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FEATURES

College Launches Online Community for Alumni

Thanks to the Internet, your Columbia College classmates are now as close as the nearest computer. In November, the College announced the launch of the Columbia College E-Community, a secure online service exclusively for College alumni. A key component of the Columbia Connections program (CCT, September 2002), which aims to increase alumni participation at Columbia, the E-Community is an easy and flexible resource for alumni who want to stay in touch with friends and classmates.

“The E-Community is a critical element of our effort to involve alumni in the life of the College,” says Derek Wittner ’65, associate dean of alumni affairs and development. “We hope it becomes an invaluable resource for connecting our alumni with each other and with the College.”

The College has had a rich Web presence for several years, but the E-Community takes online alumni service to a much higher level. Alumni who join the E-Community can create detailed profiles of themselves, including family information, education, student and alumni activities, résumés and biographies. Members may view profiles of others via a fully searchable alumni directory. Alumni also can post and read notes (including CCT Class Notes), upload photos and learn about Columbia events (both on campus and around the world).

The E-Community facilitates contact among alumni wherever they live. Each member can create a “buddy list” of classmates with whom to keep in touch. Alumni can use the directory to search for other alumni in their part of the world. And members also can join a wide range of discussion boards, with the ability to create their own threads on any topic. The discussion boards include an optional notification function that alerts users whenever someone has made a new post to a particular topic.

The E-Community is a secure, password-protected community. Members’ privacy is further protected through settings that allow them to determine how much information is made available to other members. There also is a blind e-mail function, which allows alumni to receive e-mail without revealing their own e-mail addresses.

The E-Community is the result of a collaboration between the Alumni Office and the Columbia College Information Technology office, which designed and maintains the site. The College began testing a prototype of the E-Community during the summer with three young alumni classes, who were asked to evaluate it before it was rolled out to the entire alumni body. In response to alumni feedback, E-Community v.1.5 — which includes a simplified the login procedure, an enriched calendar of events and discussion boards — debuted November.

Although a wide range of features already are in place, this new service remains a work in progress. Planned improvements in the coming months include enhancements that will improve networking and mentoring capabilities. The College also is considering adding a College Shop so that alumni will be able to purchase Columbia apparel and memorabilia online.

There are no membership dues, but alumni must register online for this service, which is limited to College alumni. The simple registration procedure asks each alum to provide a partial Social Security number and date of birth. To join, alumni should visit the College’s Web site: www.college.columbia.edu/alumni.

T.P.C.

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