Survey sheds new light on alumni opinions

In the years after the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse case shook the university, 74 percent of alumni said they think Penn State is going in the right direction.

More than 1,200 Penn State alumni gave their opinions on a wide range of Penn State topics in their third survey done by the Penn State Alumni Association released in January 2014.

The Penn State Alumni Association worked with the research firm StrategyOne for the survey, for which they polled random alumni members both in and out of the association on university subjects, including overall satisfaction with their Penn State experience, feelings of Penn State today, reasoning behind grievances with the university and likelihood of recommending Penn State to prospective undergraduates.

Communications Director for the Penn State Alumni Association Amy Caputo said the alumni surveys are done periodically, and research is routinely conducted over a period of about 18 months.

According to the survey, notable points and percentages include the number of alumni who feel positively toward Penn State, shifting from 81 percent to 86 percent.

It also asked peoples opinions on how Penn State has handled the events of the last few years. Twenty-nine percent thought the university handled events mostly right, 20 percent completely wrong and 51 percent had mixed opinions.

The overall opinion on what alumni think should be the top priorities of President-elect Eric Barron are academics, building the universitys reputation and affordability.

Executive Director for the Alumni Association Roger Williams said he was pleasantly surprised by some of the survey results, such as the opinions on a new question on the survey regarding the direction Penn State is going in.

The total that say [we are going in the] right direction is 74 percent, as opposed to totally wrong track of 6 percent, and I thought that was a pretty good indication that most of our alumni think Penn State is heading in the right direction, Williams said. Alumni have a lot of faith and confidence and love for the institution, and satisfaction with their education has been expressed.

Penn State Board of Trustees member Anthony Lubrano said some of the concern in the survey lies with alumni opinion of the board.

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Survey sheds new light on alumni opinions