Alumni Satisfaction with Their Undergraduate Academic Experience and the Impact on Alumni Giving and Participation

Abstract

The hypothesis for this research was that the higher the level of academic satisfaction, the more likely it is for alumni to be involved with the university. Alumni involvement was defined as alumni giving and/or alumni participating with their alma mater within the last three years. There were 1,608 alumni from a large state university who participated in the research out of the 3,397 alumni who received invitations to participate, resulting in a 47.3 percent response rate. Participants completed a revised edition of the Comprehensive Alumni Assessment Survey via the internet. The revised CAAS collected data regarding alumni satisfaction with the academic system, demographics, involvement in extracurricular activities, and current involvement as alumni. Data were analyzed in four steps. Step one analyzed alumni satisfaction with the academic system. Step two analyzed demographic and extracurricular data. Step three analyzed alumni responses within age cohorts. The final step was a qualitative analysis of comments made by participating alumni. Findings demonstrated a significant positive relationship between alumni satisfaction with the academic system as undergraduates and current alumni involvement with their alma mater. Simply stated, the higher the level of satisfaction with the academic experience, the more likely alumni are to give and/or participate with the university.