An Incomplete FIU Business Alumni Database Causes Problems For Overall Engagement Rates
The incomplete business alumni database at Florida International University is a marketing and communications issue that continues to be a work in progress. FIU alumni are a network to the entire university, FIU’s business and marketing team are constantly staying in touch with alumni in order to progress and support Florida International University’s ranking, mentorship, fundraisers, and events.
The alumni database at Florida International University is very difficult to manage which has resulted in missing and incomplete data from some graduates within the marketing team database. As mentioned alumni play several roles in FIU’s status and all of its schools. With the advice and support from alumni, FIU has become a top-ranked university however, when alumni information is lost this can lead to a downfall of FIU’s successful representation, status, and support.
FIU graduates become part of an alumni association that brings former students together to maintain a connection with their university. Alumni don’t only stand as former FIU students but as resources. They help with global admissions and recruitment efforts, career and professional development, and local and state advocacy through their support for the entire university. They also help enhance the future of FIU by providing the necessary resources to sustain FIU’s excellence in academics, research, and community service.
Luisa Perez, the director for the Florida International University College of Business serves on the planning and execution of marketing communications initiatives with her team in order to support the university, its branding, and reputation goals, which are associated with the retention of alumni data.
According to Perez, there is an overall total of 68,000 alumni within the business college database, yet 4,000 records of those alumni are missing. Luisa and her team, currently only have records of around 64,000 physical addresses and emails. In addition, the department has an alumni association LinkedIn page just for alumni to stay in touch. Still, only 45,742 alumni are following the page which is considered small since there are over 20 thousand alumni that are unaware or disconnected from the alumni association page. This is no shock because 68% of universities and colleges have seen alumni opt-out rates increase resulting in a 13% increase since 2017. Only 5% of institutions report seeing a decrease in opt-out rates which is very rare.
Perez points out that this is due to many reasons and is not just a problem within FIU, but many other universities across the United States struggle with alumni data retention.
According to Voluntary Alumni Engagement in Support of Education (VAESE), 70% of university alumni organizations say their top goal is to increase alumni engagement, yet 27% of those admit to having no dedicated strategy to boost engagement. Without a solid strategy, many universities fail to collect and retain alumni data, putting them at a disadvantage when it comes to increasing engagement. Alumni engagement holds value for any school, no matter the size.
A former student passing away, moving out of the state or country and failing to update his or her address, changing email addresses, or getting a new job are all reasons that a record may be out of date. Some alumni simply do not want to get involved with the university after graduation, and some alumni from 50 years ago don’t have an email address.
Most fundraising and annual events such as the GROWTH Conference, Panther Alumni Week, and The FIU Torch Awards fundraising event support come from the alumni.
Since the start of her career, Perez and her team have always had concerns about how to ensure that all business alumni data is retained in order to promote a better future for all FIU schools and their students. According to author Daniel Papp from CueBack, even 10% of alumni being out-of-contact can prevent a university from collecting millions of dollars in donations.
Alumni left out of the network miss out on important and useful information and PantherPerks — benefits that are available to graduates. Sweepstakes, mentorships opportunities, rewards, and discounts are offered only to those who remain in contact with the department.
That’s why now at FIU, students’ emails, addresses, and surveys are collected at the beginning of all students’ college experiences in order for them to stay connected with FIU at such a high level.
It’s important for universities like FIU to increase their alumni data retention rate because alumni ultimately represent the university as a whole, impacting the ranking and public image of the school. Not only are they representatives of their university, but alumni also form an important network of professionals that shape both the future of the university and its student body. More specifically, it’s important that FIU business alumni stay in contact amongst themselves and with business students in order to provide input, advice, and opinions about the industry and school-related topics.
