Client Profile:

The Cornell Commitment consists of three undergraduate scholarship programs—the Cornell Tradition, the Meinig Family Cornell National Scholars, and the Hunter R. Rawlings III Cornell Presidential Research Scholars—which reward outstanding students who demonstrate excellence in work and public service, research, and leadership. As assistant director, Stephanie Spackman works directly with students and alumni of all three programs, developing new ways to increase interaction among them, keeping them in touch through a quarterly newsletter, and lots more. Elberta Donahue’s wide range of responsibilities as program assistant includes serving as the office’s IT expert and handling much of the technical side of office operations.

Project Goal:

With about 1,000 current students affiliated with its three programs and 8,000 alumni, the Commitment office felt the web offered them a great opportunity to strengthen connections among the programs’ students and alumni. “I came on board about two and a half years ago when we were talking about linking up with Career Services and creating a database with them, or latching on to what they were already doing with Cornell alumni,” says Stephanie. “But we really just wanted to target our small group of alumni from the Commitment programs. So, while we were working with Keith on web design, we realized that we could have him build a database to meet our specific needs.”

The initial goal was to create a forum for students to find out what other students are doing and enable them to connect with alumni. For example, a student working on a Habitat for Humanity project may want to get in touch with students who have similar interests. A student graduating and moving to San Francisco could contact an alumnus living there to get information, impressions, and recommendations. Or, perhaps a current student would like to ask mentoring questions of an alumnus working in a field he or she is interested in. The result was LINK.

OBA Solution:

Stephanie has a background in career development, so her conversations with students over the years helped the office identify the career-focused features students might want in a database. Conversations with alumni gave them the idea to open it up to life-related information such as tips on restaurants or advice on hobbies. They sat down with OBA and tossed around ideas.

“We may not necessarily have known how to explain what we wanted,” says Elberta, “but Keith would help us with our train of thought. Adds Stephanie: “We would describe what it was we wanted in our strange language, and he would say, “Oh, well, this is what you need,” capturing the features that we were hoping to have—and not making us feel ridiculous for not describing things properly. He was very respectful of where we were coming from.”

Features OBA developed for the Cornell Commitment include:

• A fully web-based application, consisting of a web 2.0, AJAX application and an administration system the Commitment Office can use to govern the application.
  
  
• User-friendly system for both office staff and Commitment students and alumni.
  
  
• Personalized database. Alumni record basic biographical information, contacts, education, interests and hobbies, career information, and the areas in which they are willing to mentor current students. Students record basic biographical information, contacts, education, interests and activities, and employment information. Students and alumni can choose what information should be shown or hidden on their individual records. Data selected to be hidden will neither be displayed on a participant list nor accessed via the search feature.
  
  
• Multiple search function. The application is organized into two separate areas: My Record, where participants maintain their own records, and Search My Network, where users can search for each other, view the search results, and access details about a specific participant in order to match interests and career objectives or establish mentoring relationships. Students can search for students and alumni. Alumni can search for other Commitment alumni but not students.
  
  
• Secure, restricted use. Only students and alumni with Cornell netIDs can access the application, and first-time users must verify that they have read a policy statement.
  
  
• Time-sensitive data update. After one year, participants must update required information about themselves in order to continue using the system.
  
  

Just before the quiet launch of the new system in March 2008, the Commitment Office randomly selected alumni to test LINK and received positive results and a few suggestions. They also solicited student feedback. “Most of the students were really happy with it,” said Elberta “They were glad to see a searchable database that they could work with, and most of them liked the looks of it. They also helped us identify the changes we needed to make to get to that final stage.” In April 2008, the office snail-mailed an announcement about LINK to all Commitment alumni, and in late June they sent a postcard to current Commitment students promoting the service. They’re planning a big, celebratory launch once the fall semester starts.

“I suspect that if we have other needs like this we would work with Keith again,” says Stephanie. “He was flexible and worked around where we were.”

“For me,” Elberta adds, “I could contact Keith anytime via e-mail or telephone, and he was very good about responding immediately. If I needed him to do something for me, he was like Johnny-on-the-spot. When he rebuilt the new website, he came in and sat with me all morning while we uploaded it. He was very patient. He doesn’t ever make you feel like you don’t know anything. You couldn’t ask for a better guy to work with than him.”