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In her April 15 op-ed “Alumni Network Fails Students,” Opinions Editor Sasha Pokrovskaya ’09 makes some pointed criticisms about Oxy’s Alumni Sharing Knowledge network. Given the recession’s impact on the job market facing graduating seniors, it’s no wonder that her anxiety level and her expectations for ASK are high. We take her critique very seriously, and want to assure her and all Oxy students that improving the system is a top priority being addressed with our vendor right now.
Because the College does not have the resources to build a dynamic alumni directory in-house, we have no choice but to use an outside firm. The Alumni Association, which manages the online alumni directory, recently changed vendors because the previous company was not meeting the College’s needs or keeping up with the latest technology. The change was due entirely to our desire to provide better service.
The difficulties Sasha described are rooted not in the design of the user interface, but rather the complexities of the database that drives the directory. How individual alumni are coded in the database, and the custom formatting needed to recover that information, are the critical areas which we are now addressing. At the same time, we are working to increase alumni participation in the ASK network, and to improve the quality of the career information provided by alumni.
As anyone in the Career Development Center would tell you, the ASK network is only one of a variety of tools and strategies used in a successful job search. Alumni database access does guarantee graduates a job offer. Working together, the CDC and the Alumni Relations Office offer several programs each year to bring together students and alumni, including Walk In My Shoes, Speed Networking, Where’s Oswald?, and a variety of career panels featuring successful alumni. We are grateful to Oxy alumni for participating – ASK is entirely voluntary – and are determined to continue to improve the service we provide alumni and students.
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