Association for Institutional Research.

This paper briefly reviews the early efforts at forming alumni associations and organizing alumni reunions, describes a ntmwer of the more recent alumni surveys used in assessment activities, and concludes with suggestions for conducting such surveys. First, pre-1980 alumni surveys that attempted to measure college ontcomes are discussed. Next, a list of the goals and measures of institutional effectiveness (from a 1980-1989 literature review) is provided. Assessment efforts are examined that attempted to measure school effectiveness through evaluation of alumni careers, as well as efforts to measure the satisfaction alumni felt concerning their liberal arts education. Next, a discussion of comprehensiv