Alumni Attitude Study Results
This website shares key results from the 2019 Alumni Attitude Study conducted by Performance Enhancement Group for Lafayette College. Portions of the Executive Summary and selected charts supporting the primary themes are provided.
OVERVIEW
The Alumni Attitude Study© is a national, multi-institution research Study that analyzes current alumni perceptions, attitudes, experiences, and opinions of their alma mater. Over 300 educational institutions have used the AAS process, with their alumni providing a rich database of comparable data to assist Lafayette College, in the development of a deeper understanding of its findings.
In 2019, Lafayette engaged its alumni in the Alumni Attitude Study (AAS) process. This is the second AAS project completed by the College. The previous project was completed in 2013. Results are compiled from a total of 1,856 respondents out of the 19,743 alumni presumed to have received the survey via email. This generated a 9.40% response rate. This overall response rate is consistent with the national averages, and the 1,856 responses represent a more than sufficient margin of error on all of the questions to comfortably extrapolate these findings to the broader population of alumni.
Demographics
- The greatest number of respondents was from the Woodstock, Vietnam and Prior Era (graduated prior to 1973), Yuppie/End of Cold War Era (graduated 1981-1993), and the Post-9/11 Era (graduated 2000-2008).
- 53% of the respondents were male and 47% were female.
- The Bachelor of Arts degree had the most respondents (62%), followed by Engineering (26%) and Non-Engineering Bachelor of Science (12%).
- Caucasian survey respondents are the largest ethnic group (90%), followed by African Americans (2%), Hispanic (2%) and Asian or Pacific Islander.
- PEG compared the response demographics with the distribution demographics and determined that they are similar. Based on this, they believe that this response database resembles the overall population and represents a good sample set from which to extrapolate findings to the broader population of alumni.
GENERAL FINDINGS
- Alumni want to know that the value of their degree is greater to them today than the day they graduated and they want to understand what Lafayette College is doing to increase that value.
- Alumni are focused on how their degree helped them in their lives and particularly, how the degree is an enhancement to their career.
- There is a real opportunity to brand specific alumni and the Alumni Association better and more frequently on campus. Alumni want to know that other alumni and their Alumni Association are playing an important role in improving the student experience.
- The Study creates specific opportunities to create better editorial boards for all campus communications. This includes a better understanding of high value talking points, as well as the most impactful topics for articles. These topics and talking points are also slightly different for various Eras of Graduation.
- Events offer an interesting dilemma for Lafayette. We know that if alumni attend events, there is a greater likelihood that they will give. We also know that most alumni will never attend an event. Even though most will not attend an event, the Study illuminates that they still want to know that their alma mater is having events and that important things are happening at them. Therefore, communications about successful outcomes of events can be an important gauge of the success of an event, possibly more so than the number of attendants.
Detailed Survey Results