College – everything from its international programs and its commitment to academics, arts and athletics to the recent establishment of a converging technologies initiative.
“We hope to be really good about educating alumni that Union is doing good things,” says Beuth. “We want to leverage that pride to influence others who are in the college decision-making process that Union is the place to be.”
Therefore, enhancing Union's actual performance in recruiting and educating students is as important as touting the special qualities Union brings to this task.
“The most significant thing is to create an environment for the best possible education – to make Union a great, great place to be,” says Beuth. “We have to continue to provide the best opportunities to get the best caliber students in the class. We need to get great people and educate them – and hope they remain part of the Union family all their lives.”