Guest View: Floyd Dykeman, Vice-President, External, Dalhousie University

Sometimes the best way to gain perspective is simply to ask. That’s exactly what we have done over the last year as a first step to enhancing our alumni programming and communications.

Our Alumni Relations team has had many conversations with alumni at receptions, chapter events, and other networking functions. We also held focus groups across the country to learn how the level of interaction and engagement with your alma mater could be deepened. It’s not easy to reach you all – the Dalhousie alumni family is over 115,000 strong – but we endeavoured to connect with people of different ages, academic background and geographic areas.

Given Dalhousie’s long history, academic breadth and diverse student population, it was expected that our alumni would have distinct memories and opinions. And you certainly did! However, there were motifs that traversed all alumni, regardless of degree or demographics.

You asked us to unite you. Help you to feel part of the Dalhousie alumni family. Give you something to feel an affinity to on your terms.

You want us to be great story tellers. To write about fellow alumni you can aspire to. To connect you to Dal’s history, traditions and future. To inform you about successes that enhance your alma mater’s reputation.

You asked that we provide options to connect. Some folks want to catch up with former classmates. Others want to meet potential employers or reminisce with former professors and staff.  Still others want to connect with current students and help them succeed. You look to Dal to provide these avenues.

These three thematic areas will guide the formation of a comprehensive program that is more relevant and meaningful to our alumni family.

Over the next few months, change will be gradual but steady. In fact, the winter 2013 issue of Dalhousie Magazine (soon to arrive in your mailbox) serves as a launch platform for the Building a Better World program, whereby we showcase alumni who have truly made a difference in the world.

This new alumni website is now active. Ten chapters have been established in North America, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Bermuda and the Bahamas. We’re expanding our alumni/student mentoring program and, this year, we’ll host more than 60 alumni events around the globe. And we will be providing more volunteer opportunities where our alumni can help make Dalhousie an even more successful university.

The new and enhanced programming is meant to meet the needs and expectations of Dalhousie’s greatest ambassadors – our alumni. For it is you – as you make your mark in the world as people of community, authority and influence – who truly shape this university’s reputation. Many of our graduates are some of the most successful, respected people in Canada and the world.