Date of Graduation

8-2010

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education in Higher Education (EdD)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Rehabilitation, Human Resources and Communication Disorders

Advisor/Mentor

Miller, Michael T.

Committee Member

Holt, Carleton R.

Second Committee Member

Murry, John W. Jr.

Keywords

Alumni relations; Higher education; Institutional advancement

Abstract

Alumni relations programs are a foundational component to institutional advancement and are often the unit that regularly communicates news and information about the institution to its alumni. Alumni relations professionals can strategically position a higher education institution among its alumni by including and emphasizing information that is found to have a positive impact on the opinion of alumni. The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between the factors that impact alumni opinion of the University of Arkansas, loyalty to components of the University and overall current opinion. This study utilized secondary data from the Alumni Attitude Study® conducted by the Performance Enhancement Group, Ltd. for the Arkansas Alumni Association in June and July 2009. A total of 43,866 alumni were presumed to have received the survey. Data from 2,670 respondents to the survey were analyzed (for a response rate of 6.1%). Only data from three questions in the Alumni Attitude Study® which were related to the research questions in this study were analyzed. The first research question sought to identify differences by geographic territory among the factors that alumni use to formulate opinions of the University of Arkansas. Only slight differences were detected after examining the factors alumni use to formulate opinions in regard to assigned geographic territories. The second research question examined the relationship between factors alumni use to formulate opinion and their overall opinion regarding the University of Arkansas. History and tradition was the only factor to have a moderate correlation (r = .326, ppp

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