Getting Reacquainted
University, Alumni Use Facebook to Connect and Stay Informed
Back in the late 1980s when she was a student at La Verne, Nancy Newman thoroughly enjoyed campus life. On the way to earning her college degree, she met many new people and formed quite a few special relationships.
“They were my new-found family, a host of friends who were always there to lend an ear, be supportive and offer me their experience, viewpoints and friendship,” Newman recalled. “Walking across campus, I could always count on a kind word, a wave or a smile.”
After her graduation in 1989, Newman followed her own career path. While she remained close to some of the “old gang,” she lost contact with many more. The comforting web of friends she knew at La Verne slowly diminished over the years.
But today, thanks to the World Wide Web and the availability of social networking utilities such as Facebook, Newman and her friends have reestablished contact and renewed the relationships they forged as classmates.
“Though the years have taken us in many different directions, many of us have found each other again on Facebook,” Newman said. “We’ve rekindled our friendships and, once again, are there for each other.”
Social networking sites are becoming an increasing part of people’s lives. They provide a means to communicate and share news with friends and family as well as finding new friends or people with whom users have lost contact. Launched in 2004, Facebook was rated by compete.com in January 2009 as the most used social network based on the number of worldwide monthly active users. It has more than 300 million active users worldwide, with 150 million users logging on daily.
La Verne’s Alumni Relations Office is using Facebook as a platform to help graduates keep in touch with their friends and to pass along information. “Leo Laverne” – the Alumni Relations connection on Facebook – has more than 1,000 “friends,” an increase of 22 percent in just the past two months. Daily updates feature campus news and/or upcoming events, often with links to the university Web site, plus Web features, videos, or photo albums.
Leo recently sent his friends a link to a Web feature article on Tina Nieto, who earned her master’s degree from La Verne in 2008 and who recently became the Los Angeles Police Department’s first Hispanic female Captain. Benjamin Ng ’67 saw the story and posted this response to Nieto on Facebook: “As a fellow Leo and a board member of the Chinatown Public Safety Association (CPSA), I’d like to extend an invitation for you to drop by and share with the Board your success story.”
Leo’s friends numerous comments per month on Leo’s updates. Through Leo, individuals can connect to any of 24 university-related Facebook “groups” representing university departments, clubs, or other affinity groups. The largest is La Verne Athletic Associates (LVAA), with more than 450 members regularly receiving updates about Leopard athletics and communicating with each other as fans.
During La Verne’s Homecoming/Parents Weekend 2009, the Class of 1989 celebrated its 20-year reunion. Nancy Newman used the opportunity to gather on campus with two of her Facebook groups and celebrate face-to-face.
“On Facebook we’ve celebrated long awaited adoptions and births of babies. We’ve mourned the loss of parents, commiserated over jobs lost in a changing economy, and prayed for wounds to heal and friends to be released from the hospital,” Newman said. “We were there for each other 20 years ago and now Facebook has closed the gap of time. While we can’t physically be on campus every day, we’re still here for each other, ready with that same community spirit which embodies La Verne and keeps us true to our Alma Mater – then, now and always.”
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