Policy for Solicitation of Alumni for Student Projects

Davidson College alumni are dedicated to helping the college faculty, staff, and students in a multitude of ways.

In order to respect their generosity, the college has established the following policy to regulate the number and types of requests for surveys and interviews sent to alumni by students for research or class projects.

Students wanting to survey or interview alumni must submit a written proposal of the project to the Student Study and Research Committee (SS&R) for evaluation of the projects merit. This proposal must include:

  • A written letter of recommendation by a faculty mentor who has thoroughly reviewed and approved the project.
  • Institutional Review Board approval (if needed).
  • A description of how the information will be used and disseminated.

Students may request:

  1. To solicit responses from specific alumni groups. If approved, the Office of Alumni and Family Engagement will provide emails for individual alums in these groups to the faculty mentor, but not to the student.
  2. To solicit responses from all alumni. In these cases, the Office of Alumni and Family Engagement will solicit alumni volunteers by placing a request in the alumni newsletter.

Approval of the project will depend on:

  1. The number of requests to solicit a particular alumni community in any one year. No more than 3 solicitations to the same alumni community will be approved for any single year.
  2. The institutional value of the project or the value of potential information gained for certain populations of the institution.

The final approval for involving alumni in any student project will be determined by the associate dean of faculty and the director of Alumni and Family Engagement.