By WILL MORTON
College Topics Staff Writer
What’s the difference between a young Cavalier Daily alum and an older one?
There’s no punchline, and the question’s not a joke. It’s part of the riddle the Cavalier Daily Alumni Association’s newly forming young alumni committee is hoping to solve as it begins finding ways to better serve CD alums who graduated in the past five years. A nominating committee is interviewing prospective committee members this summer, and the group expects to launch in the fall.
The group is forming because the needs of younger alumni are different from older alumni, CDAA President Diane Krehmeyer said.
“Young alumni want parties and job networking,” she said. “Older alumni want football tickets.”
In other words, young alums typically need career help and enjoy social events that are different from the CDAA’s typically family-friendly fare. Twenty-somethings don’t often picnic with toddlers.
The group is tasked with setting up social events to bring young CD alums back to U.Va. and to help ex-CDers gather regionally. Another goal is to provide job networking, compensating for the University’s lack of help in journalism job-hunting.
“Since U.Va. doesn’t have any sort of formal journalism program, the CDAA and the young alum committee can really fill a gap,” said former CD Editor-in-Chief Tom Bednar (2000-’01), who is now a Washington attorney and a member of the nominating committee.
A graduating CDer may get more useful job advice from someone who overlapped at the paper, said 2004-’05 Editor-in-Chief Chris Wilson, who is currently looking for journalism jobs. An older alum with an established career and a family might be harder to connect with.
“When you’re 22, you don’t ever think you’re actually going to be 30,” Wilson said. “Advice from someone who’s immediately out of school is going to be more immediately practical.”
The young alumni committee idea got going earlier this year when Nicola White, assistant managing editor from 2000 to 2001, sent a survey to colleagues to ask questions such as how to get a first job and how Cavalier Daily work helped. Some journalists’ answers are posted on the CDAA web site at www.cdalumni.org. (A link can be found on the bottom right-hand side of the front page.) Current CD staffers and alums can contact people who filled out the survey.
The survey results turned into an informal Journalism Job-Hunting 101 on which committee organizers hope to build.
“It’s mysterious how to get a job,” said White, now a reporter at The Tampa Tribune. “The next people who go through it shouldn’t have such a tough time.”
Journalism programs at other schools offer institutional support, such as weekly emails of job listings, that don’t exist at U.Va. The CDAA’s young alumni committee could help provide that support, White said. One idea is to help CD staffers learn which starter papers to target for internships, such as those where young CD alums already work.
The group might also amass a list of journalism job openings and post it on the CDAA web site.
Eventually, fund-raising efforts also might target young alums, Krehmeyer said. One possibility is to fund a scholarship for a CD staffer who needs a paid job to afford school and can’t give up countless volunteer hours at the newspaper.
Nominating committee members are currently working through a pool of about 20 prospective committee members and plan to select 15 by mid-summer. By the end of the summer, the group plans to start talking and making plans—perhaps for a fall social event.
“Every year, we’re just graduating an extraordinary group of people, and we need to start reaching out to them as soon as possible,” Wilson said.
During the CDAA’s 20th anniversary in 2003, board members said they wanted to better serve young alums. The newspaper’s student leaders used to roll off the managing board and onto the CDAA board upon graduation. But the tendency has declined in the past five to seven years, with many recent editors-in-chief going into law instead of journalism.
Board members also said they want younger alums to get involved with the CDAA now to keep the alumni association relevant to the paper and so current young alums will eventually lead the entire CDAA.