Alumni alternative

Posted by admin on Mar 29, 2011 in News | 0 comments

In response to the recent turnovers in the Alumni Department, a group of Trinity Western University alums are giving consideration to finding an alumni association, though no official decisions have been made as of press time.

The group is comprised of a variety of graduates, notably Board of Governors member Wade Larson, class of 1991, and former TWUSA presidents Aaron Fedora, 2004, and Brian Weir, 2009. And thus far, the focus has been on collecting feedback from alumni on a Facebook page entitled “Alumni Speakers Corner.”
“This is a group of alumni who are committed to finally once and for all dealing with the lack of an organized alumni community,” commented Aaron Fedora on an introductory post, explaining the goal of building a framework for such an association to exist.

In an interview with Mars’ Hill Fedora shared that right now there are several different things being considered. First, a group is looking into the funding and structure an association would require, another team is investigating the legal requirements, and yet another group is gathering opinions from TWU alumni.
And while formal results of a five question survey sent out to the group weren’t ready as of press time, Fedora did explain that questions such as“would you recommend TWU to a friend?” are helping assess how the university is seen from those now gone from campus.

Even negative feedback, Fedora explained, is more a reflection of TWU failing to maintain a relationship with alumni rather than a truly poor reflection of the university.

“I haven’t met an alumni yet who doesn’t want to make the University better for the next generation” Fedora told Mars’ Hill. He continued to explain that some of the focuses of an alumni association, should one be formed, would be to support students and graduates through mentoring and networking. “We want to help students get jobs.”

Currently, it’s unclear if the association will be an independent group, or a department of TWU, how it will be funded, or how it will operate, but the investigatory group aims to give a finalized report to the Board of Governors for their April 30th board meeting, which will offer a final recommendation on how an alumni association could be successfully formed at TWU.