Correction: 70% still favor name change, but nearly 1,000 (not 112) responded
Dear readers: Bring out the torches and pitchforks, for I have committed what surely is a cardinal sin in the eyes of any technological research university graduate, student or faculty member, regardless of the institution's name.
In a previous post about alumni response to our name change survey, I wrote that "112" of our alumni responded. The actual number is 995 (prior to a mid-January cutoff date, plus more since then). I then compounded my error by claiming that amounted to a 2.5 percent response rate. Surprisingly, no readers called me on my faulty math. But a fellow staff member did, so I double checked it and corrected the errors in the original post. The corrected version is posted again, below, using only the numbers from the pre-mid-January results. We haven't had time to figure in the other results yet, but we're keeping tabs.
As they say in the news business, "We regret the error." But regret just doesn't convey my remorse. I really, really, really regret the error. - Andrew Careaga
In the winter 2006 issue of UMR Magazine, alumni were surveyed about the proposed name change, and the results of that survey may come as a surprise to those who claim the majority of alumni are opposed to the name change. We'll publish more information about the survey in the spring issue of UMR Magazine. I didn't want to scoop the magazine, but this is the blogosphere, and some of the comments we've received imply a groundswell of opposition to the name change. So to set the record straight, I have no choice but to scoop the mag.
And here's that scoop:
More than 70 percent of alumni responding to the survey said they favored changing UMR's name to something more descriptive of our mission.
That's right: more than 70 percent (70.1 percent, to be exact).
A note about the survey itself and the results: The survey garnered a 2.5 2.2 percent response rate (112 955 of the 43,000 alumni). That may sound low, but it beats the typical response rate of 1-2 percent for mail surveys. We would likely have received a higher response rate by conducting an online survey, but we have the email addresses of only about 19,000 or our 43,000 alumni, so we would have missed a large segment of the population. Publishing the survey in the magazine was the most cost-effective means of reaching as many alumni as possible.
The survey was accompanied by an article, which summarized the case for the name change.
We'll share more information about this survey in the spring issue of the alumni magazine. This blog will also carry the results from student, faculty and staff surveys soon. Keep reading.