IVCC Alumni Database Under Construction
Who are the graduates of IVCC and LaSalle-Peru-Oglesby Junior College, and where are they?
That’s what Joan Moyle, IVCC Foundation secretary, is researching.
A year ago, Moyle began building an alumni database, which will eventually include over 13,000 names. Currently, she has about 8,000 entered.
The list, which stretches back nearly 75 years to L-P-Os first graduates, will be used to keep alumni informed about the college and help with fund raising.
"We want to establish an on-going flow of communication with our alumni to keep them informed of the new things that are at happening at IVCC," Moyle said. "Hopefully, this will not only renew their interest in the college but also encourage gifts and the establishing of new Foundation scholarship funds."
Moyle said the Foundation awarded scholarships totaling over $61,000 to 120 students this fall.
The first problem Moyle has encountered is finding names of graduates. At press time she was still searching for commencement programs from 1973, 1975, 1976, 1977 and 1978.
The second problem is finding current addresses of those graduates. Addresses of graduates who have contacted the college for any reason, such as requesting a transcript, are in the college’s computer system, Moyle said.
City directories, and address lists from area high school reunions will also help, she said.
"But IVCC offers a quality education that isn’t easily forgotten," she said. "Some of our division chairs, after spending time at some of the four-year institutions during an articulation visit, returned with glowing reports from former students.
"They (graduates) say spending two years at IVCC was a definite asset to coming to a four-year college – that they didn’t realize what they really had (at IVCC) until they transferred."
The success of some alumni, however, will make them easier to identify.
"Many of our alumni are quite famous," she said, noting the Spetzler family, which donated $20,000 to the Foundation. Dr. Robert Spetzler is a world-renowned brain surgeon; Hartmut Spetzler is a professor of geophysics and consultant for NASA; Bertram Spetzler is chairman of the board of a 125-doctor clinic in Virginia; and Gabriele Spetzler Read is an educational administrator. They were students at L-P-O – IVCC in the 1960s.
Another problem Moyle has had is deciding who qualifies as "alumni."
"Do we consider everyone who has attended IVCC as alumni, or only those who graduated?" Moyle asked. "Many colleges consider everyone who attended as alumni when it comes to mailings of all kinds."
While Moyle’s task will be on going, she hopes to have all of the data she has collected entered in a computer program called the "Raiser’s Edge" by Christmas. The program, she said, will allow the college to maintain contact with graduates and to tailor mailings based on the individual’s preferences.
Moyle, who has served as a division secretary at IVCC, has a background in alumni affairs at Wheaton College where she also assisted in the editing of the alumni magazine.
She will be working with the new Director of Development, Bonita Dahlbach.
11/19/98 the Apache