By DIANE KREHMEYER
CDAA President
I don’t know why I am surprised, but now that I have been back in Charlottesville for an entire year, I am continually amazed at how my memories of college are more vivid than they have been at any other point in my post-college life. Living through the U.Va. life cycle once again (trying to get football tickets, avoiding the grocery store the day of Foxfield, wondering why dinner reservations are hard to come by before remembering that it is graduation weekend), I cannot help but recall old friends, good times, and the countless hours I spent covered in ink, glue and Pav curly fries in the CD offices.
It is fun to be back in town, and I have particularly enjoyed working with the CD staff this year. Working together, the CDAA and the CD have accomplished some great achievements, and we are right now embarking on our newest mission, the creation of a CD Young Alumni Committee.
Now that the CDAA is more than 20 years old, it has become evident that the interests of recent alumni are very different than those of years past. The fact is, young alumni (defined by Alumni Hall as those who have graduated in the last 12 years) constitute nearly 35 percent of all living University of Virginia graduates (50 percent of alumni have graduated since 1986!). It is clear that we must try to interest this important (and growing) constituency with programming geared to them, as well as to our older alumni.
Thus, at the spring CDAA meeting, the board of directors discussed in depth the creation of a CDAA Young Alumni Committee that would focus on our youngest alumni, defined as those that have graduated in the last five years.
This committee will be a part of the CDAA, working with the CDAA board, and will serve two primary purposes at the outset: to provide social programming for young alumni, and to provide networking resources and support for job search efforts. The committee also may choose to develop other ideas to support young alumni.
The nominating committee for this effort is comprised of the following individuals, who I would like to thank for their time:
Chris Wilson, EIC, 2004-’05
Justin Bernick, EIC, 2003-’04
John Clark, EIC, 2001-’02
Tom Bednar, EIC, 2000-’01
Nicola White, AME, 2000-’01
At this time, nominations are well underway. If any CD alum from 2000 onward is interested in participating on the Young Alumni Committee, please feel free to contact me at dianedkrehmeyer@yahoo.com.
While the CDAA YAC is our newest project, I do want to update you on one of our older, ongoing efforts: the digitization of the CD bound volumes. As you know, we have been working with Alderman Library for quite some time on this project, which you can view at http://infocomm.lib.virginia.edu/cavdaily/ .
At this time, Alderman has taken five year’s worth of CD files through the complete digitization process, including an extra round of error checking. These five years will soon be added to the current test site. In addition, there are discussions underway regarding scheduling and funding for digitizing additional volumes, and for getting the existing test site absorbed into the new digital library site that’s currently under development. We will keep you posted as we hear more information from Alderman, and as always, we appreciate your financial support on this project.
The last item I would like to cover is to note that this College Topics will be the final one under the direction of our outgoing Communications Director Kim Ramsey. Kim has tirelessly devoted herself to this publication over the last seven years, and her efforts have made it into one of the best things that the CDAA does for its alumni. I want to thank Kim for her hard work, as she will be much missed in this role.