Linking alumni online: New Hampshire's Plymouth State launches an alumni portal.

Plymouth State University (N.H.) is pushing campus portal technology in a new direction. In early 2005, the school's 21,000 alumni will have their own portal for conducting online meetings, catching up on school news, registering e-mail accounts, and learning about local chapter activities. The alumni portal is Plymouth's way of providing a lifelong connection to the school, says Joe Long, director of alumni relations.

During the past few years e-mail messaging and marketing have brought a new level of sophistication to alumni outreach, but dedicated alumni portals are still rare. More colleges and universities are building portals overall, however. The Campus Computing Project 2003--which provides the latest statistics--reports that 45 percent of public universities have campus portals, up from 28 percent in 2002. Private schools have been launching portals, too, but at a slower rate.

Long sees the alumni portal as a way of uniting local alumni chapters and pushing news that wouldn't be of interest to the general public. The workings of the board and the results of board elections are some examples. Of course, alums will be encouraged to donate online and will be able to check their donation totals throughout the year.

Plymouth is doing a soft launch of the alumni portal this fall. A full-scale rollout will be complete in February when the portal is advertised in the alumni print magazine.