This past spring we invited our alumni to provide us with their feedback about our alumni magazine, The Scranton Journal. We used the CASE (Council for Advancement & Support of Education) Readership Survey, which allows us to compare our results with more than 350 other institutions that also used the same instrument.
We had a wonderful response to our request with 644 alums taking the time to complete the short survey.
So, what did we learn?
First, the Journal received high marks on content, cover design, ease of reading, layout & design, photography and writing, with 80% or more of respondents rating each factor as “excellent” or “good."
Scranton Journal readers are more engaged with our content than readers of other alumni magazines:
- 55% of Scranton alumni that took the survey say they get all or most of their information about the University from the Journal. For all schools that number is lower at 48%.
- 68% of respondents report reading every issue, higher than reported for all schools (59%)
- 45% say they read most of the content in each issue, compared to 39% for all institutions.
Our alumni are most interested in reading class notes (82%), about fellow alumni in their professions (75%) and campus facilities and growth (73%).
There is a strong preference for reading the Journal in print (73%) vs. online (8%) and 18% say they read the Journal both in print and online.
Also, 85% of respondents “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that the Journal strengthens their personal connection to the University by reminding them of their experience at the University (74%) and helping them to feel more in touch with their graduating class (49%).
Here are some of the open-ended responses that are representative of the most frequent comments:
Note: as open-ended questions were not required the number of responses to each varied.
What do you like most about The Scranton Journal? (250 responses)
- “Makes me proud that I graduated from a quality Jesuit institution. Reinforces my core belief that I received a superior education compared to public institutions.”
- “Keeping up with my classmates and seeing what other Scranton grads have accomplished.”
- “I like reading about the alumni stories and reading about current on-campus topics (i.e. student initiatives, faculty projects/research, strategic planning).”
- “Seeing the growth on campus and the wonderful things that the students at the University are doing.”
- “The photography is really quite good, gives me a very good idea what the University looks like these days. Good writing, too. Interesting stories about students and faculty members.”
What do you like least? (183 responses) - Seventy-three out of the 183 people that answered this question said they had no complaints or had no comment/opinion.
- “As an older alumnus I have difficulty trying to relate to most of the present day happenings or current student articles. There is little coverage of older alumni.“
- “Frequency; need to publish quarterly or at least three times a year to feel more connected.”
- “Many people, me included, attended to get graduate degrees. Grad school alumni are rarely, if ever, mentioned.“
- “Really seems to be all sunshine and roses - which is OK - Scranton is a great institution and you SHOULD brag about it - but it would be nice if other issues or challenges that the University faced were also explored.”
What changes or improvements would you suggest? (170 responses) - Seventy-five out of the 170 people that answered this question said they had no suggestions for improvement.
- “A more timely (seasonal) delivery each year, a schedule of upcoming regional alumni events, perhaps articles written by alumni, and reminders to alumni on how to connect and how to keep the University informed of your career changes.”
- “Focus on alumni a bit more—even those who are no longer practicing in the career field for which they prepped at the U. i.e., I am a stay at home mom now, married to an active duty U of S alum, but am still very active re: service and Catholic education.”
- “How about a "classifieds" section of alums helping other alums in business and industry?”
- “Improve alumni fundraising and networking ops and ops to connect alumni to current students.”
- “Maybe a few more stories on the Jesuits that teach there and how important the Jesuits’ role is for the U and in life.”
