Education Commons^™

Factors And Characteristics Of Alumni Role Identity: Implications For Practice In Higher Education Fundraising And Alumni Relations, Jay Le Roux Dillon

Doctoral Dissertations

Now more than ever, colleges and universities are relying on funds raised from alumni to support their operations. At the same time, the percentage of alumni donors is in decline and new research suggests that higher education fundraising strategies are overly reliant on alumni behaviors and demographics as predictors of giving. A 2011 study by McDearmon addressed this issue by establishing a psychometric measure of a graduate’s self-identification with his or her role as an alumnus/a, dubbed “alumni role identity.” Based in role identity theory (Stryker 1968, 1980; Callero, 1985), McDearmon’s research demonstrated that alumni role identity was associated positively …

Expectations And Experiences Of Undergraduate Students Who Participated In An Alumni Mentoring Program, Kristin Conner

Doctoral Dissertations

Expectations and Experiences of Undergraduate Students Who Participated in an Alumni Mentoring Program

Research on mentoring with undergraduate university students has been a topic of increasing interest, although most of the focus has been on faculty to student mentoring (Ehrich, Hansford, & Tennet, 2004; Lunsford, 2011; Putsche, Storrs, Lewis, & Haylett, 2010; Underhill, 2005). Other types of mentoring with undergraduate university students, such as mentoring relationships with alumni have been investigated very little, causing a gap in the available knowledge on this topic. The purpose of this research was to understand the expectations and experiences of undergraduate university students being …