Survey Says …
New questionnaire asks what your university has done for you and what you can do for your university
| By Lisa Chinn ’92
Fifty-one years have passed since Betty Ditmars Prosser ’60 graduated from Mary Washington, but the gratitude she feels toward her alma mater remains so strong that she was moved to put it into words. “Mary Washington was a beginning that introduced us to our future and hopefully prepared us for it,” she wrote in her Class Notes entry in the back of this issue. “We are who we are because of those years. A toast to Mary Washington … and cheers to the dedicated professors and staff who nurtured our dreams and made us a ‘family’ away from home.” Now the University of Mary Washington would like to translate such prose into a poll. A new comprehensive alumni survey, designed to streamline the way the University collects information about its graduates, aims to make the 24
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UMW experience even more meaningful for future students. Fifteen minutes of time is all that’s being asked of survey recipients. Administrators, who spent months laboriously customizing the questionnaire to fit Mary Washington’s needs, ask everyone, please, to participate. “As an alumnus, if you have received a good education from this institution, wouldn’t you want that to be continued from generation to generation?” said Taiwo Ande, assistant provost for institutional analysis and effectiveness. “Alumni have a very vital role in the development of this University.” As UMW President Richard V. Hurley began embracing an important part of his job – publicly promoting the school, its instructors, and its students – one obstacle kept popping up. Despite surveys regularly sent to alumni by an array of departments, including University Relations, Career Services, and the administrative offices of individual disciplines, a